just arrived to pick up the Carrizales check. As Rainbolt waited in the offi ce, Special


Ranger Mast and Lt. Ellis met Rosario Car- rizales’ daughter-in-law Ashley Nelson at the front desk to intercept the check and ask some obvious questions. Nelson told the investiga- tors that Carrizales, who spoke no English, was waiting outside in a dually pickup with Nelson’s young son. Using Nelson as a transla- tor, Carrizales insisted she bought the cattle she’d just sold from someone named Martinez but knew nothing else about him. Realizing there must be more to the story,


Mast and Ellis arranged to follow Nelson and Carrizales to the Leon County sheriff’s offi ce so they could interrogate them further. In the meantime, Rainbolt called his ranch


foreman, Sergio Flores, who lived on the ranch, asking him to check the working pens to see if they were used in the theft. Flores knew Carrizales and had even rec-


ommended her for a job cleaning the Rain- bolt ranch house. Flores was a deacon in his church, a husband and a father. He’d worked for the Rainbolt Ranch for 16 years under a permanent resident alien card. Rainbolt, as an absentee owner, visited the ranch at least 1 or 2 times a week. But Rainbolt trusted Flores completely — he had to. On his way to the sheriff’s offi ce, Mast


quickly ran the name Carrizales in the TSCRA database. He learned that Carrizales had sold unbranded calves numerous times at several area livestock auctions. Two additional Car- rizales names, with different fi rst names, also came up as sellers and all from the same address. Mast later learned that these 2 addi- tional names were Carrizales’s son’s and her toddler grandson’s names. This raised a red fl ag because stolen cattle are often auctioned in different names to muddy the waters. Both Carrizales and Nelson insisted in


the sheriff’s offi ce interview that all of the cattle they sold at the various auctions, in- cluding the branded cows, were purchased from someone named Martinez and were not stolen from Rainbolt. Continuing the investigation, Mast drove


out to the Rainbolt Ranch, just south of Mar- quez. The Rainbolt Ranch is divided into


tscra.org June 2013 The Cattleman 91


Rainbolt has always branded his cattle. Now calves are eartagged and notched as added identifi cation.


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