On the morning of June 3, 2006, a NetPosse report came in on a Missing Horse. The family presumed the horse was stolen but filed the SHI report late Friday night with the intentions of filing a law enforcement report the next day.

Here is what was reported by NetPosse volunteer Angela Kirby at 8:30 Saturday morning:

It is with tremendous sadness that I write this email.

We received a report last night of a horse presumed stolen in Chilton County, Ala. This is close to home for me (less than 2 hours north). I called the owner to get more information and was preparing to go to our local livestock yard as the sale was last night.

Unfortunately, while speaking to the owner at her sister's house [she had left for North Carolina Friday before this happened], another call came in. The horse has been found in the pasture dead.

Daredevil was a 27-year-old bay leopard appaloosa but didn't look his age.

Due to recent horse shootings just below Chilton County, in the capitol city of Montgomery, I asked the owner to please forward a picture and possibly continue with a theft report. Before the call came in, she had told me that they had followed his tracks to the road.

So was Daredevil stolen and then brought back and killed like Pepper in Nebraska or Stormy in NY?

Did someone steal Daredevil and he escaped, only to return home and expire?

Even though the family was able to search in the daylight yesterday, did they just not see him?

All of these are possibilities, but I believe it is important for the family and other horse owners to know the truth. If it was just Daredevil's time, then the family can have peace and grieve for him.

If someone did this to him, then we need to find that someone! . . .

When I receive more information, I'll forward it. In the meantime, please keep this family in your prayers.

Angela

On Monday, June 5, Jamie was able to send out another email about Daredevil. It is a heartbreaking situation. The family has closure by at least knowing the Daredevil is “home”, but the question remains: WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM? Read Jamie’s account below … was this just a tragic accident or deliberate act of cruelty?

HI Angela,
Grief hangs heavy over us as Daredevil was a beloved and long cherished part of our family.

We will forever miss him. I attached a picture of him with my son riding him but he was my daughters horse.

We were quick to get the word out locally and abroad as we live in a small community and know most everyone for miles. The fence not being cut wasn't an issue for daredevil because he was a superb jumper and could clear five feet without effort. My son always rode with a saddle because he is not the most balanced boy and needed something to hold on to but my daughter could climb on Daredevil without so much as a halter and go anywhere they wanted to go. The two of them became one while riding, it was poetry in motion. She never had to ask before he knew what she wanted him to do and he never refused to do anything she ask.

I do find it very odd that ten people walking around a 4-acre pasture "overlooked" him on Friday only for one single person to find him on Saturday. I had wondered if someone got scared when word was traveling so fast and brought him back, but why kill him? why would someone do that other then just pure meanness. I am not sure of the exact cause of his death at this point, My husband told me over the phone I didn't want him to describe it in detail , he only told me he had blood around his neck. My daughter did go see him I was told and is unable to speak of it.

I was in NC and it will always hang heavy over me I wasn't here to console my daughter.

Daredevil was still fit as a fiddle and could ride with the best of them, he was not only the most wonderful horse in the world for us he also was a seeing eye horse for my mare that went blind five years ago. Widow could live a normal life with daredevil because he always stayed with her in the field and she trusted him because they had been together for so many years, now widow has to stay in a round pen for her own safety as she doesn't have daredevil to guide her any more. There will never be another.

Thank you for responding so quickly in our time of need.

Jamie