Unexplained Death In The Woods
From James Donahue’s Journal
The body was found by fellow deer hunters one autumn somewhere in Sanilac County. The man was shot dead while sitting in a blind, apparently waiting for a deer to wander into the sights of his own rifle. Police never determined who fired the fatal bullet and why it hit a man dressed in bright orange hunting clothes and sitting on a platform in a tree.
It happened during the early years that I covered police news in the area, and consequently I had access to the police log book as well as police reports. I suspected that it was a murder, although I could not prove it. I also suspected that the desk sergeant on duty the day of the killing may have had something to do with it.
I found out that the person who found the body and called the Sheriff’s Department to report it was the son of the desk sergeant. That was a strange coincidence in itself. And there was some evidence of a cover-up by the deputies. I learned from sources that did not want to be identified that the son of the desk sergeant and the dead guy in the tree knew one another and that they were not friends. In fact, there had been a strong grudge going on between these two fellows for a long time.
For some strange reason the deputies, who obviously had access to the same information that I did, ignored all of the signs of a possible murder. They ruled it an accidental shooting by a stray bullet. I always suspected that the police covered up an obvious murder because it involved one of their own.
From James Donahue’s Journal
The body was found by fellow deer hunters one autumn somewhere in Sanilac County. The man was shot dead while sitting in a blind, apparently waiting for a deer to wander into the sights of his own rifle. Police never determined who fired the fatal bullet and why it hit a man dressed in bright orange hunting clothes and sitting on a platform in a tree.
It happened during the early years that I covered police news in the area, and consequently I had access to the police log book as well as police reports. I suspected that it was a murder, although I could not prove it. I also suspected that the desk sergeant on duty the day of the killing may have had something to do with it.
I found out that the person who found the body and called the Sheriff’s Department to report it was the son of the desk sergeant. That was a strange coincidence in itself. And there was some evidence of a cover-up by the deputies. I learned from sources that did not want to be identified that the son of the desk sergeant and the dead guy in the tree knew one another and that they were not friends. In fact, there had been a strong grudge going on between these two fellows for a long time.
For some strange reason the deputies, who obviously had access to the same information that I did, ignored all of the signs of a possible murder. They ruled it an accidental shooting by a stray bullet. I always suspected that the police covered up an obvious murder because it involved one of their own.