6 charged in Pa. poaching ring that killed over 100 deer

WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP, Pa. (KDKA) -- Six people, including three juveniles, were charged in a poaching ring that the Pennsylvania Game Commission said killed over 100 deer. 

The six people from Franklin County allegedly left most of the deer to rot in what the Game Commission called "a complete disregard for our wildlife resources." 

Hunter Atherton, Abigale Hoover and Caillou Patterson, all 20 years old and from Greencastle, were charged as well as three juveniles. 

It started in September of last year when the Game Commission said dispatchers began getting calls about people finding deer shot to death in their front yards and fields in the southern Franklin County area. 

After hours of nighttime patrols, the Game Commission said a warden caught a break in January when he found a vehicle at a gas station in Washington Township that matched a description given in one report.

The Game Commission said the warden hid along a road where numerous deer had been killed over the past few months and heard "multiple gunshots pierce the silence of the cold night." He then saw the same vehicle he had spotted at the gas station. 

One adult and two juveniles were inside with a loaded .22 Magnum caliber rifle and admitted to shooting at three deer, the Game Commission said. Follow-up interviews later implicated two adults and one juvenile. 

The Game Commission said the group estimated they shot between 100 to 200 deer "just for fun." 

The six people face a combined total of 113 counts of the unlawful taking or killing of game or wildlife, 207 counts of the unlawful use of lights while hunting, 42 counts of the possession of loaded firearms in a vehicle, 62 counts of restrictions on recreational spotlighting and 62 counts of the unlawful use of a vehicle to locate game or wildlife. 

Atherton, Hoover and Patterson also face corruption of minors charges and Atherton was charged with recklessly endangering the welfare of others.