Our Dark Obsession

In the summer of 2000, a veteran detective and rookie Jake Miller are called to a slaughterhouse on the edge of town, where a dead pig has been reported. Inside the reeking facility, they find a butchered carcass dumped on the floor among the hanging hogs. The owner insists it is no pig, and Jake, fresh from the academy with forensic training, confirms the horrifying truth: the remains are human. The victim is female, about twenty-five, and no missing person report matches her.

The body was surgically altered while she was still alive, her limbs reshaped and pig trotters sewn on, her tongue cut out, her head filled and grafted with pig tissue to pass as livestock. Suspicion falls on Gary, the delivery driver who hauled the load from a pig farm. He admits he found the creature beside his truck, mistook it for an escaped hog, and with a stranger's help loaded it back for slaughter.

As the detective vows to catch the monster responsible, the case's holes suggest something far more elaborate than one killer could manage alone.