Posted on 09/23/2005 6:11:16 PM PDT by ButThreeLeftsDo
No physical evidence links the unsolved slaying of a deer hunter four years ago to a Minnesota man convicted of killing six northern Wisconsin deer hunters last fall, Clark County Sheriff Louis Rosandich said Friday. It will likely take a confession to solve the slaying, he said.
Chai Soua Vang, a 36-year-old Minnesota truck driver, is considered a "person of interest'' in Jim Southworth's death, based on some similarities to the murders that Vang was convicted of last week in Sawyer County, Rosandich said.
Clark County investigators have not talked to Vang but want to ask him where he was on Nov. 23, 2001, when Southworth, 37, of Medford, was shot twice in the back near his tree stand on family land east of Neillsville during the nine-day deer hunting season, the sheriff said.
(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...
It looks like no resolution in the unsolved hunter murder in Wisconsin.
no physical evidence...
I wonder if the sheriff has taken a walk through the woods around the murder site with a metal detector at all...
Right....no physical evidence.
Needle in a haystack in the woods, though.
yeah, but with a few guys with metal detectectors and some experience they could mark off about a mile radius grid from the site the body was found and start looking.
They've pretty much have nothing to go on, so it's worth a shot.
"shot twice in the back near his tree stand on family land"
Sounds pretty familiar, eh? I read here earlier today on a ping/post from you the bullets weren't found from the prior killing. I'd bet money it was Vang.
No reason for him to confess to it, unless he wished to cleanse his soul. Oh, wait a minute...what was I thinking...?
Thanks for the ping, ButThreeLeftsDo.
As Peggywan Kenobe says.."these aren't the Hmong you're looking for"..."they can go now"
Of course David Obeywon says the same thing even more forcefully...
IMO
The Clark County sheriff can go back to guarding the
"Worlds Largest Cheese"...very important work doncha know.
In the Milwaukee JournalSentinel it was also reported that 3 asian men were seen in the area
Standing near a nissan pickup which Vang also owned at one time
Finding the bullets doesn't seem like an impossible task. I've hunted in Clark county and some of the best areas are densely treed with lots of brush. You need to be in a tree stand to see over it. If the area where Southworth was killed was like that, a bullet wouldn't go far. Stand in the spot where the body was found and use a laser to 'paint' the trees in the direct the bullets were fired. That would tell you how big of an area you would need to search. Besides checking the ground with metal detectors, you would also need to check the trees up about 6-8 feet. It seems very doable. I'm assuming the killer was smart enough to pick up his brass.
http://www.jsonline.com/news/state/sep05/357864.asp
Here's the story in JournalSentinel
Convicted hunter eyed in '01 death
Detective points out similarities in cases
By John McCormick
Tribune staff reporter
September 24, 2005
Authorities say a man convicted last week of killing six deer hunters in northwest Wisconsin after a trespassing dispute is a "person of interest" in the unsolved 2001 shooting death of another deer hunter.
"There are similarities in the cases," said Kerry Kirn, a detective with the Clark County Sheriff's Department who is seeking to interview Chai Vang in the coming weeks.
Vang, 36, was convicted of six counts of first-degree murder and three counts of attempted first-degree murder after a six-day trial in Hayward, Wis. The St. Paul truck driver, a Hmong immigrant born in Laos, remains in the Sawyer County Jail awaiting a mandatory sentence of life in prison that is expected to start this fall.
First, however, authorities want to talk to Vang about the death of James Southworth, 37, who was shot twice in the back near the central Wisconsin town of Chili on Nov. 23, 2001. Four of Vang's victims were shot in the back after a trespassing dispute in rural Sawyer County, 90 miles northwest of Chili, on the opening weekend of the 2004 gun season for deer hunting.
Southworth, of Medford, Wis., was found on private property owned by his family. Authorities say something drew him out of a deer-hunting stand in a tree before he was killed. "Our victim had left his tree stand and possibly confronted someone who was trespassing," Kirn said.
Clark County authorities, who first contacted investigators in the Vang case after his arrest, say they have interviewed everyone in the area at the time of the shooting, except three men believed to be of Asian descent, who were seen standing near a pickup truck with a fiberglass topper. The shooting took place about 60 miles east of Eau Claire, Wis., where there is a large Hmong population.
Steve Kohn, one of two Milwaukee attorneys who represented Vang at his trial, said Clark County authorities have not contacted him to request an interview with his client.
Kirn refused to say what kind of bullets Southworth was shot with or whether there is any other physical evidence that might tie Vang to the case. He said it is believed Southworth was murdered and not the victim of a hunting accident.
Vang, who has said he hunted in Wisconsin in 2000, 2001 and 2004, testified at his trial that he opened fire in self-defense after he was called racial slurs, his exit was blocked and a shot was fired in his direction as he was walking away. But the jury rejected his defense argument and convicted him after deliberating three hours.
Kirn said his department is working on more than 30 leads in the Southworth slaying.
If he committed the Clark County murder, he might confess to get a prison cell closer to his family. He has something to gain and nothing to lose.
"he might confess to get a prison cell closer to his family"
Do you mean he might get his prison term in MN? I hadn't thought of that. Who would pay his room and board, I wonder, WI or MN - just wondering aloud.
If Vang will chase down and shoot eight people, he has it in him to shoot one lone hunter.
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