CURRITUCK COUNTY: The Wild Horses of Corolla embody the spirit of the Outer Banks. Beauty, serenity, tranquility. "There's something very romantic about the thought of these horses, being able to roam wherever they want," says Karen McCalpin, Executive Director of the Corolla Wild Horse Fund. "They're part of the heritage and culture of the Outer Banks. They're also a treasure trove of genetic history."
Historians have traced these majestic creatures back to 1493, when Columbus first brought them to the new world aboard his ships. Based on historical documentation, McCalpin says many of the horses would swim to shore if they were thrown overboard to lighten the load when ships ran aground. She adds that Native American uprisings and the spread of illness forced many Spanish settlers to abandon their colonies and leave livestock behind. Despite these circumstances, natural disasters and other obstacles that plagued the area over time, the horses that survived managed to adapt and flourish on their own for centuries. By the 1920's, National Geographic documented that 5,000-6,000 horses lived up and down the coast of the Outer Banks.
In the mid-1980's, rapid growth and development across the Outer Banks started pushing the horses out of their natural habitat and onto highways and roads. Nearly two dozen horses were killed. In the 1990's, the Corolla Wild Horse fund was established to save the animals. "Our mission is to preserve and protect the last remaining herd of colonial Spanish mustangs on the Currituck Outer Banks. And we also work to preserve and conserve the land where they live," McCalpin says. The organization lobbied to build fences so the horses could live in a safe area. They were put on 12,000 acres of private and federal land, which includes residential homes, vacation homes and undeveloped beach property. But these fences couldn't protect all the horses. In November 2001, six became the targets of murder.
All the horses were shot within a two to three block radius. Because the shooting locations were in a relatively remote, low traffic area, by the time residents, tourists and other bystanders discovered the horses, many of their bodies were badly decomposed and investigators were unable to collect ballistics evidence. The community was outraged and became the driving force behind the investigation. They provided tips that pointed authorities to several potential suspects. Law enforcement followed up on a number of leads and conducted dozens of interviews. "We've speculated that is it somebody who's upset with the Sherriff's Office, is it somebody who's upset with the county, is it somebody who's upset with the people of Corolla and this is their way of lashing out," says Lt. Matt Beickert of the Currituck County Sherriff's Office. But with no tangible evidence and little cooperation from various persons of interest, the case started to dwindle.
Authorities recognized the challenges associated with investigating these types of cases. "Usually when it's a homicide of a person, you get a call fairly quickly," says Bieckert. "There's no one we can speak to. It is a lot harder to get information on these types of investigations. The crime scene here could change so fast in just a matter of a few hours from the tide coming in, to the wind, to contamination, innocent contamination by people, onlookers, people reporting, seeing an animal that is deceased, not knowing that a crime scene has occurred."
Nearly four years later in 2005, another horse was shot and killed. Few leads surfaced and authorities obtained little evidence. Then in 2007, there was another shooting. "We have recent information that the shootings in 2001 and possibly the shooting in 2007 are connected," Bieckert says. A man had been legally hunting in the area. According to investigators, he came across what appeared to be a big, black object, walked over toward the object and discovered it was a dead horse. "He later walked out of the woods, he had to walk back out around the opposite direction that he was and basically go all the away around because he, when you hunt on the beach, you have to park on the beach strand, when you hunt the estuary area. Walked around and went back to his truck and finally called law enforcement at that time," Detective Victor Lasher of the Currituck County Sherriff's Office tells NC WANTED. Ballistic results showed the bullet came from a 12-guage shotgun. Coincidentally the same model shotgun the hunter owned and was seized during the investigation. Despite what appeared to be a perfect match, investigators were unable to link the bullet fragment found from the horse directly to the hunter's gun. But Beickert says the hunter has not been excluded. "Mostly, something to do with his lack of cooperation and he may be perfectly innocent and nothing to do with it, but and everybody has their reasons why they will or won’t cooperate, and he hasn't been cleared because he hasn’t cooperated fully as much as he could."
In a small town like Corolla, theories run abundant about what actually happened to these horses, how they were shot and who was involved. Some believe they were accidental shootings, others think someone may have been intentionally killing the horses. Though investigators are continuing to work this case, they are still in need of the public's help and are asking anyone with information to come forward. "We just haven’t gotten that break that we've been looking for. That concrete piece of evidence that we can make an arrest that we can take this case to the next level," Bieckert says. "These horses are, are a part of Corolla. It's hard to mention Corolla without, in the next sentence or two, mentioning the wild horses. They're very, very important to the community and as far as our unsolved cases go, this is a top priority. We have spent a lot of time, money and effort on it and, and we're going to continue to do so."
