Girl driving buggy shot, killed; no suspects

[Rosebud666]

More bad news for Northeast Ohio's Amish community:

Many unanswered questions remain as investigators sift through the details surrounding the Thursday night shooting death of a 15-year-old Wayne County girl in Holmes County.Wayne County Sheriff's deputies were called after Rachel M. Yoder was transported with a head wound first to Dunlap and the Akron City Hospital, where it was determined the cause of her injury was a single gunshot wound, according to Capt. Doug Hunter, who said it was only after several hours of investigating that a blood trail led investigators to Holmes County.
. . .
Yoder had been at a work Christmas party at a private residence on Holmes County Road 229. She and a friend left around 10 p.m. and she dropped the friend off at another home along County Road 229 before starting the mile-long trip home, said Holmes County Sheriff Timothy W. Zimmerly.
Her brother was first to notice something was amiss when he saw the horse and buggy Yoder had taken circling in the lane. He notified his father, Melvin Yoder, who went out and found his injured daughter lying on the ground outside the buggy, Zimmerly said.
. . .

"Like anything else, people should report suspicious activity and be alert of their surroundings, however, there is nothing to suggest this victim was doing anything inappropriate or acting in any type of careless manner," . . . [the sheriff] . . .said. "She wasn't engaged in any type of activity that would cause her to be the victim of a violent crime. Here is a 15-year-old girl, minding her own business, who is victimized. It's an isolated incident and we don't know the motive. What more can you do?"

Deer season is over, except for bow hunters, and deer hunters are apparently required to use slugs and not shot. So if she was accidently shot with a deer gun, one would expect to find a rather large entrance wound that would not be overlooked until she arrived at the hospital. There is no word yet about the autopsy results and what calibre projectile was involved.

RIP Rachel, godspeed on your final journey home.

[tarsier]

Hunting season is just a technicality in Ohio. Deer season is over other than "primative" weapons which include muskets while a person can bow hunt any time they please. Turkey season is a month away but given this occurred at night I would guess raccoon hunters which don't have a season. I've had my car hit by target practice and would guess this was no more than a tragic accident

[Rosebud666]

Hunting season is just a technicality in Ohio. Deer season is over other than "primative" weapons which include muskets while a person can bow hunt any time they please. Turkey season is a month away but given this occurred at night I would guess raccoon hunters which don't have a season. I've had my car hit by target practice and would guess this was no more than a tragic accident

I kind of suppose that too, but it must have been a very small caliber round and/or fired from a great distance since the bullet lodged in the girl's head.

I mean, I'm not a ballistics expert, but if you've seen the JFK autopsy photos or the Zapruder film, that's what an approx. .306 round can do at what was it, around 80 yards? No chance of missing that on initial examination at the scene.

I also wonder why there was such a long "trail of blood". Maybe she stayed seated for awhile although she was mortally wounded, and the horse just kept plodding along for awhile. Also, there were no spent cartridges in or around the buggy - which would support your idea.

[neilmpenny]

Sounds like an accident.

[Rosebud666]

Sounds like an accident.

I wonder if they'll ever catch whoever did it, or if he even knows? He must have at least an idea. How many people can go shooting simultaneously along a one-mile stretch of road? News like this gets around. Even someone who came from outside the area would have to know the property owner and have his permission. Word would have to get back to him. "Hey Jim, remember when you were out at my place shooting last week? Well, you'll never guess what happened . . ."

A pretty damn irresponsible way to use a firearm, if you ask me. I think I'd have to turn myself in . . . that's one secret I don't think I could live with the rest of my life.

[Miho]

This is strange.. It was a small caliber bullet so it would have had to been shot at a close range...

[NOVSTORM]

They have decided that it was an accident that she was shot accidentally while someone was either hunting or just shooting in the woods.poor little girl and her family.

[Nelliebean]

Hunting at night? REALLY SAFE!

[Mammy]

That is so sad. A little Amish girl locally was killed two years ago right before Christmas. She went running out to greet the mailman and give him some cookies that she had made him for Christmas and slipped on a patch of ice and he ran over her. Random tragedies like these are heartbreaking and I feel so bad for the loved ones left behind.

[aedgar5000]

That is so sad. A little Amish girl locally was killed two years ago right before Christmas. She went running out to greet the mailman and give him some cookies that she had made him for Christmas and slipped on a patch of ice and he ran over her. Random tragedies like these are heartbreaking and I feel so bad for the loved ones left behind.

That is heart-breaking. May both girls rest in peace.

[Rosebud666]

Hunting season is just a technicality in Ohio. Deer season is over other than "primative" weapons which include muskets while a person can bow hunt any time they please. Turkey season is a month away but given this occurred at night I would guess raccoon hunters which don't have a season. I've had my car hit by target practice and would guess this was no more than a tragic accident

You were spot on:

Holmes County Sheriff Timothy W. Zimmerly on Tuesday said the bullet that killed the young Wayne County teen as she traveled home from a work Christmas party Thursday night came from a muzzleloader fired from within a 1 1/2 mile radius of where she was driving her buggy when she was shot.

http://www.the-daily-record.com/news/article/5137827


I hope they get the culprit for involuntary manslaughter.

[Djen]

What a sad story!

I'm with you, Rosebud666, I'd also have to turn myself in. That wouldn't make her death any easier to live with, but I wouldn't have to live with the shame of leaving her family with no answers.

[baroque1]

By Associated Press, Published: December*20

FREDERICKSBURG, Ohio â?? A man cleaning his muzzle-loading rifle shot the gun into the air, accidentally killing a 15-year-old Amish girl driving a horse-drawn buggy more than a mile away, a sheriff said Tuesday.

[Rosebud666]

By Associated Press, Published: December*20

FREDERICKSBURG, Ohio — A man cleaning his muzzle-loading rifle shot the gun into the air, accidentally killing a 15-year-old Amish girl driving a horse-drawn buggy more than a mile away, a sheriff said Tuesday.

Like you do . . . if you're an idiot.

[neilmpenny]

Muzzle shot isn't exactly a small calibre projectile is it? I am not the greatest with guns. I did shoot a bunch of military weapons when in service, but I know bugger-all about non-military and/or antique weapons.

[Rosebud666]

Muzzle shot isn't exactly a small calibre projectile is it? I am not the greatest with guns. I did shoot a bunch of military weapons when in service, but I know bugger-all about non-military and/or antique weapons.

I don't know for sure either. I think the classic Kentucky rifle averages out at around .38 calibre, going as high as .45. Muzzle velocity, however, is about half that of an M16 (which is roughly 3000 ft./s, although the M16 is chambered for a round just a little larger than a .22).

The key seems to be that it was fired from over a mile away. Even Daniel Boone was happy with a kill at 250 yards. I assume the guy fired into the air to discharge the weapon before he cleaned it, and the bullet followed a high ballistic arc until it crashed down into the poor girl's head. So it would have had a lot less energy than a bullet taking a straight line from 250 yards away. Plus we're talking about solid lead shot that deforms a lot and not a metal-jacketed millitary round.

Still, you'd think that anything hard and fast enough to kill her would have left a hole that the medics would have noticed.

[neilmpenny]

I don't know for sure either. I think the classic Kentucky rifle averages out at around .38 calibre, going as high as .45. Muzzle velocity, however, is about half that of an M16 (which is roughly 3000 ft./s, although the M16 is chambered for a round just a little larger than a .22).

The key seems to be that it was fired from over a mile away. Even Daniel Boone was happy with a kill at 250 yards. I assume the guy fired into the air to discharge the weapon before he cleaned it, and the bullet followed a high ballistic arc until it crashed down into the poor girl's head. So it would have had a lot less energy than a bullet taking a straight line from 250 yards away. Plus we're talking about solid lead shot that deforms a lot and not a metal-jacketed millitary round.

Still, you'd think that anything hard and fast enough to kill her would have left a hole that the medics would have noticed.

True, it would have to have been doing a fair rate of knots to penetrate the cranium. Odd one this, though it did smell of accident from the start.

[tarsier]

Guy needs to lose this gun. Years back a coworker had a gun go off while cleaning it in his kitchen fortunately the slug lodged in the wall rather than going through to where his wife was doing laundry on the other side. A few years later his ten year old son was killed firing the same gun the kick his his heart just right causing his heart to stop. I am a bit superstitious but I wouldn't hold onto that gun now.
Since it's all but legal to kill a person in a hunting accident in Ohio he'll likely have only a few fines and will get the gun back after the case is closed.

[Rosebud666]

If they catch him, I'm guessing something like involuntary manslaughter pleaded down to a lesser charge - like what here they call "Koerperverletzung mit Todesfolge", something like "grievous bodily harm resulting in death", I don't know anymore offhand what it would really be called in Ohio. If he's really lucky and has a really good lawyer, maybe even just "improper discharging of a firearm" or something like that. At least he should have to face the music and public shame.

Update: They're not naming him yet, but they found him!

The man, who has yet to be named because of the pending investigation and possible criminal charges, was preparing to clean his muzzleloader when he fired the weapon into the air to clear the barrel [like you do].Preliminary measurements indicate the residence is located within 1-1 1/2 miles of the location where the first traces of blood were found on the roadway, said Chief Deputy Nathan Fritz.Although official ballistics reports have yet to be completed, the visual inspection of the bullet -- the weight and brand -- are consistent with those used by the shooter, Fritz said, noting it is well within the capability of the muzzleloader and its projectile to shoot a distance of more than a mile.

. . . while the shooter may not have intended to kill Yoder, his practices were not safe, and upon its completion, the case will be forwarded to the Holmes County Prosecutor's Office for consideration of criminal charges.
Before cleaning, there are two ways to unload a muzzleloader, the most common of which is to shoot off the round, [Sheriff] Zimmerly said. However, "any time you shoot, normal practice is to shoot into a bank or a backstop, where you know where the projectile is going. You should never shoot up into the air. What goes up, must come down."

http://www.the-daily-record.com/news/article/5138144

[Pachamama]

Imagine the odds. Geez

[Desert Ghost]

I think the Mythbusters have some recent experience with firing something and having it go farther than they planned.

However, firing a weapon into the air like this is just wrong and dangerous.

[Rosebud666]

I think the Mythbusters have some recent experience with firing something and having it go farther than they planned.

However, firing a weapon into the air like this is just wrong and dangerous.

The Mythbusters actually had an episode where they did exactly this (but with handguns and modern rifles, not with muzzleloaders).

Their conclusion was that if a projectile is fired straight up, so that it returns straight down in freefall (give or take the effect of any wind) at terminal velocity, then it is not deadly - BUT - this is virtually impossible to do. Any deviation from vertical will result in a ballistic arc, and ballistic arcs, as we see, are deadly.

If more people would watch Mythbusters, then fewer people would die in stupid accidents.

[Miho]

Imagine the odds. Geez

Thought the exact same thing. A mile away?? wow

[Vtwin]

http://badbullmuzzleloaders.com/

I'm surprised she still had a head

[Rosebud666]

http://badbullmuzzleloaders.com/

I'm surprised she still had a head

Jeeze, the guns on that website are nothing Daniel Boone would recognize. They use smokeless powder and primers and fire jacketed bullets!

My great to the xth power cousin didn't need no stinkin' muzzle breaks or recoil pads either! I'm surprised the damn thing doesn't come with a silencer (illegal in the State of Ohio, I know, but what the hey).

This beast is to what I understand by "muzzleloader" as a Porsche is to a Model T.

Still, at 400 yards they have a specified muzzle velocity of just under 1600 ft./sec., and she was over 1000 yards away.

I'm too lazy to graph a curve (and not math literate enough to work out an equation) for the rest of the distances, but even though the drop in velocity seems to decline with increasing distance (i.e., the difference between 350 and 300 yards is less than between 250 and 200 yards), it still seems like at a mile even in a straight line you would be down to a pretty slow velocity for a rifle. Even with just an average drop of 100 ft./sec. per 50 yards over the last 600 yards, that would put you under 400 ft./sec. That's getting down in the air gun range.

[Vtwin]

Yea, i figured as much but i thought i would give the story a bit of good ol' fashioned media sensationalism, it's the 12 year old in me.

[Rosebud666]

Yea, i figured as much but i thought i would give the story a bit of good ol' fashioned media sensationalism, it's the 12 year old in me.

Oh, it was a good catch - my inner 15-year old was delighted with the data. Sometimes he get's obsessed with an idea and shakes it like a terrier with a rat in its mouth.

[atomicbettie]

I am watching 1000 Ways to Die (Merry Christmas!! lol) and they just did a story exactly like this, where someone shot a gun off in the air and it killed someone a mile or so away. The whole thing is just crazy.

[baroque1]

Death Hag Christmas Bettie! Lol

Okay, nobody was killed... But I have some friends that had a stray bullet fall from the sky right into their bed via a sky light in their roof. Freaked them out and luckily nobody was in bed at the time. Can't remember if it damaged the bed but I know it left a bullet hole in the glass sky light

[RogerV]

You so often see people shooting into the air in movies and on television that it's pretty obvious that a lot of people are unaware of the most basic law of aeronautics: WGUMCD, or in other words, "What Goes Up, Must Come Down" (somewhere).

[Djen]

Death Hag Christmas Bettie! Lol

Okay, nobody was killed... But I have some friends that had a stray bullet fall from the sky right into their bed via a sky light in their roof. Freaked them out and luckily nobody was in bed at the time. Can't remember if it damaged the bed but I know it left a bullet hole in the glass sky light

Whoa! That would freak me right out. Crazy!

[TheWrath of MadelineKahn]

Since so many fatal accidents occur each year while cleaning a loaded gun, why isn't it unloaded first?
If it's necessary to fire the gun afterwards, which I can't imagine why, couldn't you just shoot it into the ground?

[Miho]

Since so many fatal accidents occur each year while cleaning a loaded gun, why isn't it unloaded first?
If it's necessary to fire the gun afterwards, which I can't imagine why, couldn't you just shoot it into the ground?

People are idiots. Usually when a gun fires while cleaning it is because they didn't clear the chamber first. You don't need to fire it anywhere will cleaning it. Just have to unload the chamber.