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Case ID: 4925

Classification: Shooting, Theft

Animal: cow

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Cow killed with crossbow, dismembered
Angola, IN (US)

Incident Date: Friday, Jun 24, 2005
County: Steuben

Disposition: Alleged

Alleged:
» Matthew David Shaffer
» Jeremy Gale Maguire
» Timothy Fitton
» Perry Dominguez
» Scott Wooster
» 15 year old boy

Case Updates: 1 update(s) available

Two Steuben County men face theft charges after authorities said they went onto a farmer's property and killed a cow with a crossbow, then cut off its legs and other parts.

Matthew David Shaffer, 18, of Hudson, and Jeremy Gale Maguire, 20, of Angola, were arraigned June 27 on the felony charges, punishable by up to three years in prison.

Steuben County sheriff's deputies were called on June 24 when the farmer found someone had slit the throat of a cow in his herd. Police received information that someone had been bragging at a gasoline station about killing a cow.

Investigators went to Shaffer's home about 30 miles north of Fort Wayne, where they found his truck smeared with blood and animal hair, court documents said.

Investigators believe Maguire and several others also were involved. According to court documents, they went to the farm with a butcher kit and put the parts on ice.

Shaffer and Maguire were being held June 28 in the Steuben County Jail. Shaffer was being held on $5,000 bail, while Maguire was being held pending $1,000 bail.

Case Updates

The sixth and final suspect accused of butchering a cow and stealing its legs for the meat on June 24 has been preliminarily charged with theft and animal cruelty, officials said. Timothy Fitton, 18, of the 1800 block of Golden Lake Road in Angola, was arrested Saturday and was released from the Steuben County Jail on $6,000 bond on Sunday.

Formal charges are expected this week, according to the Steuben County Prosecutor's Office. Thus far, four Steuben County adults, none older than 20, are charged with theft, a Class D felony punishable by six months to three years in prison, and one 15-year-old Hamilton boy is also charged.

Fitton � along with Matthew Shaffer, Jeremy Maguire, Perry Dominguez, Scott Wooster and the juvenile � are accused of slaughtering a Holstein, dismembering it and taking its legs for the meat. The cow, named Ellen, was kept in a Steuben County pasture owned by Terry Penick and was valued at about $7,000.

Penick discovered the heifer's body on June 24.

"There's a lot of talk," Sheriff Rick Lewis said Tuesday. "People for the most part are outraged about the incident. And I think the most outrage is the fact of the cruelty to the animal itself and the way that it was butchered."

The cow was missing its legs, a probable cause affidavit said. Its throat had been cut from ear to ear, its esophagus appeared to have been removed, and it had stab wounds over its body and a hole in its head, the affidavit said.

The gruesome details so angered a woman in Lafayette that she called the Steuben County Courthouse demanding justice, a court employee said.

But Lewis said that most of the talk, as well as the few calls he has received, has been wondering about the reason behind the killing.

"It's just the fact that it's so farfetched that it's hard for people to believe that some guys would get together and do something like that," he said. "I don't think that they were actually to the point where they needed food that bad."

Lewis said the episode was isolated.

Source: Journal-Gazetter - July 6, 2005
Update posted on Jul 9, 2005 - 6:22AM

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References

The Indy Channel - June 28, 2005

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Cow killed with crossbow, dismemberedAngola, IN (US)

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References

Cow killed with crossbow, dismembered
Angola, IN (US)