RICHMOND — Daria Goggins pointed along the dirt driveway to the field where her two Holsteins would have normally been begging for hay each time she and her brother Mark drove by.
The large black and white twins Theodore and Isadora were no longer there.
Some time on Friday one or more people fatally shot the animals, leaving Goggins to find the carcasses about 3:30 p.m. just outside the open gate of their pasture.
She and Mark were headed to Lewiston to pick up a vehicle, and she told him to stop by the cattle. “Let’s throw them some hay,” she said.
Instead, she saw one cow lying down just outside the field and dogs running around, “I said, ‘Something bad happened. I think they’re dead.'”
Richmond police and the Maine Warden Service are investigating the shooting and checking in with contractors Goggins had working on the road to get it ready for plowing to see if they saw anyone.
Goggins, who is offering a $2,500 reward for information leading to the arrest of the shooter, is convinced the killing of her animals is personal.
“It definitely was not a hunting accident. It’s a highly personal act directed at me,” she said on Saturday. “Someone’s trying to terrorize me and sending me a message.”
Police helped her find someone with heavy equipment, and early Saturday Theodore and Isadora were buried in the field where they had been grazing since the summer.
“These were the biggest Holsteins in the state of Maine,” she said. “Theodore was enormous, 2,000 pounds.”
Goggins, who bought the 120 acres on Savage Road so she would have a lot of pasture for her animals, had moved into her new home there just two weeks ago. Until she did, neighbors had been checking on the animals and Goggins hauled in the 42 jugs of water the animals required.
She had been living in Pownal for about five years, and before that on Alexander Reed Road in Richmond.
She had owned Theodore and Isadora for about 10 years, after acquiring them as pets to spare them from being slaughtered for their meat.
Goggins was fond of the animals and showed a recently poured slab 24-by-36-foot slab that was to be the base of their new barn. It took 600 yards of gravel to get it level, she said, and then talked about the ramp on the far side that was to lead to pasture she intended to reclaim so she could move the cattle between plots.
According to a news release sent Saturday from the Richmond Police Department, “Each cow sustained one fatal wound each. It has been determined that this is not a hunting accident and that someone intentionally went to the residence with the intent to inflict harm to the cows.”
Police are seeking help from the public to find the person or persons responsible. The department asks anyone with information to call 737-8518.
Betty Adams — 621-5631
Twitter: @betadams
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