NH Game Warden Out Foxes A Poacher
December 5, 2008
A citizens complaint about hearing a gun shot and finding a gut pile in Maud Jones Memorial Forest was all Officer William Boudreau of the NH Fish and Game had to go on but some clever detective work and a bit of luck he busted his poacher. The gut pile was from a doe and the drag marks led into a locked University of New Hampshire gravel pit where it was obvious the doe was loaded into a vehicle. A check of the local tag stations reveled that no one had tagged a doe in that day. At the University of New Hampshire Officer Boudreau met with public works supervisor David Howard who admitted that he had a key to the gravel pit and that he had killed two deer this fall in Durham and another in Greenland. The Greenland deer was tagged on the day that someone had killed the deer near the gravel pit on posted property. David Howard was asked to point out on a map where in Greenland he had killed the doe and he was unable to.
Here is where Officer Boudreau got a bit clever, he went back to the gut pile and inserted his business card with the date and time written on it into the stomach. Officer Boudreau then contacted David Howard and arranged to meet him the next afternoon to check out the kill site on the doe he had tagged.
The next afternoon David Howard took Officer Boudreau into the alleged kill site where upon Officer Boudreau cut open the stomach from the gutpile reveling his business card he had inserted into the poached doe’s gut pile. At this point David Howard confessed.
University of New Hampshire public works supervisor David Howard shot and killed a deer on posted property in Lee, hauled it away from a UNH gravel pit, lied about the kill on a registration form in Greenland, then moved the deer’s “gut pile” to Stratham in an attempt to avoid prosecution, according to the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department.
A business card placed in the belly of the gut pile by Fish and Game Officer William Boudreau unraveled the scheme, leading to Howard’s arrest on a Class B misdemeanor count of making a false report to the state Fish and Game Department, according to court records. That charge will be prosecuted in Portsmouth District Court, while violation-level charges of trespassing and improper tagging will be heard in Durham District Court, according to Conservation Officer Lt. John Wimsatt.
This is certainly some great work on the part of NH Warden’s especially Officer William Boudreau. I’m a bit surprised that someone would actually move a gut pile to cover their crime but the warden service says
it is not uncommon for a hunter under investigation to create “a mock kill site.”
On another note I guess New Hampshire must not have a big population of coyotes because here in NC gut piles are cleaned up by natures undertakers in a day or two.
Post by Dan McLaughlin AKA Moose
Moose Droppings is a place that chronicles my journey, Ill explore new places and ideas Ill learn new things and Ill teach the things Ive learned to others. Join me on the adventure and hopefully it will help you in your outdoor endeavors.
