Horse dies after being shot at 'close range' near Puxico

PUXICO, Mo. -- The Stoddard County Sheriff's Office was contacted late last week about the shooting death of a horse from the Jim Hutchcraft farm on County Road 483, southeast of Puxico.

Hutchcraft reportedly returned home from work about 7 p.m. Thursday and found the horse lying dead behind his barn. Four other horses were unharmed.

"I always call the horses up to feed together, and they all come at once, but he didn't come up," Hutchcraft said. "When I went to investigate, I found that he'd been shot in the head."

Hutchcraft said he and his wife, Dena, have no known enemies and believes it was a random shooting.

"There were no tire marks around, no grass that looked like it had been trampled," he said.

"The shot was a clean shot to the head, which takes down a horse instantly. I feel like someone knew what they were doing, and unless they were a really accurate shooter, I think it was done in fairly close range."

The horse, named Dandy, was an Appaloosa gelding, and the Hutchcrafts had bought him as a colt. He was 14 years old.

A family member is offering a $500 reward to anyone whose information leads to the arrest of the responsible person or people.

Anyone seeing suspicious vehicles in the area or having information about the case is asked to call the Stoddard County Sheriff's Office at 573-568-4654.