A murder of two Florida hunters
Although the piney woods surrounding Alvin Warren's house are teeming with deer these days, he and many other hunters in this remote region near the Georgia border are staying away. Two hunters were found shot to death in the area last month, and the police believe that the same person is responsible for both killings.
"I'm not as eager to go as I was," said Mr. Warren, a retired civil servant who lives in the forest. "In the past I've gotten in my Bronco, taken my tree stand and my gun and hunted till I felt I was through. Now I take another person with me. We go together in the woods and we sit in sight of one another."
The dead hunters, both from Orange Park, Fla., were Don Hill, 63, found shot in back and head on Nov. 20 in the Osceola National Forest, and Gregory Allen Wood, 35, killed on Nov. 25 in a similar manner 40 miles away near Camp Blanding, another hunting area.
"We have a lot of similarities in the two murders," said Sgt. Dan Smith, spokesman for a team of investigators from the Clay County sheriff's office, the Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
"Both were shot at close range with a shotgun; both were wearing orange vests," Sergeant Smith said. "They were shot from a talking, not shouting, distance."
The two killings came early in the hunting season, which is now in its third week and is scheduled to last through the third weekend of January. Officials are asking hunters to exercise caution.
Indeed, the killings have many in the area feeling wary, especially the "still hunters," who sit motionless in the trees waiting for their prey to pass.
"If anyone approached my stand, I used to let them come under and go on," Mr. Warren said. "Now I stop them at about a hundred yards. I tell them, 'Don't come no closer, I've got my cross hairs on you.' "
Dave Mason and Rudy Leopold of St. Petersburg were two hunters who had set up camp in the forest this week for the first time since hearing the news of the hunters' deaths.
"We definitely are staying in eye contact in the woods and I'm not wearing the orange in the tree no more," said Mr. Leopold, 38, an electrical contractor, referring to the bright orange vest hunters are required to wear.
Mr. Mason added, "I think it's pretty brazen for somebody to kill somebody that's got a gun, you know?"
What makes the hunters especially nervous is the idea that the dead men were killed by someone stalking hunters, although no one knows whether it was for robbery or some other reason. The police say they have found no connection between the victims other than hunting.
With hunters so skittish, the lead investigator on the case, Lieut. Jimm Redmond of the Clay County sheriff's office, says it is fortunate there have been no more shootings.
"We've had a concern that the hunter could get aggressive toward one another in concern for their safety," he said. "But there have been no hostilities or incidents and they seem to be following our advice."
That advice is to "team up, let a loved one know what time you are expected back and be cautiously aware of your surroundings," Lieutenant Redmond said.
