The investigation began with midnight gunshots, a wounded deer and attempts by alarmed locals in the tiny community of Bridge Lake, B.C., to effect the “citizen’s arrest” of a bewildered hunter allegedly deserted by his friends.
A trail of blood later led to a raid on a nearby property where wildlife officers allegedly seized the carcass of a porcupine and two prized bear penises as part of an investigation into the unlawful possession of dead wildlife parts.
The strange sequence of events is explained in a search warrant obtained by CBC, detailing an ongoing Conservation Officer Service investigation into members of a Richmond, B.C., family suspected of flouting B.C.’s wildlife regulations.
“As a Conservation officer, I know that remote areas …. suffer from prolific illegal hunting during prohibited hours,” B.C. Conservation Officer Joel Kline wrote in the document sworn to obtain a search warrant for electronic devices associated with the case.
“These illegal activities often lead to conflicts between the offending parties and the property owners/occupants.”
A ‘citizens arrest’
The CBC is not naming the suspects in the investigation who have not been charged with any offence. The Conservation Officer Service would not comment on the case while it is still under investigation.
The possession of bear genitals — specifically the penis bone or baculum — is illegal in British Columbia if separated from the hide. Authorities have spent years trying to pierce a thriving black market for wildlife parts used in traditional Chinese medicine.
The information sworn to obtain the warrant — filed in Richmond provincial court — says the investigation began shortly after midnight on Oct. 3, 2024.
A woman told RCMP “she heard two shots and that there was a deer in the ditch along Highway 24 in Bridge Lake” — a community of about 500 in B.C.’s Cariboo, about 150 kilometres north of Kamloops.
“A truck took off,” the search warrant says. “But one male was found on scene, and people have performed a ‘citizens arrest.'”
Another witness allegedly told investigators the man did not speak English.
“She claimed her husband “got the suspect to kneel down and take any items out of his pocket. The suspect then ran off on foot,” the search warrant says.
RCMP arrived after the man had fled, instead finding a deer in the ditch, “alive and suffering from what looked to be a wound to the torso.”
Officers killed the wounded animal.
Kline says witnesses pointed out two distinct blood trails that led them to believe more injured or dead deer would be found nearby. But the trails ended abruptly, as the animals appeared to have been taken elsewhere.
“It is common for persons engaged in illegal hunting to use their vehicles to drag carcasses to the roadside for faster loading,” Kline wrote.
“This allows the offenders to load the animal into a vehicle and to depart the location with a greater chance of being undetected.”
‘Numerous species of wildlife … illegally killed’
Another area resident later told Kline the truck in the incident sounded similar to one involved in a situation the previous spring when a black truck got stuck; he claimed he had dropped the occupants off at a nearby ranch located on 106 acres (43 hectares) of land.
Conservation officers took a picture at the property of what they believed was the suspect vehicle — a black truck registered to a businessman who lives in an $8 million home in Richmond with his son and a woman believed to be his spouse.
“It is the theory of the investigators that the [Richmond home] is the family home and that [the ranch] is a recreational property used by the family,” the search warrant says.
According to the search warrant, the businessman’s name arose in previous complaints involving the illegal hunting of waterfowl and the spoiled remains of a moose.
But no charges were laid in either file.
Conservation officers raided the ranch three days after the midnight incident with the dying deer, seizing a long list of items that included two bear penis bones and the remains of a porcupine.
“Evidence recovered from the [acreage] indicated that numerous species of wildlife have been illegally killed and butchered on the property,” the warrant says.
“Bear baculum have high value in the medicinal trade and are commonly removed from illegally killed wildlife … There is no open season for porcupine, thus any harvest is illegal.”
Ten days later, conservation officers executed a search warrant at the family’s Richmond mansion — seizing cellphones, rifles and ammunition as well as frozen deer meat and a “skinned-out deer head with skull cap removed.”
The search warrant filed in Richmond gave Kline the go-ahead to examine the contents of the electronic devices.
None of the allegations contained in the search warrant have been proven in court.
