Police suspect retaliation motivated shooter of pet cows in Richmond

MAINE --  Richmond police Chief Scott MacMaster said Monday that police have interviewed several people and are following up on multiple leads in an effort to find the person or persons who shot and killed two 13-year-old pet Holstein cattle Friday afternoon on Savage Road.

While the department has not identified any suspects, he said, “We’re convinced it’s someone who knows the area, and who may have been local at one point.”

Daria Goggins said Sunday that she had owned the siblings, a male named Theodore and a female named Isadora, as pets for about 10 years. Goggins recently moved to the property, where she had a modular home installed this past summer. The Holsteins were relocated from Pownal to Richmond in early June.

Isadora (left) and Theodore, two Holstein cattle owned as pets
by Richmond resident Daria Goggins, were shot and killed Friday on
Goggins' property. Goggins and police believe the killing was intentional.

Goggins, whose home is about 600 feet from the pasture, said she found the cows’ bodies around 3:30 p.m. Friday.

The cows were each shot once, very deliberately, MacMaster said. Although he would not release information on the type of gun used in the shootings, he said the assailants “knew the most effective way to shoot the animal.”

One of the cows died instantly, the chief said, and the other “may have suffered a little.”

Police also learned that the gate that contained the cows had been tampered with to prevent it from latching, and they believe the perpetrator brought the cows out of their own 4-acre fenced pasture toward a stone wall that marks Goggins’ property line to try to make the shooting look like a hunting accident.

Goggins said Sunday she thinks she knows who shot her cows.

“The complainant made statements that it might be retaliatory because of some issues between contractors and neighbors with having her house built on the property,” MacMaster said.

If and when charges are filed, they will include cruelty to animals and/or criminal mischief — the latter a charge that could be elevated to a felony depending on whether the damage exceeds $2,000.

“It’s hard to put a numerical value on a pet,” he said. “If they were being raised as beef critters, you’d only look at the dollar amount. I think if you look at what they would sell for for meat and what she has invested in them, it’s well over $2,000.”

Anyone with information about the incident can contact officer James Donnell at 737-8518 or by email at jdonnell@richmondmaine.com.

(Bangor Daily News - Nov 23, 2015)