Chill: Exciting Research!

Yesterday was the beginning of a new case in Chill. Here's last time. Let's go!

Another day, another gathering of envoys at the ranch. This time, we have Manny Wall, Jordan Ramsey, Melinda Grace, Blake Wheeler, and Samantha Layson. Blake and Manny are the ones bringing the potential case to the group's attention, and it's all about a family-owned sugar beet farm in Nampa.

The Fernandez Family Farm suffered a fire recently; their barn burned down and the fire killed their livestock. All very normal so far, but what Manny has learned is that the family apparently moved their vehicles out of the barn before the fire. That screams insurance fraud, again, maybe normal, but Blake heard through the grapevine that the animals in the barn (two cows, four horses) were mauled rather than burned. 

Maybe it's nothing, but it's enough to check into it, so the envoys pool their various resources and learn what they can about the Fernandez family and the barn fire. 

The envoys learn that the family consists of Bernardo Fernandez Sr, his wife Marta, and their nine children (Bernardo Jr, 21; Maria, 20; Arturo, 17; Emilio, 16; Jesús, 14; Elena, 9; Tomás, 7; David, 2; Luisa, 2). All of them except Bernardo Jr were born in the States (Junior and the parents were born in Mexico, but the envoys only find immigration records for Junior, and guess that Marta and Bernardo Sr might be undocumented). They bought the farm in 2010 and have been running it ever since. They do have insurance, but they haven't filed a claim. There's an open arson investigation, to no one's surprise. 

Blake calls up the large animal vet that usually cares for the animals, and asks a few questions. He learns that the animals didn't behave like big animals usually do in fires - they didn't try to kick their way out. They may have been dead when the fire started. They also all had multiple chunks of flesh ripped out of them, in a bite pattern that the vet had never seen. He sends pictures to Blake, and Blake enhances the images and realizes that whatever did this had a rounded mouth, like a gorilla or a human, but with overlong, thin, fang-like teeth. Also, the flesh around the bites is frozen. He checks the weather and sees that the night of the first (12/4/19), the weather had warmed slightly - it was cold, but not frigid.

This is starting to look pretty Unknown-y. Manny calls up Andy Oswalt, the sheriff 'round these parts, and Andy chats with him about the case. It's pretty weird across the board - it looks like insurance fraud, but there's been no claim. The family seemed upset, but something felt off. Oh, and Andy wasn't able to talk to the parents. Bernardo Jr claims they're both in Mexico visiting family, and it seems like he's pretty much running things.

The envoys do further digging and realize that although things like work orders and so on are all signed by Bernardo Sr, the signature changes noticeably in 2018. Also, the younger kids started having a lot of attendance issues in 2018 - not enough to get CPS involved, but enough that it's been a problem. 

The envoys discuss whether to just go out to the farm or to call ahead, but at the end of the day they decide it's better to use a softer approach. Jordan calls the farm and gets Bernardo Jr on the phone, and tells him that they're looking into the fire but aren't with the sheriff's department. Bernardo agrees to let them come out (he doesn't quite seem to know what's going on, which is probably for the best), and the envoys make plans to head out to the farm tomorrow morning. Friday. December 13th.