MISSING EQUINE Remington Hustler aka Elvis

Owner frustrated in search for child's horse

Where do you turn for help when your horse is missing?  When there are no obvious signs how d you determine if your horse is missing or stolen, especially when your gut feeling is different from law enforcement.  Read Jamie's letter below to understand better the turmoil a victim goes through when her horse... disappears.  (SHI has removed names and edited letter just a little.  You may contact Jamie if you need to know more about individuals involved).

Hi, My name is Jamie Wright and I am writing to ask for your help finding my daughters horse.  On  Sunday night September 05, 2004 one of our horses went missing.  

Around 11:30 pm when I was putting our stallion back in the barn, I heard a horse screaming in the woods along the creek.  It was dark and extremely foggy, so I decided that I had to wait until morning to see what went on.  

It was pouring down rain Monday, but I called the field horses up to find all but Elvis come for feed.  It stormed all day Tuesday, so our search was halted.  On Wednesday my husband and I both searched the pastures.  We went the pasture fence to find it wasn’t out of shape any more than usual after a storm.  The horses would never go through it on their own because of the cable there to keep the fence in place.   

We proceeded to search the holler’s and the small creek beds hoping that he had just fallen and we could get him to Lexington for help.  He was no where.  When we came in, I started calling everyone around us to see if they had seen a horse out or where it didn’t belong.  I also called Animal control and talked with Animal Control an officer  to find out if anyone had reported a horse being out or if they had picked one up.  He said “no”.  

I called the Police Dispatch number and Officer an officer returned my call.  I explained the situation to him and his response was to “call your homeowner’s insurance see what your deductible and his value was and just get the money for him”.  I tried to explain that the money wasn’t what I was wanting, I wanted my horse back.  He informed me that it was not worth it to file a report unless I wanted to file a claim with insurance and to wait until Friday until I did anything about it. 

On Thursday, while my husband and I searched the fields again, we noticed something that we hadn’t before.  On the other side of the fence at the creek, there was a freshly broken branch with a smaller section broken from the tip of it.  We continued to walk the creek with the dogs when the took off up a small trail in the thicket.  I followed them and found hoof prints in the mud that were a little worn.  There have not been horses in this pasture for close to 10 years.  We followed them as much as possible, but the weeds and underbrush got to thick to see anything. 

Friday morning Sept.10,2004 we went to the Kentucky State Police Post 6 to try to file a report.  We met with a State trooper around 10:30 at the Demossville Post Office.  He listened to my information and called in to his Supervisor.  He told us to go back to Kenton County Police and they should cooperate with us and if we were not satisfied then to call him back.  He took a set of pictures that we had printed up of Elvis and informed us that he would look and advise the others in the area to keep an eye out for him.   

As soon as we returned home from meeting with the state trooper I called the Kenton County Police and a page was sent out for the officer to again.  When he returned my call later, he informed me that it wouldn’t be until Tuesday that he could get out here.  I explained that wasn’t good enough and he was going to call dispatch to send another officer out.  

I had also called a Animal Control officer (contact owner) about the situation.  Both this ACO officer  and another ACO showed up directly before the Kenton County Police officer.  The ACO officer and the other officer went into the pasture and down to the creek after I told them where we had found everything.  

I stayed with the Kenton County Police officer  and answered his questions and gave him some possible leads that we were told along the door to door search.  He asked me if I wanted to come pick up a copy of the report at headquarters or wanted to wait.  I had an appointment at 5pm, so I told him I would pick it up later.  When ACO's returned from the field they said that they couldn’t find proof that someone had been there.  The county officer said that he would be in touch and they all left. 

Saturday evening while out with my husband I ran into the county officer again and I asked him if had found out anything or had looked into anything.  He informed me that he hadn’t.  On Sunday morning I drove out the Police station to get a copy of the report and the reporting officer met me in the parking lot.  

He told me that the report was waiting for approval, but he would bring me a copy of it to me on Monday morning and asked what time I would be around.  I informed him that I’m always around between 1:15pm and 1:45pm.  I received nothing, so at 4:30 I called again and dispatch sent him the message to call me again that I needed to know something.  He never returned my call so at 5:40pm I called Dispatch again and told them he hadn’t returned my phone call, and when the dispatcher looked he had already clocked out was left.  

I in turn call the Kentucky State Police Post 6 and left a message for the state trooper.  The trooper returned my call at 11:10pm on Monday September 13 and explained how to get a report through the Administration, if things were any better or different to call him on Tuesday and he would talk directly with the Kenton County Police. 

On Tuesday morning at 12:50pm I called the Kenton County Police Administration office for a copy of my report.  I explained to the lady who answered who I was and what I needed and was told that it what they had was only a statement from the officer.  I asked her to please fax it to me and it arrived at 1:06pm.  The paper I received was a very brief description of everything.   I have either spoke with on the phone or received an email from 6 different Animal Psychics and they all have given me the same response that Elvis was stolen by two men and were heading West.  I will include an email from one of them with a description of the two men involved and the vehicles.  The first man fits the description of a known Horse Thief in the area who grew up in the area and would know the property..  He had also owned or at least hauled around with a single horse trailer like the one described.  

I have called one of the local television stations about it and they said that they would air about a stolen pet once I could prove it and had a police report. 

I have called as many Stock Yards in the OH, KY, IN area that I could find numbers to.  The ones who had a fax machine I faxed a copy of his picture and his description.

I also tried calling all 3 Slaughter Houses.  I didn’t receive a response when I called Bel Tex, Dallas Crown disconnected me, and Cavel in Illinois was very polite, but didn’t take my information.  

As of right now, the police haven’t done anything to help us.  They continually express that it is just a horse.  If these people could own one they would know that they are not just animals, they are part of the family and you can’t just give up on one because he is gone.  If that was a child they would do everything in their power to find that child and keep him safe.  It should not be any different for a horse.  To some people horses are their children.

Elvis was the type of horse that if he had a rope in front of his leg he would stand there until someone got him.  He would not even think about walking thru a fence that was over his head.  To bring him into the dry pasture we had to take the strand of electric that was over the gate (even when unplugged) down for him to walk through.  He would go anywhere and do anything that you asked of him.  That is why he was mostly ridded by a 3 year old around the house, on trails and was supposed to be her first walk/trot horse in a couple weeks.  

If there is anyway that you might be able to help us get our horse back, both my husband and I will be forever grateful as well as our 3 year old daughter who was supposed to be showing him in two weeks.  It has been very stressful and hard on all of us, but I have had an especially hard time helping my daughter to understand why the police haven’t found him yet.

Thank you for your time and any/all help is appreciated.  

Sincerely

Jamie Wright  
wishing_well_farm@fuse.net

Thursday, September 23, 2004

Child's horse still missing

'She asks God and the angels to help her find him'

By Andrea Remke
Enquirer staff writer

DEMOSSVILLE - Three-year-old Aly Wright cries herself to sleep at night.

The girl's mother, Jamie Wright, can't explain to her why Aly's quarter horse, Elvis, has disappeared.

Wright said the 4-year-old gelding was out in their pasture with five other horses the last time they saw him, on Sept. 5.

The family has since searched the property, which abuts her grandfather's land, where they keep 12 horses on 37 acres.

They are suspicious about his disappearance because there is a 6-foot-high barbed wire fence around the pasture.

"Nobody saw anything or heard anything," Wright said.

She and her husband, Darrell, an employee at Castellini Co. in Wilder, have gone as far as Indianapolis and Maysville looking for Elvis.

"We've called slaughterhouses - one in Illinois, and two in Texas," she said. "Some would talk, and others wouldn't."

She said she also called a horse auction in Shipshewana, Ind., where the auction owner took Elvis' description and said he would keep an eye out.

Wright said Elvis - who got his name when her husband noticed his tendency to shake his head a lot as a yearling - is copper-colored with a white mark on his forehead, a pink spot on his nose, and white on his left back leg up to his knee.

Elvis didn't like going off by himself, but he'd go along with another horse, Wright said.

Ed Butler, assistant chief of the Kenton County Police Department, said the department takes stolen-horse reports seriously.

"We've even worked stolen goats, sheep, dogs," he said. "We do what we can to locate (the animal) in a reasonable time."

Butler said that, because of the large rural population in the county, the department gets more reports of missing or loose animals than stolen animals.

"But we do investigate any report," he said.

He said the officer in the Wrights' case did not see evidence, however, that the horse was stolen.

The Wrights have turned to Stolen Horse International, a nonprofit company set up to find and recover missing or stolen horses.

Owner Debi Metcalfe said the company was started in 1997 when her horse was stolen and she couldn't find much help or support online.

Since then, the company has grown into a network of people across the United States, including volunteers who distribute fliers and information on lost or stolen horses.

"We issue Idaho Alerts," Metcalfe said, "which is like an Amber Alert for horses."

The Idaho Alert is named for a white mare that was stolen and recovered when the company first got its start.

Metcalfe said information on the missing horse is distributed through e-mails and then passed on to those in the horse industry and to those who visit horse auctions.

"Many horses have been found that way," Metcalfe said, citing the company's recovery rate of 51 percent last year.

About 55,000 horses are stolen each year in the United States, with many thought to be sold at auction and slaughtered for meat, according to the American Horse Protection Association.

Wright said she's been getting e-mails from people as far away as New York and Wyoming who are posting fliers of Elvis.

"It's not just people around here helping," she said.

Aly, who has been riding a horse since she was 18 months old, according to her mother, was scheduled to "walk trot" Elvis next week at a horse show in Ohio.

"She says her prayers at night and asks God and the angels to help her find him," her mother said. "She's heartbroken. ... On the way to school, she looked out the window and said she was watching the fields for Elvis, and said, 'Mommy, we're going to find him.' "

E-mail aremke@enquirer.com

9/16/04