Behind the Badge - The Less-Than-Stellar Neighbor
The Less-Than-Stellar Neighbor
District Game Warden Sam Feldmann
During the cold days of February in 2023, I had been contacted by my neighboring warden.
He had called to let me know that he had received a report of someone shooting deer in a small town situated between our districts.
He had asked if I wanted to help with the investigation and meet with the reporting party.
I agreed and we met with the reporting party who had given us a name of the shooter and that everyone in town knows he’s doing it but didn’t want to get involved.
A few days after meeting with the reporting party we went back to the small town and had talked to another resident who had found arrows in their yard and stuck in a few trees.
We went and recovered the arrows and determined what townhouse they had come from by looking at the location and trajectory of the arrows stuck in the ground and the ones stuck in the trees.
We located a bed sheet in the area as well, and what looked like someone had tried to use it to drag something as it had blood on it.
We left the area and went to speak with another resident who had found multiple deer that had been shot with arrows and had died in town.
He explained where he had found those deer and that they had been removed from town.
We went and looked at the deer and found that they each had an arrow in them and that the arrows matched the ones located in the ground and trees around the suspect’s townhouse.
We recovered all the evidence and left the town.
On a warm day in March, we had applied for a search warrant on the suspects residence.
We executed the search warrant and located a matching bed sheet to the one outside with blood on it.
We also located bows and arrows that had matched the ones shot into the deer hidden behind walls in an attempt to hide them.
We seized everything as evidence and documented everything.
After speaking with the state’s attorney, it was determined what charges would be filed.
In all the suspect was charged with six criminal violations for illegally killing wildlife.
The suspect was ordered to serve jail time for the crimes committed.