Source: pjstar.com

Killing time before church Sunday morning, Frances and Jimmy Holmes walked outside their rural Peoria home and spotted white tufts sprouting from a nearby field.

"We thought they were birds," said Frances, 8.

But as she and her 10-year-old brother walked out to investigate, they discovered a gruesome sight: eight dead deer, apparently felled all at once - probably by lightning. Later, not far off, they found another lifeless deer.

The siblings looked over the rotting corpses under Tuesday morning's dreary sky. Wet, cold rain pelted the animals, stretched out in hues of brown, gray and white in the middle of a crop field.

Frances said softly, "It's just sad, nine deer lost."

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