Someone Is Stabbing Trees With Meat-Wrapped Knives and No One Knows Why

The mystery of the meat-wrapped knives continues to unfold in Omaha.

For the last year and a half, someone has been going around and stabbing trees with knives wrapped in meat, butcher paper, and duct tape.

While the tree stabbings certainly appear menacing, no one, not even police, are quite sure what it all means. Why fasten meat onto the blades of the knives? Is this an attack on the trees themselves or just the psyche of nearby residents? Is there only one culprit, or a secretive network of tree stabbers?

So many questions. And yet the tree-stabbing mystery is only deepening in the Omaha suburb surrounding Leavenworth Park. According to local news outlet KETV 7, this episode is the most recent among "dozens" already reported by residents who live near the park.

"It is very strange," Leavenworth Neighborhood Association member John Costanzo told KETV 7. "Probably for about the last year, year and a half, neighbors have been finding steaks or other various pieces of meat pinned to the tree with knives."

But this long string of tree violence is causing more than paranoia, according to Costanzo—and poses a real safety risk. "It is concerning, though; I mean, this is right along the trail that kids use and having knives readily accessible where kids could pick them up is definitely a hazard."

Police have investigated the numerous meat-wrapped stabbing scenes and the crime lab has even been dispatched. But so far they have no leads or insight, other than confirming that "the meat is not human"—very comforting.