Document text
Wimer family looks for clues after lambs gunned down Saturday May 6, 2017 at 12:47 PM May 6, 2017 at 12:49 PM By Troy Shinn of the Grants Pass Daily Courier A Wimer area family is looking for answers after someone shot and killed several lambs, apparently with an assault-type weapon. Another was missing altogether, possibly stolen by the perpetrator. "My daughter noticed them first," Wanda Embshoff told the Daily Courier. "She thought maybe they were resting, then when she walked off the property she saw two more. Then she saw that they had been shot in the head." The Embshoffs called the police and the Jackson County Sheriff's Office is handling the case. The assumption is that someone must have come onto their property late at night on April 28 or early the following morning and killed four lambs and took one. Embshoff said that police told her the gunshot wounds appeared to match a high-capacity rifle, like an AR-15. Embshoff noted that no one heard the gunshots and there were no bullet casings to be found. "It's nerve-wracking to know that someone is on our property at night," Embshoff said. They live in a secluded area, down a gravel road that's not easy to go down at night or without being noticed. The Embshoffs' neighbors captured video of a truck that night on a security camera, though it wasn't enough to conclude anything. What's worse is that whoever it was came back the next night, this time killing two more lambs. One of them was shot several times. No one heard the shots that night either. The Embshoffs have only one lamb left, and it's injured after apparently being trampled by the sheep and other lambs during the commotion on one of the nights. The lambs were very young, still suckling milk and prancing around as baby lambs do. Embshoff, 72, and her husband are both retired. They breed livestock for some extra income, and that's what the lambs were for. "Now all of our profits are gone ... and the mothers are in pain," Embshoff said. Embshoff can't fathom who would do this or why. "I don't understand the mentality of someone who would want to hurt small animals," she said. "They're lambs you know, they aren't dangerous or anything." She has no idea who would want to do this to her family, either, saying that they don't have any problems with anyone in the Evans Valley area. Neighbors have said they don't know anything, she said. The Embshoffs are looking for any information that leads to an arrest in this case. Tips can be made to the Sheriff's Office at 541-776-7206.