A Look Inside Badges, Bears and Eagles: “The Fall River Elk Killings”
Two members of the Department of Fish and Game’s exclusive and highly skilled scuba diving team were brought in to search the deeper water. On any given day, Larry Bruckenstein and Jauquin Mariante could be diving for gunny sacks of illegal abalone off the shark-infested Marin Coast or, in this case, packages of elk meat from a Northern California trout stream. While scouring the river bottom, our divers found shell casings, elk ribs, elk antlers and a cardboard box filled with packaged elk meat. For weeks, wardens and private citizens ran across discarded meat and elk parts all over Fall River Valley. A ride in the California Highway Patrol helicopter allowed Warden Jacobs to get a bird’s eye view of areas where evidence might have been dumped. Sure enough, he and the pilot spotted meat packages that had been thrown off a cliff near Pit River Falls.
