‘They deserve justice’: Families seek answers as Jefferson County ends 2020 with 74 unsolved murders
Updated Dec 31, 2020;
His mother, Nedra Smith, thinks about her first-born, just 15-years-old, every day and every night.
She thinks about how she was just beginning to know what it felt like to have a full-fledged teenager with his driver’s license just around the corner.
She thinks about him when his five younger siblings want to know why they can’t see him.
She thinks about how much help he was as the man of the family, and how that burden now rests on her 13-year-old.
“I don’t sleep because my mind is constantly racing, trying to put together the who and the why,’ Smith said. “I just don’t get what was so bad, so horrible for you to still have life and my child doesn’t. It’s like one of those movies where you are left hanging. I don’t have an ending.”
Conservation officer Scott Norris said they received another four or five calls reporting sightings of the animal near the golf course. On Tuesday, a conservation officer knocked on doors in the area, one of which was opened by a retired wildlife biologist who had seen the buck and thought he knew where the animal would be, Norris said. The biologist helped conservation officers find the buck near the golf course. They tranquilized it and removed the arrow from its side. The helpful biologist offered to keep an eye on the animal and let conservation officers know how it’s doing, Norris said.
Dempsey could see what looked like dried blood around the entry wound. He snapped some photos of the injured animal before both deer took off into a residential neighbourhood next to the golf course. A friend phoned the police, and an Oak Bay officer walked the course Thursday but was unable to find the animal, said Oak Bay police chief Ray Bernoties. Dempsey also alerted the B.C. Conservation Officer Service. Conservation officer Scott Norris said they’re hoping others will report sightings of the animal so officers can locate and tranquilize it for an assessment to see if they can safely remove the arrow. They want to determine if the animal was shot with a blunt-head arrow used for target shooting or a sharp arrow that would likely cause more serious harm to the animal.