The Killing of Karen Wood | Yankee Classic
When a young Maine mother was shot by a deer hunter in her own backyard, the tragedy wounded the entire community.
By Edie Clark|Jan 04 2022|
Coffee By Design | Portland, Maine
Photo Credit : Katherine KeenanThe facts of the 1988 death of Karen Wood — a man made a mistake, a woman died — got lost in the argument over who owns the woods.
On the morning of November 15, 1988, Dr. Kevin Wood had rarely felt better. He was up early, showered and changed, anxious to get to his new job. He gave Karen, his wife of 13 years, a kiss and a hug and gathered his baby twin daughters — pink-cheeked, blond-haired, blue-eyed bundles named Laura and Lindsey — into his arms, and covered them with little kisses. He left then, driving in his brown Honda Civic down the quiet road in Hermon, Maine, where they had moved only recently from Iowa. It was only ten or 15 minutes to the Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor where he had begun work in July. He was 36 years old, tall and lean and blond, his face edged in a red beard with a white swath down the side. He had told friends and family that this new position, working with children with psychological problems, was “the perfect job.”
That afternoon, Karen was smoothing sheets of wallpaper to the walls of her brand-new kitchen, which she had told friends back home was the “kitchen of her dreams.” Karen felt as Kevin did: coming here to Maine was the culmination of many efforts, and everything she did for this house, for the babies, for Kevin, she did with a radiant glow that even the most casual acquaintance picked up on. The paper was deep blue with tiny white flowers, a pattern she had spent a great deal of time selecting. Laura and Lindsey had only just taken their first steps, so progress was slow as she watched them move about unsteadily and measured for the next piece of wallpaper.
No one can say why, but some time after 3:00 P.M., she laid down her tools and put the babies behind the child gates in the living room. Outside, bright sun shone through bare trees, but the air was Halloween-crisp, so she put on her dark blue jacket and pulled on a pair of white mittens before stepping out the glass door to the deck that overlooked their acre and a half of scrubby woods. She went down the steps and through the fenced-in dog kennel that extended 100 feet beyond the deck. She opened the gate and stepped out.
In the clearing, some 63 yards from Karen, Donald Rogerson, a hunter well known in Bangor sporting circles, raised the barrel of his 30.06, a very high-powered deer rifle with a four-power sight, took aim, and fired. He lowered the gun, pumped another round into the chamber, and once again pulled the trigger.
Across the street, Cheryl Hamlin was sitting in her living room. She heard the shots, too close, way too close. Then she heard cries and a voice: “Help me, help me, dear God, please help me!” She grabbed the phone and dialed the sheriff. As she spoke, she watched out the window. A man in blaze orange pounded on the Woods’ front door where inside the babies’ cries swelled out.
Toward the end of the day, Kevin was called to the emergency room to see a young girl who had threatened suicide. He spent some time with her and decided, somewhat reluctantly, not to admit her. He spoke gently to her and then returned to his office where there was a call waiting for him from the emergency room. His first thought was that something had happened to the girl he had just left. Instead it was a man from the sheriff’s department who told him that there had been a hunting accident and that his son had been shot. Kevin doesn’t have a son, so he told the man there was some mistake, but the man insisted that Kevin come home. He did.
Listening to his car radio on the way, he heard a news report of a hunter who had been shot in Hermon. He felt confused, and yet when he turned down his road, seeing the crowd of police cars, TV trucks, news reporters, and game wardens, and the yellow police tape drawn around his property still did not convey to him what had happened: Karen was dead. Her body, pierced through the chest by one of Rogerson’s bullets, lay in the backyard, covered by the brown and beige blanket of a neighbor.
During the next hours, as the brilliant afternoon turned to night, events swirled around Kevin with nightmarish unreality. Within an hour or so Donald Rogerson was arrested for manslaughter and taken to the Bangor jail. Because her death was related to hunting, game wardens rather than police handled the investigation, and young uniformed wardens, it seemed like an entire squadron of them, swarmed through Kevin’s backyard. They worked intensely around the crime scene, some of them down on their hands and knees, scouring the leaf-covered earth. When darkness closed in, they switched on flashlights and continued. It was 7:00 P.M. before the medical examiner could get there from Augusta, even later before the hearse came to take Karen’s body away.
Inside the house, neighbors and rescue workers tried to comfort the babies, who cried and cried for their mother. Night turned to day. Kevin did not sleep and neither, it seemed, did the wardens. Kevin turned away reporters. He could not talk, he could not imagine talking.
The next day Kevin, in numb disbelief, carried out the sorrowful task of following Karen’s body home to Binghamton, New York, where they had been born six months apart, where they went to high school together, where they fell in love, where they married. Before Kevin left, Gary Sargent, the warden in charge of the investigation, assured him that all this, gathering of evidence was being done in preparation for the trial, which would surely follow this ungodly event. Over the next several days, the wardens took extensive measurements, photographs, videotapes, and even pictures from the air. They cut down the tree Karen had stood beside when she was shot and took away the trunk in which was lodged the other bullet.
Three weeks after the shooting, Kevin returned to Bangor from Binghamton where he had stayed with his parents following the funeral. He left the twins in the care of their four doting grandparents until he felt settled enough to bring them back to the house at Treadwell Acres. While he’d been gone, he had read none of the newspapers, which had throbbed almost daily with the news and opinions about Karen’s death. Because the investigation was still underway, few facts about the shooting could be released. In the write-ups there were few details about Kevin or Karen, nothing about the funeral, and only a brief obituary for Karen. The focus was on the hunter.
More than one front-page story featured tearful apologies from Rogerson, who, it was headlined, was a scoutmaster in Bangor. “A most wonderful kind of person,” one of the Woods’ neighbors was quoted as saying. One report opened by setting the scene at the supermarket where Rogerson is the produce manager. It described customers lining up to shake the hunter’s hand and make offers of prayers and support, as if he were somehow the victim. While Kevin had been silent, Donald Rogerson had talked, and graphic details of his experience emerged. “I almost fainted when I came up on her,” he told one reporter. “I…messed my pants.”
What didn’t emerge were the details that mattered: what he was shooting at, how long he’d been in the woods, how many shots he fired, whether or not there were deer seen nearby. One warden excited much comment by saying Rogerson may have mistaken her white mittens for the tail of a deer, overlooking the fact that Rogerson was hunting for buck and needed to identify the head, not the tail, of the deer before shooting. What Rogerson did say, over and over, was how sorry he was, to almost anyone who would listen. He didn’t know he was so close to houses; he thought he was shooting at a deer, he said.
In letters and guest editorials to the Bangor Daily News, though many sympathized with Karen, some readers took issue with the fact that she was wearing white mittens, and why wasn’t she wearing blaze orange, as anyone who lives in Maine knows well enough to do during hunting season?
It was as if they were saying that Karen was to blame for her death. And there were overtones of provincialism — she was from away and didn’t know enough to keep herself out of trouble. One guest column by Theodore Leavitt began by saying that Karen’s death illustrated several important issues, “the most important of which are the development of what were traditionally wilderness areas and the influx of large numbers of people who do not share or understand the traditional views and values of native Mainers.” He went on to question Karen’s “common sense, going into the woods dressed as she was.” The facts of the case — a man had made a mistake, a woman had died in her own backyard — became obscured. What took over was a fiery debate between hunters and non-hunters, all the old arguments over who owns the woods.
Unaware of all this, on Monday, December 5, Kevin returned to work, feeling he could slowly ease back into the job. He had seen one client in the morning and was about to settle in with an afternoon patient when a call came through from Maine’s Assistant Attorney General, Jeffrey Hjelm. Unknown to Kevin, that morning Hjelm had brought the evidence gathered by the wardens before a grand jury.
It was the task of the grand jury to determine, on the basis of that evidence, not whether Rogerson was guilty of the crime of manslaughter, but merely whether there was sufficient cause to suspect that the crime may have been committed. Manslaughter is defined as causing death through conduct that is either criminally reckless or criminally negligent — to fail to be aware of a risk or to disregard the risk that your conduct could cause death. Under Maine law the proceedings of the grand jury are secret and the identity even the numbers — of members of the grand jury are concealed, so what was presented in that session may never be known. Whatever it was, the grand jury decided not to indict Donald Rogerson for manslaughter in the shooting death of Karen Wood.
This is what Hjelm had to say to Kevin that afternoon. Stunned, Kevin got up and walked out of the office, without a word, and drove home to Binghamton, where he remained, paralyzed with grief, for seven long months.
It was not the first time that Kevin had suffered loss. The way he describes growing up in his family of four children is, “I was the one who dodged the bullets.” His older sister was mentally retarded, and his younger sister died at age 14 of cystic fibrosis, a slow, painful death that monopolized the family during his adolescence. His younger brother died of leukemia in 1987. He feels there is little question that these experiences led to his interest in psychology and his work with children. And it was definitely a factor in his and Karen’s decision to delay having children. The twins, conceived following his brother’s funeral, underwent prenatal testing for retardation as well as tests in their early infancy for cystic fibrosis.
In fact, few lives had been charted so carefully and consciously to avoid mistakes, to maximize the best options. After they were first married, they lived awhile in New York and then in Virginia. In 1978 they moved to Iowa where Kevin planned to complete his doctorate at the University of Iowa and Karen hoped to get her degree in business. They worked while they studied — Karen as a loan officer at a bank and Kevin at a local hospital — and so it took them ten years to do it, but when they completed their objectives, it was sweetened by the birth of Laura and Lindsey.
In fact, Kevin views 1987 as a kind of watershed in their lives. “Nineteen-eighty-seven was a bittersweet year,” he says. “Mike died in February. We found out there were twins in early May. I graduated in late May, and the babies were born in October. It was a crazy year. “
A crazy year that signaled the need for another conscious change in their lives. Laura and Lindsey were the first grandchildren for both their sets of parents, and the need was clear to leave Iowa and get back to the East Coast, closer to the grandparents. Kevin’s work was specialized and so he focused his job search throughout the Northeast. “I couldn’t have written a better job description,” Kevin says now of his job at Eastern Maine Medical Center.
They had not been so lucky in looking for a house once they moved to Bangor. They were disappointed to find the housing market in Maine much pricier than that in Iowa. Unwilling to settle for just any place, they rented a place in town and devoted themselves to the house hunt. For six weeks, they went looking at night and on weekends, walking through endless possibilities in and out of Bangor.
In August they found it, a dormered Cape in a new development called Treadwell Acres in Hermon, a small town on Bangor’s periphery. They loved the country setting — this was the last house on the road so there would be virtually no traffic to worry about with the girls, and the house itself was everything they were looking for. Out back was a yard big enough to make a kennel for Maxie, Kevin’s hunting dog. The only drawback was that it was still above their budget. It was only through Karen’s background as a loan officer that they were able to push through to a mortgage they could handle.
On Labor Day Kevin and Karen moved their furniture and their twins into their new home in a kind of triumph. “We were convinced that this was where we were going to live for a long, long time,” Kevin says.
Though they had been in the area only a few months, they had begun to make friends, most especially with Tim and Maggie Rogers. They went to dinner often, and Kevin joined Tim’s Thursday night poker group. Kevin and Tim planned to hunt together in the fall, and they talked of camping trips. Tim was Kevin’s boss, and Tim was one of the first persons Kevin called when he arrived home to that grim scene on that November afternoon.
The day following the shooting, Tim stayed and watched the wardens mark the spots — where Karen lay when she died, where Rogerson stood when he took aim and fired — and measure the distances. He watched them and remembered, for that has been their only access to the facts that surround Karen’s death, a situation that remains one of the most troublesome aspects of this painful experience. The rest he and Kevin have pieced together for themselves.
They have stood on the spots where the hunter stood and where Karen lay, time and again, and seen his line of fire, which they say was a clear shot across an opening recently logged. They have gone back out there at that same time of day and seen that the sun was at Rogerson’s back, that it shone brightly off the white house next door, and off the chain-link dog fence so near to Karen.
Perhaps worst of all, they know that Rogerson’s truck was parked only a short distance from the Woods’ house, so that for him to say that he didn’t know he was near any houses shows that he was disoriented. Kevin and Tim believe he was less than 300 feet, the legal limit, from the neighbor’s house. They believe he was hunting illegally.
A curtain of silence surrounds this case. The wardens won’t talk, the hunter won’t talk, and in accordance with state law, the attorney general won’t talk. They will not release the photographs they took. They will not say if any tests for drugs or alcohol were done on Rogerson. They will not say if there was any evidence of deer found nearby. They will not confirm the kind of gun Rogerson was using. They will not say whether or not Rogerson was hunting legally. They will not say what Karen was wearing when she died.
Until recently, Hjelm wouldn’t even confirm that the grand jury met and refused to return an indictment. Because the case is still open, there is still a possibility of a trial and release of any information may jeopardize a fair trial.
“It’s frustrating,” Hjelm says of his need to remain tight-lipped. “It’s very frustrating, but we can’t be shortsighted about it.” It is even more frustrating for Kevin, who was denied access to any of the evidence compiled by the wardens when he brought a wrongful death suit against Rogerson.
In fact, so few details were released following the investigation that Kevin forced himself to read the autopsy, a gruesome description of the violent extent of her injuries. The autopsy was one of the few things he was allowed to see. “I hated the fact that other people knew something about Karen that I didn’t,” he says.
Everyone knows who killed Karen Wood. That has never been a question. The question seems to be whose fault was it that she died. The fact that Rogerson was released and suffered no legal penalty for her death, not even the revocation of his hunting license, seems to reinforce the idea that somehow Karen was at fault. Kevin can’t abide that and neither can Tim.
“It feels totally unfinished to me, totally unfinished,” Tim Rogers said recently. “I think anyone who takes a high-powered rifle and points it and pulls a trigger and kills somebody has committed a crime.”
In February Tim was a panelist on a TV talk show to represent Kevin’s point of view about Karen’s death, a controversy that even then remained hot coffee-shop conversation. He was stung by the tone of many of those who called in, one referring to Karen’s “stupidity” in “presenting herself as a target.” Tim is from Georgia and has lived in Bangor only a few years, but he likes it and wants to stay. The attitudes that emerged during this charged-up time gave him pause. He rejects the notion that some of this might have been Karen’s fault because she didn’t know how Maine worked. “I don’t want to believe that because that means I don’t get the same protection under the law that Mainers get. I want to believe that my rights would be as well respected as the natives’.”
The idea that Karen may have been somehow to blame for her own death brings out the psychologist in him. He sees it as a classic case of blaming the victim. “No one wants to believe that a thing like that can happen to a woman who has everything going her way. I mean, if something like that can happen to someone with that much on the ball, what about the rest of us? It means that anything can happen. So we want her to be responsible so we can feel safe.”
Since Karen’s shooting, a bill was brought before the state legislature to increase the legal hunting distance from a dwelling to 200 yards. It died in committee. The Bangor city council enlarged the zone in which no firearm may be discharged except for protection of livestock. The neighboring town of Hampden passed an ordinance limiting the discharge of firearms within the town. The town of Hermon, as of August, was discussing such an ordinance.
And far from Maine Karen’s death made a difference. A close friend of Karen’s who lives in Clark County, Washington, made a tearful proposal, based on Karen’s death, for that county to increase the hunting distance from residences. The ordinance passed.
In the months following the shooting Kevin returned to Bangor only a few times, briefly, to check on the house, which was left frozen in time from that November afternoon, the wallpaper still only half hung in the kitchen.
He engaged a lawyer who brought suit against Rogerson for wrongful death, and in late May a settlement was reached: $122,000 went to Kevin and the babies from Donald Rogerson, much of the money coming from a liability clause in Rogerson’s homeowner’s insurance. Kevin called the settlement a “pittance,” but claims he needed to be realistic about it. “No amount of money could bring Karen back. The man has a limited net worth. You can’t get blood out of a stone.”
He also made the decision to move back to Iowa, where he and Karen had close friends. “I certainly had plenty of time to evaluate what living in Bangor would be like. I just decided there was no way, as difficult as it was to leave. Bangor represents the city of our dreams — the perfect house, the perfect job, the ideal family. Just too many dreams gone by. The dreams died with Karen.”
At Doug’s Shop ‘N’ Save in Bangor Donald Rogerson still stocks the shelves with apples and pears and celery and makes sure the items at the salad bar are fresh and varied. He lives nearby with his wife and children in a white clapboard duplex on a small lot with hardly any yard at all. He is 45 and has lived all of his life in Bangor. He has hunted since he was 10 loves to hunt, but since the shooting he has said that he will “never hunt again” though there is nothing to stop him should he have a turn of heart.
He is soft-spoken with reddish hair and deep-set blue eyes that bear out the words that appeared in the papers following the shooting: nice guy, good citizen. Except for the hubbub that followed the shooting, his life has changed little, if at all. He is surprised when approached by a reporter, seven months after the shooting. “I know of murders that die quicker than this,” he says, unable to understand why Karen’s death is still newsworthy. He wants to talk, seems almost to need to talk, but on the advice of his lawyer he declines the request for an interview and turns back to his work.
Kevin Wood has never seen Donald Rogerson face to face. He doesn’t want to but he sees him in his mind’s eye. Kevin has moved into a new house in a quiet suburban neighborhood in Davenport Iowa. Like the house on Treadwell Acres’ there is a bow window in front and a deck out back. Otherwise, it is far from the house of his dreams. He has hired a nanny to take care of Laura and Lindsey, a pretty girl named Kim who makes the girls laugh by blowing air onto their stomachs and who feeds them grilled cheese and cut-up pieces of fruit as their mother might have. Kevin has a new job, a good job but nothing like the one in Maine. He is happy to be back, though, because there are good friends nearby who remember the wonder of Karen. And he is happy to be away from the noise, the harangue that surrounded Karen’s death.
On his desk is a letter from Jeffrey Hjelm, reassuring Kevin that the case is still open and will remain so for five years. If any new evidence emerges, there could still be an indictment. Kevin holds hopes that there may someday be a trial. It angers him that Rogerson can still go into the woods with a loaded gun. It angers him that Rogerson knows things about how Karen died that he doesn’t.
The house is filled with push toys and fuzzy pink bears, and on weekends, when Kim is not there, Kevin finds himself on the couch, watching cartoons while the babies spin about the living room. To someone who has never met Karen, the girls have their father’s eyes and his hair, seem to look just like him, but to Kevin they look like Karen. Though they cry, maybe too hard, when there is knocking at the door, Kevin doesn’t feel that the girls endured any real trauma from the day that Karen died, only that they will have to live the rest of their lives without their mother.
And he worries about what he will tell them, how he will explain that the man who shot their mother was never brought to trial. His life, he says, was in pieces, and now is the time, at last, to start living again, to move on past the tragedy they left behind in Bangor. In the meantime, Laura and Lindsey have bonded with Kim and love to give their daddy lots of kisses. When he comes home from work at the end of the day, they squeal and propel themselves toward him on sturdy little legs, two whirling pinwheels of life.
“The Killing of Karen Wood,” was first published in Yankee in November, 1989 and has been updated for NewEngland.com
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This article was originally written in 1989. Many years have passed since that time. I could not help but wonder at the end of this very sad story how Kevin and his young twin daughters went on with their lives?
Has there ever been any follow up on this family? It might be important to this man and his daughters to know that there are people out there that do really care about their loss.
This story seems more to be a commentary on how the hometown boys protect their own — than a factual revelation on what really transpired on that unfortunate day of November 15, 1988.
Surely, common sense tells all of us that some access to the factual details would have to happen; but apparently from this story it seems that protecting a way of life in Maine (the hunting lifestyle), is more important than bringing to light the true facts that surround this tragedy.
How can a human life be less important than any set of rules that a game warden’s commission has?
IF THIS HUNTER WAS WITHIN HIS RITES AND ACTIONS, THEN WHY DIDN’T THE GAME WARDEN REVEAL THE FACTS AND DETAILS AS THEY COLLECTED THEM, SO AS TO CLEAR UP ANY QUESTION THAT THIS HUNTER WAS INDEED WITHIN REASON OR NOT?
WHY DIDN’T THE STATE OF MAINE ATTORNEY GENERAL ACT TO PROTECT THE RITES AND ACCESS TO VITAL INFORMATION FOR THIS FAMILY IN THE STATE OF MAINE?
I have traveled throughout New England extensively for the past 27 years, have spent almost all of my additional income there, have many friends and family living there; and have purchased a beautiful piece of land there for the purposes of fulfilling a retirement dream — much like Kevin and Karen. THIS ARTICLE SHOULD MAKE ALL OF US FEEL VERY VULNERABLE! I will certainly bring this tragedy back to my family’s attention to gather their “New England” opinion on it.
i remember this tragedy from the newspaper and some of what followed. unbelieveable story! how can something like that happen? did anyone ever think that maybe karen went out to check because she saw or heard someone hunting or with a gun near the house and was concerned about it? people ought to be safe in their own yard no matter what they are wearing and hunters need to make 100% sure of their surroundings and of what they are shooting at. senseless, careless tragedy!!!
I worked with the safety division of the Inland Fishiers & Wildlife for 25 years and reviewed over 2000 hunting incidents which I had to summerize for the records. This was under the wonderful tutilege of Gary Anderson, the head of the safety division.The comments I will make are in reference to the accidental shooting of Karen Woods.
There is no excuse for the shooting of a human being in mistake for a deer or any other big game animal.Please keep this foremost in your mind when I make the following comments.What I want to explain with my considerable experience and knowledge is how it could have happened.Rogerson claims he had jumped a deer and continued to follow the tracks and jumped it again and then when he saw the white (of Karen Woods gloves) thought it was the white of a deers tail and fired at what he thought was an actual deer. In order to understand how this mistake could have been made, you must have hunted in mixed growth to realize that in 90% of the sightings of deer in such sightings is an ear or a tail, or some other body part. You rarely see a complete deer. The cirumstances is never as simple as a cow versus a deer. I have hunted for over 40 years, in Maines thick growth and I know from first hand how difficult it is to identify an animal in the woods of Maine. Now again ,this in now way relieves Rogerson of his obligation to identify his target. What was a history of 70 plus accidents with 15 deaths in the 1950’s is now in the single numbers and zero or one death due to the education of hunters safety and the wearing of blaze orange. Hunting accidents are now down to the 9th or tenth position in outdoor accidents.
My comments have been made in response to the Dear Yankee Letters, namely the one regarding the one entitled Tragedy in Maine by Lillan Y. Bella . In no way, do I claim that the shooting was her fault, however the wearing of the white gloves did certainly contribute to the accident.
I must add to my comments above and say that no experienced hunter would ever fire at just the white tails of a deer. The chances of only wounding the deer are far too great and you should only fire when you have a shot at the chest area or head and neck .Again, there is no excuse for not identifying your target before you fire.
After reading this story I certainly hope that those that thought ANY of this tragedy was Karen’ fault have reconsidered their stance. I live in Northeast Pennsylvania and wearing blaze orange is a responsibility to any homeowner that goes outside during hunting season. That being said I am proud to be married to a hunter that would NEVER shoot anything because the sighting of a tail. He shoots to kill not to injure. He knows his target 100% before he pulls that trigger and that is the difference between a responsible hunter and a hunter that cares ONLY about the killing. I am sickened by the network that essentially covered up this horrendous incident. Clearly the man’s license should have been revoked. What did he lose? Nothing apparently but a deer. I have often resented the fact that in my own backyard with 25 acres of fields and woods should I have to take responsibilty for hunters that lack judgement and wear orange to warn them. Shouldnt’ they know there target. This and so many other accidents are proof of the phrase “buck fever”. I guess the hunter was justified because the party in her own yard didn’t take the necessary precautions to do the job that the hunter should have been doing, fully knowing his or her target.
The response to this Yankee Classic shows again that Yankee’s readers and visitors to YankeeMagazine.com care deeply about the issues New Englanders face every day. We will continue to put Yankee classics here, stories to provoke thought, inspire and, hopefully at all times, illuminate our region–
Mel Allen, Yankee’s editor
I also remember that tragic story and my heart went out to Kevin and his daughters. Justice, to this day, has not been served. Hunting, as a way of life, has won again.
Again, please bear in mind there is no excuse for killing another human being because you have not identified your target while hunting,but to say that hunting as a way of life has won again is unreasonable.Please bear in mind that over 40,000 people are killed each year in automobile accidents and another two million injured,it would be similar to saying that driving as a way of life has won again. There are now laws created since the Karen Wood killing which deal with such an incident in a more just way.Please bear in mind that the justice system must operate within the confinds of the laws that are availble at the time of the incident. Despite this whole tragedy, if you consider that more hunters are killed in automobile accidents then in hunting accidents it may put a more broader perspective on the emotionalble aspect of the Karen Wood incident.If she had been killed by a vehicle, out of control, running off the road, what would be your thoughts?
Gary Anderson the head of the safety division for the Fish & Wildlife of the State of Maine frequently impressed upon us that the great majority of outdoor injuries and and deaths were not accidents but incidents. An accident in Websters dictionary is described as an occurrence, unexpectedly and unintentionally by chance. The great majority of hunting incidents are not accidents. Lightning striking a tree which falls and injures or kills a person is an example of an accident.But when an individual acts in a way that is considered to be irresponsible and neglegent, it is no accident. However, please do not condemn all hunters for the action of one hunter any more than you would condemn all drivers of automobiles for the action of one driver who has killed or injured one human being due to his or her irresponsible driving.
Bob Barry
As a born and raised New Englander, I blame the hunter and those who did the investigation. In reading the story, I see that instead of the local authorities handling the case, it was left to the game wardens to do the investigation. Why? Are they trained in dealing with situations where a hunter has killed a bystander in a backyard? What about the witness who heard the shots. Surely she knew the hunter was TOO close to the homes. Would it have made any difference if the bullets had gone thru the house and hit the children? Why should there be a difference between a back yard and home? It seems from the details of the story that something was being hidden from the facts, hence why even her own husband is not privy to any of the inventigation findings. Whether or not this is an open case, he or his attorney should be allowed to review the findings. I have lived in many places where hunting happens too close to homes (bow and gun) and if a hunter hits anything or anyone they should be held accountable to follow the rules, just as Karen was accused of not following the rules of living in Maine and wearing bright orange. Fair is fair. No license revocation is unbelieveable. Suppose next time he hunts and does shoot someone in their own home. Whose fault is it then? The homeowner because they weren’t wearing orange INSIDE their own home? Or maybe because they were wearing white gloves? That is laughable in itself. This is not about condemning all hunters, just those who break the law.
This article is before it was found out that a nephew of the defense attorney was on the grand jury. A second one was convened but same result – victim’s fault. More insult onto injury. There is a lot of info on the web about this incident – start with a Google of “Karen Wood Maine shooting”. This Nov. is the 20th anniversary, good time to voice any opinions.
Here’s an article with more info from the Oct. 2005 Portland Magazine with more details:
http://www.maine.rr.com/05/portmag/hunting/default.asp
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I’ve followed this every few years since it happened, that’s how I just found this discussion. I do not oppose hunting (having hunted extensively as a youth), just irresponsible hunting – which the people and State of Maine obviously don’t know how to distinguish, nor care about. In Maine, the right to life is greatly outweighed by the right to hunt, even when done recklessly.
Having shot my first weapon at age 4 and hunting all through my teens I know exactly what it is to properly identify a target, which Donald Rogerson absloutely failed to do. And that has nothing to do with whether the victim was “from away” or not. He committed a tragic crime and got off scott free. There is now a “Target ID” law but so far has failed to prosecute anyone (as of 2005).
Being from a family of hunters, I have always been told, that there is NO WAY should one hunt near houses. The risk of a ricochet or stray shot, is just too great. It seems established that there is no way this man could have not known he was that close to houses; I see the blame, as 100% on the hunter’s side, not the victem’s. So what, the victem had white mittens on. If there had been a 12 point buck standing in her back yard, would that make it right to shoot it? No, and any hunter, even in Maine, would agree with me!
This puts Maine’s juries, game wardens, hunters, and it seems, a segment of the state’s public, into the category of hopelessly ignorant. It would even dissuade me from moving there-even vacationing there-for fear of something similar happening.
Robert Barry, how dare you! The white mittens theory is absolute rubbish and you know it! I’m angry & frightened that you are allowed to hold a weapon let alone investigate hunting accidents! Is Maine really that full of hillbillies? That entire dept ought to be investigated, and I find it shocking that the police didn’t have jurisdiction here. Leaving it up to a bunch of hunters is crazy, all they care about is the NRA and their “rights”. I’m sick to my stomach over this.
“the wearing of blaze orange”? Are you actually suggesting that people should wear orange in their own yards? This is insane!
Thank you Karen Baker – hopelessly ignorant sums it up perfectly. I think I’m going to research some of the links provided by Richard Rothwell. I’d like to see a tourism boycott of Maine until this “incident” (ahem) is handled properly by state authorities.
WOW, here’s another one, and apparently Mainers haven’t learned their lesson, they are STILL going outside. When will learn to stay inside their homes where they belong, so that hunters can do as they please? (and the police are still not investigating these shootings??? And still protecting the killer and not releasing his name?)
Woman Killed In Hunting Incident In Western Maine
Web Editor: Rhonda Erskine, Online Content Producer
Last Updated: 12/8/2006 7:43:11 PM
The Maine Wardens Service and State Police are investigating the death of an 18-year-old girl who was shot by a hunter Thursday in South Paris. Megan Ripley was shot in the chest in woods not far from her house on Christian Ridge Road.
The shooting happened around 4:00 P.M. in woods at the edge of a field behind the house of the Ripley family’s next door neighbor. Ripley was rushed to Stephens Memorial Hospital in Norway, where she was pronounced dead.
Game wardens are not identifying the hunter or saying much about how Ripley was shot. But they are investigating whether or not the hunter was adhering to Maine law.
Game wardens say Maine’s Target Identification Law requires hunters to act in a prudent and reasonable way in identifying their target before pulling the trigger.
The state legislature passed the law not long after another hunting fatality in 1988. Karen Wood, the mother of twins, was shot in her back yard in Hermon.
A neighbor of the ripley family says this shooting reminds him of that case.
“That’s the first thing I thought about when I heard about it,” said Scott Currie. “I haven’t posted my land because, like I say, I’m not against hunting, but I will definitely post my land because I want to feel safe on my property,” Currie said.
This is the first hunting fatality in Maine since 2004. The state issues an average of 200,000 hunting licenses every year.
The Ripley family was not ready to do an on camera interview. But one relative told us that the Ripley’s are a religious family and they know their daughter is with god.
NEWS CENTER
Outlaw hunting – save lives – both the animals and people !!!!!
I remember how outraged I was when I heard of this incident 20 years ago and today I am still outraged that this irresponsible hunter shot so close to houses and then did not even have his license revoked. I hope time has helped the Wood family come to some type of peace about the killing of Karen and the incredibly insensitive reaction of some members of the Maine community blaming her for wearing white gloves in her own backyard. About ten years ago I was traveling home from New Brunswick and I had pulled off I-95 near Bangor to get gas. As I was driving back onto I-95 while on the entrance ramp a pick-up truck behind me swerved into the grassy area next to the ramp and the driver jumped out and began shooting at a deer in that small area with I-95, the entrance ramp road and an overpass adjacent. I accelerated to get out of there in a hurry. Unfortunately I had no cell phone and only a vague description of the pick-up truck and driver (maroon truck, Caucasian male with dark hair and beard). I remembered the Karen Wood story and knew I probably wouldn’t have been thought a credible witness. It was a frightening incident for me and I can only think of the horror and pain Karen suffered before dying. Thank you Yankee magazine for reviving this story to let people know there are stupid, reckless hunters out there just as there are responsible ones.
I enjoyed vacationing in Maine from the time I was a young kid but I won’t ever be doing it again nor will any of my family. I recall this story all too vividly and the fact that it isn’t an isolated incident make it all the worse. One can almost excuse the actions and thought process of the shooter, his whole focus was to salvage his own sorry butt, but for the other residents of the area and the authorities to take the attitude they did forever dams them If you do something negligent with a vechicle you are held responsible but you give someone the right to roam around with a gun and then excuse his stupidity when he takes the life of a young mother – not in my world. In my family we learn to handle guns safely and with basic common sense. You NEVER pull the trigger if you don’t have a clear identification of your target and a clear line of fire. The last thing any real hunter wants is an injured animal dying a slow tortuous death because they were trigger happy. A police officer almost anywhere in this country is suspended and has to account for his action if he fires his weapon but we let any nitwit go out in the woods (and apparently in the surburbs) no matter how low in smarts they are. Something is very wrong with this picture, yet I don’t see the people in authority doing anything to correct their woeful lack of laws that would punish people this careless with their neighbors lives. I hope the shooter realizes that another idiot could do this to his wife or child – wonder how he’d feel about that.
I must respond to Jane Healy’s uncalled for comments and insults to my character. First of all, I stressed the point that Rogerson had no business firing at just white and the fact that Karen Wood was wearing white gloves is not rubbish. It was just a factor written down in the investigation.Point two, I did not participate in the investigation since it was not my job to do so.I merely recorded the incident in our records. As far as my being allowed to hold a weapon, I served in Korea during the war for two years back in 1952 & 1953 and was taught how to hold and fire a rifle during my Army training. Point three, hunters did not do the investigation but trained, qualified Game Wardens whose job it is to do so.The great majority of these wardens are college educated as I am. In addition, I taught Outdoor Safety classes for over twenty five years and among these classes was Hunting Safety.In all these classes we stressed “Identify your target before you consider firing your rifle” Incidently a firearm is only called a weapon in wartime.Also,I do not belong to the NRA.I certainly will agree that big game hunting (with a rifle) is frequently allowed too close to residences.Despite all of this and when you consider that over 200,000 men and women are out hunting during all of October and November and a good part of them from many other states, it is remarkable that hunting incidents in Maine are now down to the single numbers.It is estimated that this amounts to twelve million hours of hunting.Finally, as a senior citizen, I’m 77 yrs old and a former school teacher let me give you a piece of advice. If in the future you cannot discuss an issue in a civil and unemotional manner, please do not enter the discussion.
Bob Barry
Bob Barry, nowhere did I insult your character. I stand by everything I said, and your age is not relevent to anything here. I still am in shock over the conclusions that were reached in this case, and your seeming defense of these conclusions. Shocking, just shocking. Stuff like this is what makes “gun people” come as nutters to so much of the world.
Bobbie Barry is of low character. Using according to his logic, Karen Woods’ mere presence in her own back yard “did certainly contribute to the accident.” He also neglected to mention that the killer violated regulations by being too close to an occupied dwelling while shooting. He also ignored what Gary Anderson taught him about what an accident is.
If your too stupid to tell the difference between a deer and a human; you shouldn’t be hunting. After reading this story I decided to post my land.
A Very tragic loss indeed. My thoughts and prayers go out to her family. I do hope however, they aren’t reading some of the more heated disagreements,between the Yankee readers. It is a moving story, which will make people emotional and upset. And yes, ANGRY. I think that we all have kindness in us. This is a place where it is much needed and to direct anger where it belongs, (if indeed it does) not at one another.
Catherine
The game wardens are not the police. A police detective should have investigated this outright MURDER of a human being and the careless hunter who had NO IDEA what he was aiming at should have been jailed for manslaughter if not outright murder.
Karen was not romping between trees, she was not jumping over tree limbs like a deer, she was wearing a dark coat on a sunny afternoon, standing in her own yard. What happened to the police investigators? How did they turn their backs on this? That’s who I blame. The detectives who should have done their job and convicted this killer. Anyone who thinks a game warden is an investigator has their head screwed on backwards and this case PROVES IT.
I remember this story ! I was devastated for Karen’s family and my husband and friends discussed it. Everyone of us were against the hunters grave error. My husband, has been harnessed on multiple occasions over the past 25 years, over the stupidest things. How this man got away with it is simply mind boggling !!! As a hunters wife, even I know the laws. I’m proud my husband is a Bow Hunter and can’t/wouldn’t take a shot, unless he was close enough to see the animal broadside for a double lung shot 25 – 35 yards maximum.
My heartfelt condolences go out to the entire Woods Family. The Hunter should have been convicted period !!
If she had been killed by a driver instead of a hunter would be the same: The person responsible for this death should be jailed. It was either negligence or intentional, either way he should have been charged.
I lived in New Hampshire in 1989 and remember this story from the news at the time. I was so horrified, I’ve recounted the story over the years to many friends. It’s tragic how this man was treated after losing his wife.
A great miscarriage of justice. Bottom line….he was hunting too close to homes. He even had the sun to his back giving him a clear view of fencing and buildings. So what could he have possibly be thinking to take 2 shots under those circumstances?! This is exactly why the white gloves an other lame excuses don’t cut it right from the git go even if they were sound reasons to begin with.
I have no problem with responsible hunters or hunting. I do have a problem with those who make very stupid decisions and walk away without a care. I do have a problem with an entire community and their law enforcement officials who leave a man who lost his wife in the dark (and it sounds sooo suspicious).
In our state, a few years back, a father killed his son and it was called an accident. The father decided to shoot at a sound instead of IDing the target. It was called an accident because the son had his orange blaze jacket tucked in his belt rather than wearing it so it was the son’s fault. A hunter tucking his orange blaze jacket in his belt while actively hunting with other hunters doesn’t sound likely but the police accepted the story. However, I’m certain that father is paying a price that our legal system couldn’t even come close to matching.
I know this is an old article, but bottom line is, if you are hunting, you need to clearly identify your target. Shooting at something “white” because you think it is the tail of a deer is ridiculous. I have completed a hunter safety course so I am not just spouting off.
A homeowner should be able to walk onto their property and not be fearful of being shot because they are wearing white during hunting season. That is a ridiculous excuse and poor form on any hunters part.
Tragic ! Miscarriage of Justice !
I live next to public lands in Montana and if I go up into the woods hiking in hunting season, I wear orange or red. Same for the dogs. Orange bandanas. I put a red muscle shirt on my Angus heifer in bear season. People will shoot at anything.
I miss the old “Yankee Classics” stories. Actually, I miss the old Yankee, which had more stories than recipes.
Edie Clark is a superb writer. I’ve been a fan of hers for a long time.
Yankee magazine is my favorite. I love the balance between stories and recipes.
I remember origionally reading this in 1989. The words are as haunting today as they were then.
I remember it too. I was raised in a hunting family. My husband’s family dog was shot in his own backyard during a deer season. I know it sounds crazy, but I will never own a pair of white mittens. Hunters are required to take safety courses. Never shoot unless you have a clear shot and know what you’re shooting at. How can it be the victims fault?
Reading this story in 2021, I wonder if any of your staff has followed up with Mr. Wood and his daughters who must now be in their 30’s. The article indicates that the case would remain open for 5 years. Was there any further legal action? Has Maine law changed to better protect people from careless hunters? Is this kind of crime now a police matter rather than something game wardens handle? If not, do wardens get more training in how to handle a tragedy like this? I hope with all my heart that Mr. Wood and his daughters have managed to find some peace with everything that happened to their family.
This was really a sad story if you don’t know the differences between a human being and a deer you should not be out there hunting. This lady lose her life off of poor judgment because of this man. He should been convicted period!
I agree. I’m a combat vet and had a 4×32 scope on my rifle in Afghanistan; similar power to the one Donald Rogerson had. At 63 yards with that scope you can clearly identify not just a human being but the color of their eyes. I’m most appalled that so many people defended Rogerson even though he was clearly hunting illegally and was at best, dangerously incompetent if not impaired.
The authorities in Maine and the people in Maine let Rogerson get away with manslaughter, at the least.
To put in perspective just how close Rogerson was when he fired 2 shots at a human being: the distance from the front door of the Woods’s house to the front door of the house across the street is 180 feet. Rogerson fired his shot from 189 feet.
Another perspective, imagine a football field. Rogerson fired from his own 20 yard line at a person standing on their own 27 yard line.
The grand jury members are despicable people, as are those who blame Karen for Rogerson’s crimes.
Got my math wrong. Rogerson fired from his own 20 at someone standing on the opposite 17. Still a very short distance.
It is 2021 now, but reading this is no less tragic. Heartfelt feelings go out to Kevin and his, now adult, twins. Can’t imagine this happening to my family, but I can see the hunting community (which would include the Game Wardens) rallying to protect their own. So sad. On so many levels.
The hunter, jurors, and wardens should have admit, it was a mistake and ask for forgiveness from the Woods family before too late. For such a reasons there is a judgment day, where every unfair and unjustified trial will play with a 100% clarity and accuracy. With all the evidences presented themselves like turning the time back to that exact moment. The hunter and people who looked the other way going to have sealed mouths and open eyes. “Mouths going to be sowed off, hands and feet will talk as the witness” this is a promises.
Of course it is a tragedy for all involved but keep in mind the hunter who shot her is haunted by this every time hunting season rolls around. He didn’t get off scot-free. And why dredge this up?
I doubt Donald Rogerson is haunted by anything, he got away with it and is surrounded by people just like you who feel sorry for him when they should treat him like a pariah. Worse, some in the hunting community continue to blame the victim when Rogerson was hunting illegally – within 300 feet of residences. It’s being “dredged up” because justice was not done and because periodically some Maine “hunter” winds up shooting someone on their own property.
Because she died. You know who else is haunted by it every hunting season? Her surviving husband and children.
This guy hunted since he was 10 and he didn’t know his a-hole from his elbow. Any hunter who deserves the title is sure to have a clean killing shot lined up before squeezing the trigger. Thinking that white mittens ‘might have been the tail of a deer’ is acknowledging that you are a bad hunter and a careless individual.
I was only a kid when this happened and I remember being disgusted by the attitude of hunters towards this very preventable death.
A later article: https://www.bangordailynews.com/2008/11/14/news/bangor/twenty-years-ago-two-shots-rang-out-forever-alteringlives-and-laws/
It’s reprehensible that Donald Rogerson got away with blatant murder. He should have been indicted and tried. No matter the “culture,” whoever shoots an unarmed woman in her backyard should be brought to justice.
The story is wrong about her wearing a “blue” jacket. She was wearing a white hat, white gloves and a bleached wool lined buckskin jacket. Not an excuse for the negligence of the Hunter but if a tragic accident is going to happen that’s the wrong outfit to wear in the woods during the middle of deer hunting season. My heart goes out to them and it should’ve never happened but if she had taken precautions it’s more than likely she would still be alive. The Stare recommends everyone going into the woods during deer season wears blaze orange, it’s excellent advice and it’s very unfortunate she didn’t know and crossed paths with an idiot hunter.
She was in her back yard. If you are a hunter and there was a scope on that rifle you do NOT pull the trigger untill you SEE
what you are shooting at.
What a tragedy. Sadly, stories like this are increasingly common. Bullets fired into homes, people shot in their yards, family pets killed by hunters.
As I was reading this article, Stephen King came to mind. A few of his stories contain a similar scenario of a town divided after a horrendous incident. The silence of some, in this clannish town is chilling.
Just, WOW. In 1950 my maternal grandfather was shot and killed in a field while hunting. The man responsible was from a nearby camp, he had many people step up to profess he was of good character. He was sentenced to prison and died within a year of being sentenced. My grandmother raised 7 children alone, my Mom was 6 at the time of her Father’s death.Karen was in her own backyard … AND he got away with it. This makes my HEART HURT.