Unsolved Mysteries EP Terry Dunn Meurer reveals which case is 'most baffling' ever from new volume (EXCLUSIVE)

Cattle mutilations have been reported throughout human history, all the way back to 1606. But what many people might know is just how grisly and disturbing these stories are, something addressed in the latest volume of Unsolved Mysteries, now available on Netflix.

Often, in the case of these mutilations, the cows are found with almost surgically precise incisions and missing body parts such as tongues and reproductive organs. There have been many theories throughout the years, some more outlandish than others, like aliens stealing cows via UFO and then experimenting on them, Satanic cults, serial killers, and even a conspiracy involving the government using the animals for secret government testing. But we're still no closer to a definitive answer.

When the fourth volume of the series came out this past July, Unsolved Mysteries executive producer Terry Dunn Meurer chatted with Variety about what viewers could expect from the next batch of episodes. At the time, she teased that one of the episodes in volume 5 is "the most baffling mystery of all of them I’ve ever done," so, of course, I had to ask Meurer about it when 1428 Elm was given the chance to interview her ahead of volume 5.

I correctly guessed it might be the third episode, "Mysterious Mutilations," simply because I had never realized just how gruesome and widespread the mutilations have been over time.

"That's the one. How bizarrely specific to lose the body parts that are actually carved off in such a similar way for four, five decades now. It's like, they talk about one of the theories is a cult, but if it were a cult, you'd have to pass that down to other cult members. It is really the first mystery that the strongest theory I have is UFOs, which sounds crazy to say, or hear me say, coming out of my mouth. But I do believe in UFOs, and I don't have any other explanation for it. It's not just in Eastern Oregon. Our episode focuses on Eastern Oregon, but this goes on—there were some in Texas, there have been some in Colorado. It is really a mystery, about who is doing this and why."

- Terry Dunn Meurer

Besides cattle mutilations, we also spoke with Meurer about returning to the Roswell case, mysteries she's surprised haven't been solved, and what's ahead for the future of the Netflix series.

1428 ELM: I noticed that this season seems to lean a little bit more into the paranormal and aliens than usual. In previous volumes, there has usually been one paranormal or an alien one, but this one leans a little more heavily into that angle.

TERRY DUNN MEURER: Well, for this season, we launched in July, five episodes, and then four now and it's just kind of the way that the lineup happened, that it might feel a little bit more paranormal-heavy. But the mysterious mutilations, to me, that's a true crime case. It's just about cows rather than people. So, it feels to me like it's got the two stories, and we wanted to revisit Roswell because there are people that don't know all the details about Roswell. I mean, they know about it, but they don't know or haven't heard about all these witnesses that came forward after. We were excited to do that.

It's also fun to go back, in the July episodes, we revisited the Mothman case and go back to the original Mothman story that we did in the vintage episodes. The same thing with Roswell. Viewers can go back and look at those and see what the original story was. We try and always have an even balance. We usually produce in one batch of episodes, probably heavier on the true crime and, exactly what you said, maybe one paranormal case. But it's all about a mix and trying to find a variety and trying to keep the audience interested with the idea that there's always something new coming out of Unsolved Mysteries.

1428 ELM: What made you decide that now was the right time to go back to Roswell?

TERRY DUNN MEURER: We have these two experts [Kevin Randle and Donald Schmitt] that we had filmed with on the original show. They have made this their life's work, to uncover everything they can about Roswell. But I don't think their work has seen the light of day. We just wanted to give them a chance to update on everything that they've come up with. They really have dedicated their lives to that case and come up with some pretty interesting things. They're the ones who go out and interview all the witnesses who are willing to speak.

1428 ELM: You previously said that you thought maybe the severed head case from volume 4, the one right before this one, could get solved. Have there been any updates?

TERRY DUNN MEURER: We've gotten a lot of tips about that and also law enforcement, they've gotten some direct tips. So we forward our tips to them. I got an email from them with kind of an update there. There are a couple of tips that they're looking into. Nothing has been solved yet. That's one of those things about these, some of these cases, especially the murder cases, is that they don't get solved right away.

If it's a wanted fugitive or a missing person, those could get solved right away if somebody sees them and recognizes them. But murder cases, we send the tips to law enforcement, and a lot of times, they won't even tell us which they're working on. They want to keep everything kind of quiet and out of the media until there is a solve. For instance, the park bench case, I'm sure we will forward lots of leads onto them, but we won't necessarily know which ones might be viable and which ones aren't.

1428 ELM: Have there been any cases from the Netflix run specifically that you're surprised haven't been solved?

TERRY DUNN MEURER: I guess the one that feels the most solvable that hasn't been solved is Tammy Williams [volume 3, "Body in Bags" episode]. It's a wanted cast. She's out there. All the wanted cases, I don't know, with the reach of Netflix, you think, oh my gosh, of course these people are going to get found, but they also probably know that they're coming up in an episode and go underground.

In a category of cases, those are the ones I think, that I wish we could solve, but they still can be solved because I think people, when they watch this batch, they'll go back and watch some of the others and maybe they'll go, "Oh, Tammy's living in Tampa, Florida," and then somebody might come forward then. It's always fair game to have a case solved.

1428 ELM: Regarding the episode with Don and Becky, I'm admittedly a skeptic, but I am curious how you guys approach the paranormal stories. How do you decide something is worth covering vs. something that might be too flimsy? What are the parameters?

TERRY DUNN MEURER: It comes down to the credibility of the people who we're profiling, and we spent a lot of time with Don, getting to know him, before we moved ahead with that episode, just to see if it felt, I guess worthy, of an entire episode.

His relationship with Becky is documented by Steve Mera. It's almost Steve's journey because he was very skeptical of Don at first and then came around to really believe in Becky and believe in the situation and had his own emotional experience around this. I think if we didn't have Steve Mera we would maybe be questioning it a bit more. But because Steve is credible in the paranormal investigation world, we're looking at the case through his eyes.

1428 ELM: Moving forward, are there any cases or areas of interest you hope the show can touch on if it returns?

TERRY DUNN MEURER: Yeah, we are developing cases for another season, but I can't talk about any of those, of course. But yes, is the answer.

All four episodes of Unsolved Mysteries volume 5 are now streaming on Netflix.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.