you Okay people, listen up. Here we go. This
is Nature's Secret Service, the podcast that
puts you in the room with the men and women of
wildlife law enforcement. I'm your host, Ed Newcomer,
and I was a special agent with the U .S. Fish
and Wildlife Service for more than 20 years.
In 2004, U .S. Fish and Wildlife Service Special
Agent Scott Bregonier worked one of the most
interesting wolf investigations I know of. I've
always been intrigued by this case, and in awe
of the fantastic investigative work Agent Bergonier
did on the case. I invited Scott to be on the
show to tell the story himself, but he declined.
He's retired now, moved on with other interests,
and doesn't publicly talk about his cases. However,
I can't let this great story go untold. I always
used it as a case study when doing public presentations
while I was an agent, and I still use it as an
excellent example of crime scene investigations
when I teach forensic science at California State
University. On August 13th, 2025, I was invited
to appear on the Zone 7 podcast with Cheryl McCollum
to discuss this very case. Cheryl and the team
at Zone 7 have graciously given me permission
to replay that episode as part of Season 3 of
Nature's Secret Service. Yes, yes, I know that
you sticklers for detail will notice that I misspoke
when I say that in 1995 Wolves were reintroduced
in Montana and Yellowstone when I meant to say
Idaho and Yellowstone You know what I meant?
Now here's Cheryl McCollum with her podcast Zone
7 He's back. Ed Newcomer, a special agent with
the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Y 'all know
he's been over 20 years there. He's got his own
podcast, Nature's Secret Service. Several of
y 'all know about that. Y 'all have checked that
out. It is, quite frankly, phenomenal. But we
have brought him back because he has got a case
that you are not going to believe. And what's
important about this case to me, if you can work
this case, you can work any homicide out there.
So Ed Newcomer, thank you so much for coming
back. Well, Mack, thanks for having me. I love
your show and I love being on your show. It was
such a great time last time. I had to accept.
Are you kidding? And let me tell y 'all. Anybody
coming to CrimeCon, you're going to be able to
see him live and in person. We are going to be
on the main stage for the Creators Row. We are
going to be live at CrimeCon doing a Zone 7 in
person. And Ed's going to be right there. And
you will not believe the case we're going to
cover there in person. And it's the first time
wildlife crimes will be at CrimeCon. So come
see us. All right, Ed, this case involves poison.
And I got to tell you, those are difficult cases.
And they're difficult to me because almost anybody
can obtain poison. It's sublevel. It's not like
a gunshot where people can hear it. It's not
like arson where people can smell it. I mean,
this is something that the killer, they don't
even have to be there. When the death occurs,
you know, you're absolutely right. I never really
thought of it that way, but poison is a very
sneaky weapon, right? It is so sneaky. I mean,
you can be in another state. You can have a solid
alibi. I was nowhere near there. You have time
to get away. There won't be any eyewitness or
ear witness and it wouldn't matter anyway. You're
not there. Exactly. It's kind of the perfect
weapon for a, for a criminal to use because You
know, like you just said, they can actually take
the time to put distance between themselves and
the victim and the crime scene, which, you know,
is pretty important if you're trying to evade
capture. And unfortunately, Mack, poisoning is
a pretty common method for people to commit wildlife
crime, particularly if they're trying to kill
wild animals for some reason. Well, that's what
took y 'all to Idaho. So why don't you tell us
about February? 2004, we're out there trying
to reintroduce wolves. So we're trying to build
this population back. Yeah, that's exactly right.
And, you know, it might be really helpful to
you and your listeners if we just kind of back
up just a little bit. And I tell you a little
bit about the situation with wolves in the Western
United States, particularly around that time
in 2004. Going, if we go way back, let's go back
to 1926. That's the year we're going way back.
That is hilarious. I thought you were going to
say like, you know, 2001. No, we're going back
y 'all. Way back, way back. Okay. Yeah. So let's
go back to 1926 in Yellowstone national park.
Remember Yellowstone was like the first national
park in the world. Uh, it's often considered
America's greatest idea. Um, the last wolf was
killed in Yellowstone National Park in 1926.
And that's what what's called extirpating a species,
which means they're not necessarily extinct wherever
around the world, but they no longer exist in
the ecosystem where they used to. So pretty much
by 1926, the United States had. Been well on
its way to extirpating or killing all of the
wolves that they could in the United States and
by that time There's just a small pocket of wild
wolves living in the Great Lakes area. They're
gone basically from the Rocky Mountains now that
Turned out to be kind of an environmental Disaster
because it allowed elk and deer populations to
explode which had all these cascading effects
on the environment And as early as 1940s, people
started to talk about maybe we should bring wolves
back to fix kind of this imbalance. That didn't
happen until 1995, when the U .S. Fish and Wildlife
Service and the National Park Service finally
decided we're going to bring wolves back to Yellowstone
and certain parts of Montana. That effort really
started in 1995 and a number of wolves were brought
down from Canada. They were captured and they
were released in the park and they started to
do phenomenally well. A lot of deer, a lot of
elk were there for them. They were specialists
in killing deer and elk and it started to put
the ecosystem back into balance. Unfortunately,
well, fortunately for the wolves, but also unfortunately
for the wolves. As they prospered, they moved.
Their packs started to move outside the park
and to populate their natural previous historical
environment. And unfortunately, wolves get a
bad rap and it's not warranted. It's not earned.
And a lot of hunters and ranchers just hate them.
And they try to some some of those guys are willing
to break the law and they'll try to kill them
at every opportunity. Because wolves had been
extirpated when they were re -released they were
automatically listed As threatened under the
Endangered Species Act which gave them protection
and as We know from my last appearance on the
show Violations of the Endangered Species Act
are a criminal violation and that law is enforced
by special agents of the US Fish and Wildlife
Service so There's a little history, Mac, but
that kind of brings us up to this case that happened
in February of 2004. It turned out to be an amazing,
an amazing investigation done by a special agent
with the U .S. Fish and Wildlife Service named
Scott Bergonier. And the reason I know so much
about this case is because when I heard about
it. I was an agent in Los Angeles. I didn't do
wolf cases. You know, we don't have wolves down
there. But I was so fascinated by the high quality
work that this agent and Idaho State Game Wardens
did. It was an amazing crime scene investigation.
It involved forensics. It involved great detective
work. And ultimately, as I tell you this story,
I think you're just going to be kind of blown
away. You want me to just jump in now? I'm so
sorry. I was so captivated. I'm sorry. I was
listening, not talking. I didn't know if you
wanted a chance to like pepper in questions there
or just go for it. I was just sitting there on
literally keep it in because that's honestly
what was happening. I was sitting there so captivated
like, Oh my Lord, what is going to happen? Even
though I know the facts of the case. So let's
just go right back in. Yes. I want you to just
jump right in. Okay. So let me set the scene
for you. It's now February 20th, 2004. We're
almost 10 years into wolf reintroduction. They're
doing great. They have expanded their territory.
They've moved out into Idaho and there's an area
in Idaho known as the wagon hammer drainage.
And it's a popular place for people to go hiking
and walk their dogs and things like that. So
on February 20th, 2004, a local resident in Idaho
is out walking her dog and the dog finds a meatball.
We all know what a dog will do if it finds a
meatball. It'll gulp it down before you can do
anything about it. Yep. Yep. Well, that's what
happened. And within a few minutes, the dog goes
into convulsions, starts foaming at the mouth,
drops over, um, you know, panic ensues and the
woman rushes her dog to the veterinarian only
to learn that the dog's been poisoned. So how
now does the U .S. Fish and Wildlife Service
agent get involved? Well, it turns out that the
wagon hammer drainage, that area is known to
be wolf habitat. There are wolves there and those
wolves are protected by the Endangered Species
Act. So through just people understanding that
Wild animals are there, including wolves. This
poisoning incident gets reported to the Idaho
Wildlife Department, so Idaho Fish and Game.
Because they know wolves are there, they notify
the nearest special agent with US Fish and Wildlife
Service, who is Scott Bergonier. And Agent Bergonier
and a few game wardens go out to this wagon hammer
drainage district, the hiking trail or drainage
area. And suddenly they find themselves. Imagine
this, Mac. You normally, if you're a law enforcement
officer, you go into a crime scene. It's that
crime scene might consist of a room or two rooms
or a house, maybe a yard. But we're now we're
talking about acres and acres of wild land that
is potentially your crime scene. Ed, as soon
as you said drainage, my heart sank because I
thought, how much land are you talking about?
Yeah. If you look at an aerial map of this, just
imagine it's basically a valley with a river
running through the middle of it or a creek.
And at this time of year, February in Idaho,
it's pretty snowy. It's cold and there's snow
on the ground. So if you can imagine that you
have now all these challenges with just a handful
of law enforcement investigators. And all, you
know, is a dog ate a meatball and the dog was
poisoned. So, you know, pretty much, I think.
If you and I were out there starting this, we'd
be like, well, let's see if we can find some
more meatballs, right? So that's exactly what
happened. Um, agent Bergonya and the, and the
state game wardens kind of spread out through
this hiking trail, looking on either sides, looking
for meatballs and. It doesn't take them long
before they start to find kind of golf ball sized
holes in the snow, kind of on either side of
the trail left and right. And they reach down
into these holes and sure enough, they start
to find meatballs about the size of a standard
spaghetti and meatball meal. And they obviously.
think they're onto something. So they start to
collect these meatballs and photograph them in
place and pick them up. Now, they also know,
of course, that this dog keeled over within minutes
of consuming one of these. So there's some officer
safety issues here, too. They've got to be gloved
up. They don't. If there are poison meatballs
out there, they don't want to touch this stuff.
But in the end, they found 58. meatballs scattered
throughout this drainage area. And each time
they found a meatball, they kind of cracked it
open. And inside, they found what looked like
gray granulated powder, kind of like almost like
a thick gunpowder. Now, most agents in the US
Fish and Wildlife Service are very aware that
people tend to use poison to kill predators.
And one of the most common poisons out there
to do that is called TEMEC or also known as aldecarb.
And that is exactly what TEMEC and aldecarb look
like. It looks like a gray kind of beaded powder.
So good job on the crime scene, right? Unbelievable.
And with the dog, that's plus one. So, you know,
you're almost at 60 and you just have to imagine
how many did they not find, how many had already
been consumed. And on that note, another thing
that they started to find while they're kind
of combing this crime scene are dead animals.
They found Magpies, which is a federally protected
bird, looks like a crow, but it has a white wing.
They've they found a red fox that were dead and
coyotes. And so if you think about it, these
are animals that are just. Innocent, they're
not they're doing nothing, they're just doing
their thing in the environment and within. minutes
of consuming one of these meatballs, they're
dead in place. So it's not like these animals
ate a meatball and wandered off and died in seclusion
somewhere. The agents and the investigators are
finding multiple dead animals across the crime
scene. The reality is you're going to have a
bear come along and eat that magpie. You're going
to have maybe other wolves come and try to get
a carcass that's been... poisoned and then they're
going to die too. A hundred percent. It's that
secondary poisoning. It can go on and on and
on in the environment. Um, killing eagles, uh,
vultures, you know, small scavengers, big, big
predators, all the animals indiscriminately.
It's really an insidious, it's an insidious tool
to use to try to kill an animal because there's
a lot of things you're going to kill. And here's
what you're really bringing to light for us.
Most people would think poachers are single focused.
I'm going to go get that one rhino. I'm going
to go get that one bear. I don't know that people
understand if the poachers are trying to get
rid of something. If they use poison, not only
are they going to maybe wipe out this whole wolf
pack, but they're also going to get Maybe the
animals that you do care about. Mm hmm. Exactly.
And it's so indiscriminate and it's used, it's
used around the world. Um, and you know, that's
an interesting point you raise because there's
different kinds of poachers out there, you know,
like there are the guys who don't have a license
to hunt deer, but they go hunt deer anyway. That's
one kind. Then, as you mentioned, there are people
out there killing animals for profit, like elephants
for their ivory or rhinos for their horns. That's
a totally different person because they're trying
to commercially profit. Then there are these
poachers who do things out of spite and anger
and ignorance, honestly, you know, people who
hate wolves because they think wolves are killing
too many deer and elk or, or sometimes wolves
do kill cattle and they're going to take it upon
themselves to But go back in time a hundred years
and make wolves go extinct. That's not their,
you know, that's not their place in the world.
The American people have been trying to reverse
centuries of environmental and habitat destruction.
They want wolves back in the Western United States.
It's not up to some individual poacher to take
it upon him or herself to start killing animals
that are valued to the entire. American populace.
You know, it's, it's frustrating, especially
as a law enforcement officer, because you do
see all of this, uh, you know, collateral kill
and collateral impact that throwing poison out
in the environment causes. It's depressing. Especially
in a drainage way, because again, you're already
talking about one domestic animal that was almost
killed, but it gets in that water system. I mean,
that's like a bullet. It doesn't have anybody's
name on it. It's just out there to hurt some.
Exactly. And with this poison in particular,
TEMEC, as I said, each meatball was kind of filled
with these granules. If you accidentally breathed
in just one or two of these particles or it absorbed
through your skin, you could become extremely
sick and possibly die just from a few particles
of this getting into your uh, you know, ingesting
it or breathing it in or having it. So it works
like fentanyl. It's, it's bad. It's not quite
as quick as fentanyl, but it will kill you and
it will make you real sick, even small amounts
of it. So it's, it's a very dangerous poison.
Um, we, you know, fish and wildlife, special
agents receive a lot of training on how to deal
with poisons that they encounter in crime scenes
like this. And we take it real seriously. So
there's another thing that they found during
their crime scene investigation that was very
interesting, especially from a forensics point
of view. They found boot prints and what tied
these boot prints to the meatballs was that in
some instances they would find the hole where
the meatball had gone into the snow. And directly
on top of it, there would be one of these boot
prints as if someone had stepped on it to push
the meatball down into the snow. Hey, that's
really good investigative work. That's a that's
a great way to articulate what you saw. That
explains it to a jury. Exactly. And it explains
why these footprints were zero. You know, obviously,
there's hikers there. There's other boot prints.
But these prints seem to be very closely related
to the meatballs. But I mean, what are the odds
a hiker is going to step on every meatball. You
know what I mean? So I'm just saying that's really
good. Cause a lot of times that's hard to train
people. They may realize what they're seeing,
but they don't always write it down. So if somebody
took the time to say, Hey, on every single one
of these meatballs, we saw this same boot print
that looked like it was shoving it down into
the snow. Well, that makes sense. Exactly. Exactly.
And as you know, footprints, tire prints can
be very important because if later you find a
boot, it gives you something to compare to the
print that you saw out in the field. So very
smartly, Agent Bergogne took very good photographs
at right angles of these footprints because it
was snow, of course. He couldn't pour plaster
Paris in there because it would destroy the print.
Um, but he did record the, uh, the footprints.
Um, and that became very important later because
one of the things that really stands out, if
you look at a photograph of one of these, um,
boot prints, if you know, if you kind of work
in the world of wildlife and you know, hunters,
this boot print is actually immediately recognizable
to you as coming from a boot made by a company
named called Danner. in Oregon. And this particular
sole was primarily made for a boot sold by the
Cabela's Outfitting Company. So you might, you
know, know Cabela's and Bass Pro Shops as an
outdoor supply company. And they exclusively
sold this boot made by Danner that had this very
unique tread design, which almost, it almost
looks like instead of the classic chunky boot
print. It looks like it has points on it, almost
like cleats, um, little round indentations, uh,
make up the footprint. So it's kind of a very
rec. There's a lot of those boots out there,
but it's a very recognizable hunting boot, uh,
that anybody who's familiar with Dan or boots
would know that this is, this is that type of
boot. There was one other thing they found at
the crime scene, which turned out to be sort
of a a joke among everyone. And that is there
was a place in the snow where there were two
of these boot prints right next to each other,
as if the person was standing still. And in front
of the toes of the boot prints was some yellow
snow. And most of the senior investigators there
were like, Oh yeah, well somebody took a leak
and that's that. But a very knew straight out
of the Academy game warden for the Idaho department
of fishing game, eagerly collected that, that
yellow snow. Oh yeah. He scooped it up and put
it in a bag and preserved it. And everybody kind
of teased him because they're like, what are
you going to get out of a urine that you can't
find DNA in a person's urine? So everybody kind
of teased him and, and kind of, it became a joke,
but nonetheless, this yellow snow got itself
booked into evidence. I love it. Okay. As you
know, the yellow snow will come back later in
this story. So the last thing before the investigators
walked off of this crime scene, they found something
very, very sobering. And that was on top of one
of these boot prints, meaning something came
through the crime scene after the. The poison
poacher was a wolf print right on top of one
of these boot prints was. Huge wolf print, and
they are unmistakable. Wolf print is about the
size of your hand. They're big. And so what it
meant to Agent Bregognar was that after these
meatballs had been placed, at least one wolf
had passed through the area. Now, no dead wolf
was found, but it's a little scary to think that
the very species you're trying to protect did
in fact go through this crime scene after These
poison 58, at least poison meatballs had been
placed in the environment. Pretty, pretty sobering
way to start this investigation. And now has
facing all, uh, you know, investigators you're
done with your crime scene. You've collected
58 meatballs. You've taken pictures of boot prints.
You've collected other dead animals as you know,
collateral kill. You've got your yellow snow.
Now what? Right. Right. So what? You know, what
do you do? Well, interestingly, the U .S. Fish
and Wildlife Service has its own dedicated criminal
forensics lab. It's called the Clark Babin Forensics
Lab, and it's located in Ashland, Oregon. And
their sole purpose is to support law enforcement
investigations involving wildlife crime. So,
of course, Agent Bregonier sent the meatballs
to the lab. For two things one is tell me what
this meat is and two What's this? powdered granular
material inside the meatballs he already knew
but he needed scientific forensic evidence and
Sure enough the lab results come back indicating
that the granular powder was Aldecarb also known
as Temick and that the meat I was characteristic
of the same tissue that would come from a North
American elk. Okay. So that's great information.
We know for sure now we got poison and we know
this is elk meat. And that tells you something
about your suspect. You bet. And it gives you
something potentially to compare later. So out
of that meat, of course, you're going to get
the individual DNA from that particular elk.
And that of course gives you something to compare.
later, hoping that your investigation goes somewhere.
But now we're really in this situation where,
how does agent Burgundy develop a suspect? How
do we figure out who this was? There's no surveillance
cameras at a hiking trail. There's no witnesses.
Nobody saw anybody hiking around there throwing
something, you know, it's a pretty remote area.
And what happens next is, you know, an investigator
could basically go back to the office and sit
and twiddle their thumbs and hope somebody calls
in the tip, or they could really get proactive.
And agent Bregonier was never the kind of guy
when he was working to sit back and twiddle his
thumbs. He was a very proactive agent and he
was very well dialed in with the other law enforcement
agencies in that area of Idaho. So, you know,
he knew the federal. Forest service law enforcement.
He knew the local police. He knew the tribal
police. He knew everybody. And he basically put
the word out, Hey, I'm got this case. There's
found some poison meatballs. It's in a Wolf area.
I'm trying to figure out who might've put these
here. Anybody have any ideas? I mean, really
that's what it came down to. And don't you know,
uh, it triggered someone's memory and it turned
out that Uh, the Nez Perce tribe, which is a,
is a native American tribe in that area employs,
you know, their own staff to work on wildlife
issues. And they had a biologist who remembered
having an encounter. Get this back in 1998 with
an individual known as Tim Sundles. And, uh,
the, the encounter was so memorable for this
biologist or so unusual. that the biologist ended
up writing a memo about it. And the memo basically
detailed how the biologist was out in the field
and was approached by this guy named Tim Sundals,
who just started railing about how he wanted
to kill wolves during that conversation. Sundals
mentioned to the biologist, and this is a quote
straight from the biologists memo. He said, quote,
Do you think it would work if we dropped a couple
of elk up there and packed them full of poison?
Now, is this our suspect? Well, we don't know,
but he talks about elk and he talks about poison.
So Ragonier is better off than he was before
he talked to this biologist. Even though this
was 1998, that's pretty close. Yeah, I mean,
it's six years, but it's it's something right.
And when you're an investigator, as you know,
Mac. When you're at a loss, you start pulling
at threads and you see whether or not those threads
start to unravel. Well, here's the other thing,
Ed. If this guy is radical, those types of folks
write things down. That's how we have manifestos.
That's how we have all these things posted on
social media. They can't stop themselves. Exactly.
And they're proud of what they're doing. They
think they're right. Yeah. Exactly. And one of
the other scary things that this individual said
to the biologist, and this is another quote,
he said to the biologist, he said, if I see a
wolf, I'm going to kill it. And any fed who comes
and tries to stop me is going to get a bullet
in their back. Now that is a scary person. He
goes to the number one slot for me. Yeah. Yeah.
I mean, for sure. Wouldn't as, as agent Burgon
your thought. Well, hey, this is something I'm
going to I'm going to start looking into this
person. So he starts to kind of just do some
basic investigations and he finds out that this
Tim Sundals guy was previously invested by investigated
by the US Fish and Wildlife Service for killing
a wolf. But interestingly, under the Endangered
Species Act, one of the legitimate reasons you
can kill an endangered species is if it's in
self -defense. Now, wolves do not have a history
of attacking human beings, but it's possible
their average wolf weighs between 100 and 130
pounds. And yeah, if they wanted to, they could
hurt you. So it turns out back in 2001, Tim Sundals
actually shot and killed a collared wolf. But
when it was investigated by a different Fish
and Wildlife Service special agent at the time,
Sundals Claimed that he killed the wolf in self
-defense and there was just no way to prove otherwise
so there wasn't a case and but he now Has a history
of talking about elk meat and poison and actually
has killed wolves and has talked about it. So
He's looking more and more like an interesting
Suspect and that leads to a search of the internet
where, as you said, so many, so many suspects
will write things down. And one of the things
that Tim Sundles had going was a chat room and
a bulletin board and a blog. And he loved to
post about his hatred of the federal government
and his hatred of wolves. And agent Bergogne
started to sift through his very, you know, many
posts on the Internet. And he saw a lot of specific
hostile language about U .S. Fish and Wildlife
Service special agents, basically, you know,
denigrating us as not being very experienced
outdoorsmen and trying to trick people and the
usual. But one of the things that Agent Bergonia
came across was this very interesting passage
in a blog that Sandals had posted on the Internet.
And get this. Wait till I read this to you. This
is a direct quote off of that blog It's a recipe
for how to make poison meatballs and newcomer
I'm not kidding. He basically Lists out how you
do it and it includes from his own words adding
a pinch or two of Temic To the center of the
beat ball patty and roll it into a ball. It should
be about the size of a golf ball We're a little
larger so a wolf can swallow it whole without
chewing it. Here's what's blowing my mind. First
of all, great job, agent. Second of all, you
don't use chicken. You don't use hamburger. You
don't use noodles. I mean, you say meatball.
Yeah, meatball. And he even suggests you can
make the meatball out of beef, elk, or pork.
So he's, he's even listed elk as a possible source.
That's a money tree. That's a money tree. And
it gets even slightly better. He even says place
between 30 and 40 of these meatballs out in the
environment. And that is almost exactly the situation
that occurred. Now, does this mean that Tim Sundles
is the guy who put the meatballs out there? No,
but he's obviously put this. a lot of thought
into this. He's put it out there on the Internet.
Unfortunately, anybody else could have read it
and used his modus operandi to do this and followed
his instructions. But it's still right now. He's
Agent Burgonier's best and only suspect. So ultimately.
There's a little more goes on, there's some surveillance
done of Sundles. He's got a car that has some
really hostile bumper stickers on it about. wolves
and feds, but ultimately all the surveillance
and all the internet searches lead to enough
probable cause to obtain a search warrant for
Tim Sandals house. And this is where. This is
the kind of thing an investigator lives for.
You have developed enough probable cause to convince
a judge that you should be able to go into someone's
home or their car or whatever and search. And
that search warrants always is very specific.
As you know, it's, you're only looking to find
evidence of the crimes you're investigating and
you, you execute those warrants with your fingers
crossed, hoping what are you going to find? You
know, am I going to find something that ties
my suspect to that crime scene? And funny enough,
as I think about this case and I used to talk
about it when I would do presentations about
it while I was an agent myself. I always remembered
something and you're going to know this to your
low cards principle, right? Absolutely. Yeah.
Kind of like if your listeners don't know what
it is, low cards principles, kind of like the
basic fundamental aspect of forensics. And it's
true. If, if you work enough things, you will
know it's true. It is. Yes, it is true. And it
is amazing how many times you're out there and
you're just like, wow, this is low cards principle.
And the The principle, of course, is that if
any two items come in contact with each other,
they will leave traces of themselves on the other.
And that's why it's so, you know, critical to
crime scene investigations, because ultimately
your goal, right, Cheryl, is to you're going
to tie the suspect to the crime scene and the
victim at the same time, you know, or the evidence
at the scene. And that's what this search warrant
is hopefully going to do. for Agent Bergonia
and his team. So a month, a month after the poisoning
occurs, March 20th, 2004, they serve a warrant
on Tim Sundell's house. And the warrant includes
the property around his house, such as the garage
and workshops. And don't you know, they go in
the front door. And what do you think they find
immediately inside the front door? A pair of
Danner hunting boots with those round nubby So
shut your mouth. Yeah, that is absolutely beautiful.
It gets better. One of the things that agent
Burgundy had noticed at the crime scene when
he took the photographs was that it appeared.
And these, these round treads I'm talking about,
the only way I can describe them is nubs. They
look like, like I said, they look like a cleat
or a nub. And what he noticed from the print
in the snow was it appeared as if. The nubs weren't
symmetrical from left to right. And in his mind,
what that meant was one of these nubs had come
off, had been, you know, cut off or scraped off
or, you know, just in the process of hiking around.
So he turns the boots over and what do you know?
One of these boots is missing a nub. So not only
do you have a boot print that matches the boot
print at the scene in terms of size and tread
pattern, but you've got. individual characteristic,
which is pretty good evidence. That is pretty
good all day. But of course, you know, we're
always looking to determine whether or not does
our suspect have a ability here to create reasonable
doubt. So do we know that those are Tim's boots?
Do we know that Tim was wearing those boots at
the time? You know, these are questions. It's,
it's great evidence, but Can we put Tim in those
boots on the day of the poisoning? So the search
of the house continues. One of the things, of
course, that they included in their warrant was
because Sundles had been posting on the Internet,
they grabbed his computer. The other thing they
searched was his garage and his workshop. And
as soon as they opened the doors, they saw hunting
equipment, including saddlebags that had blood
stains on them, a bone saw. and a small bottle,
white bottle, precariously balancing on the top
of a metal trash can. And when they opened that
white bottle, the first thing they saw were small,
gray, granulated powders. This is an unbelievable
search. Unbelievable search. The bottle was in
basically a calcium... supplement bottle. So
it was used for, you know, the vitamins were
taken out and Sundals had put Temick in this
bottle. And it, it, the lab later confirmed that
the powder inside that bottle was also aldecarb
or Temick. So now we've got the boots in Sundal's
house tied to the crime scene. We've got Temick
at his house and at the crime scene. Next, we
need to figure out, do we, can we tie the elk
meat? And the first thing Agent Bergogne did
was he zeroed in on these saddlebags that had
blood stains on them. And he immediately collected
those as evidence and they were sent to the forensics
lab. Now, before I tell you what the forensic
lab results were, let me say that another thing
they found inside his house was a box full of
bumper stickers that talked about, you know,
save a ranch or kill a wolf. I've done lots of
anti -wolf things, but among those bumper stickers
was one that said, save the U S constitution,
eliminate a fed. Now, when you're a federal agent
or a federal employee in general, trying to serve
your community and work in an environment where
people have bumper stickers, basically, you know,
calling for you to be eliminated. What, what
does that mean exactly? That's a scary environment
to try to be a public servant, right? And I'll
tell you that also goes back to what he said
to the biologist. So you're showing a pattern
conclusively that he has not only believed this
for years, he's elevated what he's doing. Yes.
Yes. And he's, he's intentionally, he's, he's
everything about him just says he's intentionally
violating the law. And can I ask you a question?
Um, he doesn't seem like the type of man that
would have a roommate. So again, I think putting
him in them boots is going to be pretty easy.
Yeah, I agree. I agree. It's excellent. I mean,
it's almost irrefutable evidence, right? They're
well -worn in boots. Who else is going to be
wearing those boots in his family? He's the hunter
of the family. Yeah. In the imperfection, plus
his recipe, plus he said he was going to do it.
Yes, exactly. Uh, so the couple of things happen
next. They seized computers. So now there's going
to be a forensic examination of computers and
emails, traffic and, and whatever's posted there.
Um, also the blood and they also found in the,
in the, in the shed, they found a bone saw. So
the bone saw and the saddlebags and the TEMEC
all go to the FWS forensics lab in Ashland, Oregon.
So let's talk about a little bit what they found
as a result of the forensic analysis of the computers
first, and then we'll talk about what they found
at the lab. One of the things they found in doing
a search warrant on the computers was a whole
lot of stored emails. And in those emails, he's
writing to different people and talking about
very specifically about how to poison wolves.
Um, I give you an example in one email he sent
in 2003, you know, he talks about poisoning is
much more effective than shooting, especially
in winter when the wolves are confined to their
winter grounds. Uh, and, um, the best play way
to do it is to put a frozen meatball made out
of elk because of the last all winter long. Um,
yeah, it's just one, one thing after another,
right now. At the Fish and Wildlife Forensics
Lab in Ashland, they start to take scrapings
off of these blood stains on these saddlebags.
And of course, they already have the meatballs
that were collected at the crime scene, so they
can do a DNA comparison between the blood in
the saddlebags and the meatballs. And don't you
know, not only is the blood in the saddlebags
elk meat, but it came from the same elk that
those meatballs were made out of. You have got
to be kidding me. I know it gets better and better.
Every turn in this case just got better and better.
And some of it's luck. And some of it is just
downright tenacity by, you know, Agent Bagonier.
And, you know, with all the support from the
lab personnel and the state investigators and
all of that. Well, that lab is amazing. But I'm
going to tell you, Agent Bagonier, you handled
this thing. Good night. I mean, cause it's one
thing, you know, like I've collected things that
people have made fun of me for. And I always
say, well, I don't know how it fits yet, but
I may later. I just know something didn't look
right. It didn't belong there to me. So I took
it, whatever. But frozen yellow snow, come on,
they're going to make fun of you. Just yellow
snow period in your report is hilarious. I mean,
you have to write that, but look what came from
it. Yeah. Yeah. And we haven't even, you know,
I mean, as of now, we've locked down that the
elk meets connected to the house, uh, and the
boots are connected to the crime scene. And this
is a dangerous person. And I want people to understand.
I say it all the time. Anybody that can kick
a dog, kill a kitten. And I am not talking about
legal hunting. I'm not talking about legal hunting,
fishing. I'm talking about somebody. out of meanness,
out of a direct target, is going to kill animals.
That person absolutely, without a doubt, can
kill a human. And this man said it over and over
and over. You bet. And this is different than
hunting. This is not hunting. It's not. Right.
This is not hunting. An interesting aside to
this is that the U .S. Department of Justice
keeps statistics on assaults on law enforcement
officers. And consistently, every year, the law
enforcement profession that has the highest number
of physical assaults on them are conservation
officers, game wardens, wildlife officers, special
agents. I did not know that. Yeah, it's a very
dangerous... profession because a lot of the
criminals you're dealing with are armed. And,
um, you can't, you know, if you're approaching
a hunter to do an enforcement action, of course
they're going to have a gun. They always have
a gun. You know, I did a training, um, with native
American Rangers, and that's one of the things
they told me. They said first they are by themselves
for thousands and thousands of acres. I mean,
their backup is a long way away. That's the first
thing that they made me very aware of is that
every single person they come in contact with
has a gun. Everyone. Yes. I mean, kind of famously,
uh, maybe 10 years ago, there was a U S fish
and wildlife service refuge officer who was involved
in a shooting in the desert. National Wildlife
Refuge outside of Las Vegas. And this is a guy
who was on his own patrolling millions of acres.
And it, it was kind of where, you know, we were
all reminded that we listened to the radio traffic
after the shooting incident where he's requesting
backup. It took an hour. It took an hour for
the nearest law enforcement officer to reach
his location on a shooting call. Yep. That's
unbelievable. I mean, I knew the danger. I didn't
know. that that group was the number one assaulter.
The good news is, based on what Agent Bergonier
was able to obtain from the crime scene and the
search warrant, it actually was enough for the
United States Attorney's Office to file charges
against Sundals. Now, interestingly, the charges
were not for killing a wolf because no wolf body
was found. But attempt to do it was carries the
same penalty. So believe it or not, this is actually
the first case in the history of the U .S. Fish
and Wildlife Service where a person was actually
charged with attempting to kill a threatened
or endangered species. So it's kind of a case
of first impression, but definitely was enough
evidence to file those charges. Brilliant. Well,
I hope he got 60 charges, because each one should
have served as a charge. Hey, exactly. 58 counts,
right, of throwing those meatballs. So he...
Pleads not guilty and immediately goes on the
media offensive about, you know, of course, the
out of control federal agency. And he said some
things that didn't help him. For example, he
said poisoning of pets is simply collateral damage,
which doesn't make you very popular with the
public. Right now, what we have is we have evidence
that, you know, boots in his possession match
the prints at the scene of the suspect. We got
the same type of poison found in the suspect's
garage. We got meat from the same elk from the
crime scene that he smashes the blood in his
garage. And we know, of course, that he's a jerk.
But then there's one more thing that Bregonia
thinks about, and that is that as he's considering,
what do we how do we get ready for trial? He's
looking at the evidence that's booked into, you
know, in the evidence and he Finds this frozen
yellow snow and he says what what is could this
be important? Why is this important and You know,
I think Mac, you know, I've talked about this
You know why there is one time when a person's
DNA will show up in their urine it's when they're
sick and if you have a cold or you're getting
over cold your body will shed cells and it ends
up in your urine and it's Oh, please tell me
he was sick. Please tell me. So, in going through
all of his emails from the search warrant, Bregonier
remembered that the week before the meatballs
had been thrown out there, Tim Sundles had been
complaining to his friends about having had the
flu. Oh my word. Yeah. So now we've got a suspect
who's pleading. Not guilty. He wants to go to
trial. He's, he's gone on the public, you know,
public media offensive against government. But
Bregonia goes in front of a, of a judge in the
U S district court and says, I want an order
authorizing me to take a DNA sample from Tim
Sundles and the judge grants it. So the judge
has now ordered Tim Sundle to turn over a DNA
sample. So it can be compared against the DNA
that's found in the urine. And don't you know
that immediately causes him to plead guilty?
That is a beautiful thing. That is outstanding.
And you know, you can get DNA from urine, but
you know, it's, it's not as easy as people think.
I mean, first of all, it's got to be fresh and
all that. And then you've got to keep it at a
low temperature. So how fortunate that it was
frozen. I mean, everything just worked out beautifully,
but I'm going to say something now. It worked
out beautifully because of a lot of hard work.
I mean, when you're talking about, I mean, just
hundreds and hundreds of acres and those meatballs
could have been anywhere for him to find one
after the other after the other and then keep
searching. I mean, Agent Bregonier saved possibly
hundreds of animals. Yeah. I mean, he basically...
He delivered consequences to somebody who desperately
needed consequences. Yes, for the safety of animals
and humans. Yeah, 100%. And it kind of sent a
message to anyone else who's thinking about this,
that and this is something I always told people,
you know, US Fish and Wildlife Service agents
are among the most tenacious federal investigators
I've ever seen in my life. And they, you know,
if you commit a wildlife crime, a US Fish and
Wildlife Service agent, they will pursue you,
they will catch you, and they will put you in
jail. It's just, it's not a matter of if, it's
a matter of when. And that's exactly what happened
here. And I think one of the best outcomes from
this case, unfortunately, the Endangered Species
Act carries fairly low penalties. So it's not
like we can say Tim Sundals went to jail for
a long time, but some interesting things occurred
in his sentence that were, I think, very painful
for him. One of the one is that he was prohibited
from entering federal property for the entire
term of his probation, which was two years. And
if you live in Idaho, a lot of Idaho is federal
property, either US Forest Service land or BLM
land. So it kind of is an impingement on your
lifestyle. It was two miles. He could go in good.
Exactly. But my favorite part was the Washington
Post every year. They post a idiot of the year.
And there's it's a number of people that make
the list. But Tim Sondles was the 21st idiot
of the year for that year. And I'll just read
you real quick what the Washington Post said.
It said, Tim Sondles, Tim Sondles, who's unabashed
hatred of U .S. government efforts to reintroduce
gray wolves out west borders on fanatical. In
his latest scheme to finish off the endangered
species, he planted poison -laced meatballs in
Idaho's remote salmon shadeless national forest.
Instead of killing wolves though, the meatballs
ended up poisoning a coyote, a fox, some birds
and three pet dogs. So public shaming is a valuable
tool because whether or not you go to jail or
whether or not you pay a lot of fines, having
all your neighbors know what you did. and how
you did it and that the government caught you
and you're guilty as sin is a valuable deterrent.
Amen. It makes it that much harder for him to
ever do it again because he's going to be usual
suspects. He's always going to be on your list.
Exactly. A hundred percent. And, you know, I
mentioned that the Endangered Species Act has,
you know, not great penalties necessarily, but
where people really start to get into trouble
and go to jail is when they commit subsequent
offenses. So if he turns up again and committing
a wildlife crime, a state or a federal judge
is going to look at his record and say, well,
this is a prior violator who didn't learn his
lesson before. I'm going to send him to jail.
So I've seen that before where subsequent, uh,
violators end up actually doing some pretty good
time because they, they demonstrated that they
didn't learn a lesson. So that's always hanging
over his head. And I cannot thank you enough.
And I'm just going to, again, Y 'all, if you
can work this case, you can work any case out
there. This was, I mean, you can call some of
it luck, but that's not what I see. I see literally
boots in the snow, working this thing to the
very end, collecting things you don't even know
what it's going to result in. You're just going
to have it and see what comes from it. That's
just unbelievably solid investigative work. 100%.
All right, Ed, I will see you in Denver at Crown
Con. Looking forward to it. I can't wait. Well,
y 'all, I'm going to end Zone 7 the way that
I always do, with a quote. It all starts with
the wolves. Peter Woollenbeer, the hidden life
of trees. I'm Cheryl McCollum, and this is Zone
7. Nature's Secret Service is written and produced
by me, Ed Newcomer, and is co -produced by the
DHTV team here at California State University
Dominguez Hills. Follow us on social media and
connect with us online at naturessecretservice
.com.