Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 21, 1994 TAG: 9404210233
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By RON BROWN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: MILL CREEK LENGTH: Medium
There's something crooked going on here.
"It was always a caring community," said Pat Shotwell, a lifelong resident. "We never locked doors. Now, we're not as trusting. You just can't be as trusting as you once could."
Just a half-mile up the road from Shotwell's house, nine hunting dogs were shot to death over the weekend. Police have no suspects, but plenty of questions.
"I can say there is a whole lot strange about this case," said Botetourt County Sheriff Reed Kelly. "This is the kind of activity that we don't have down here."
Among the unanswered questions is how the dogs were shot without gunfire having alerted the neighbors along this quiet rural road.
"Sometimes it's too quiet here," said one neighborhood woman, who asked not to be identified. "You can hear a pin drop."
Kelly himself has a more fundamental question: Why did the dog owners apparently delay reporting the killings and a burglary of guns and knives from the house earlier in the month?
Joe Patterson, who fed the dogs for his brother, Bill, called the Sheriff's Office on Sunday morning to report that the dogs had been shot.
According to police reports, Joe Patterson told Deputy Gary Sprinkle that Bill Patterson had told him at 11 Saturday night that all the dogs had been killed.
Neither of the Pattersons could be reached for comment Wednesday.
Carla Blevins, a neighbor, said Wednesday that Joe Patterson had come to her house Sunday morning to use her telephone to call police.
When Sprinkle arrived, he found bloodied dead dogs strewn around Bill Patterson's house. Some were still tied, some in pens, and others set free and shot in their tracks. All had been shot with either a small-caliber weapon or a shotgun.
Another neighbor said he had heard Bill Patterson calling to his cattle as he fed them Saturday night about 9:30.
Neighbors admit that they and Bill Patterson have not always gotten along. About a year ago, the Virginia Department of Transportation had to force him to give a right of way for road improvements that most of his neighbors wanted.
Some have complained to police that Patterson let his cattle roam free to harm their trees and graze in their gardens. One man has admitted to police that he shot at one of the Patterson's cows, but vehemently denied he shot the dogs.
"There's been some ill feelings," said the neighbor, who requested anonymity. "Because he wouldn't give the right of way, he held the road project up. We're not going to have fistfights.... But if you're going to be a gentleman farmer, you need to maintain your fences."
by CNB