3 men charged after 14-year-old hunter finds elk ‘left to rot’, Missouri officials say

A 14-year-old hunter’s discovery in the Missouri wilderness has led to charges against three men, Missouri officials said.

The teen stumbled upon a dead elk in November 2023, according to officials. The mature bull elk had been shot and “left to rot” in Shannon County, the Missouri Department of Conservation said in a Sept. 9 news release.

It took nine months for investigators to identify the accused poachers and to file charges, according to the news release. Hunters, local businesses and people in the area were interviewed about the “senseless act,” officials said.

“Agents served five search warrants and submitted numerous items of possible evidence to forensics labs,” the department said.

Eventually, surveillance video from nearby businesses and “elk-population-monitoring cameras” helped identified three men from the Bonne Terre area, according to the department.

They’re each facing five charges related to violations of the Wildlife Code of Missouri , officials said.

In addition to wasting the elk, the suspects were in illegal possession of deer because they did not Telecheck the animals, a process that requires hunters to register the harvested deer with the state, according to the department.

Investigators say the charges are also related to leaving the elk’s carcass and littering.

The names of the suspects were not released by the department.

“Every person who helped was appalled by the killing and complete waste of the elk,” investigators said in the news release.

Bonne Terre is about a 60-mile drive southwest from St. Louis.

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