Cape Girardeau man wants justice for bull shot in Bollinger County

ZALMA, Mo. -- Someone entered a farm near Zalma early in October and shot a registered bull worth $3,000.

Truman Lemons of Cape Girardeau, who owns Lemons Coin Machines, is offering a reward of $1,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible for killing the bull.

Lemons breeds cattle on property he owns near Zalma. He said the bull was in a pen behind the barn on his property. He described the bull as a "big pet."

"I petted the bull Oct. 2, and we noticed him missing Oct. 4," Lemons said.

One of his neighbors notified him Oct. 5 that he had found the bull on his property, dead from a bullet wound. Lemons said it appeared that the bull had been shot with a high-caliber rifle, and did not die immediately.

"He ran about three quarters of a mile and then collapsed," Lemons said. "They came on my property. I had him penned in on a 20-acre field behind the barn. Someone drove up and popped him."

Lemons said he reported the incident to the Bollinger County Sheriff's Department who advised him to fill out a report.

"Three or four days later a deputy called wanting me to file a report," Lemons said. "I said can you fax me the form; I will sign it and I will prosecute."

Lemons said he had planned to put the bull to work breeding his cattle the following week after he last saw it. There is no way to determine whether or not the calves from the cattle now would be worth less on the market than if they had been born with the bull's bloodlines.

He also said he found it unusual that the sheriff's department would spend so much time trying to find out who killed a stray dog, but did not respond sooner to his report of a loss of a $3,000 bull, nor did it report the incident to the media to inform other cattle breeders.

Sheriff Leo McElrath said Monday that he can understand why the public might think that, but stressed that "we treat all cases the same."

"We got a report on it, and we've been looking into it," McElrath said. "We haven't found anything yet. That's what's so disheartening about it."

McElrath said he has received no other reports of livestock being killed in the county. He said a deputy has been to Lemons' property, but so far there is no information about unusual tire tracks on the property, or any other leads. He said he didn't know what kind of gun had been fired at the bull.

"I don't think they retrieved the bullet," he said.

The bull had been recovered and buried before authorities arrived, he said.

Pertinent address:

Zalma, MO