‘Where the Crawdads Sing’ Creator Wished For Questioning In 1996 Murder: Report

Delia Owens, creator of the bestselling novel “Where the Crawdads Sing” that follows the murder investigation of a young guy, is reportedly wished for questioning in an true murder that took position in southern Africa practically 3 many years in the past.

The American creator, who was known for her animal conservation get the job done extended just before her novel-turned-Hollywood-movie, is thought to have information and facts about a 1996 shooting demise of a suspected poacher in Zambia that was captured on video clip, The Atlantic claimed Monday citing Zambian officers.

The victim and the shooter were never ever publicly identified and a physique was in no way uncovered, in spite of the video clip evidence that was broadcast as part of a documentary on the ABC Information program “Turning Place.” But around 26 decades later, nearby authorities reportedly nonetheless want solutions from Owens her partner, Mark Owens and his son, Christopher Owens.

“There is no statute of limits on murder in Zambia,” Lillian Shawa-Siyuni, Zambia’s director of public prosecutions, told The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg, who first reported in depth on the Owens’ involvement for The New Yorker in 2010. “They are all wished for questioning in this case, like Delia Owens.”

Mark and Delia Owens are seen in the North Luangwa National Park in Zambia at an undisclosed date. The couple returned to the U.S. permanently after a news crew shadowing their work filmed a suspected poacher being shot to death.

Delia Owens, who did not immediately reply to HuffPost’s request for remark Tuesday, experienced been aiding oversee anti-poaching attempts in Africa in the 1980s and ’90s when her work with Mark Owens was documented by ABC Information and journalist Meredith Vieira.

The few allowed the crew to shadow their operate, main to controversial footage of another person fatally taking pictures a suspected poacher just after lying in hold out for them at their camp.

“The bodies of the poachers are typically remaining wherever they fall for the animals to consume,” Vieira suggests in the movie as the cameraman ways nearer to the blurred victim lying on the ground.

The cameraman, Chris Everson, advised Goldberg in his 2010 piece that it was Christopher Owens who shot the man. Delia Owens denied this to Goldberg, nonetheless, and stated that people today confused her son with the cameraman who was there since they share the same to start with name.

Vieira, also talking to Goldberg in 2010, mentioned that the ABC crew was permitted to tag along with the patrol so prolonged as they agreed not to determine anyone associated if a taking pictures happened.

ABC News did not quickly reply to HuffPost’s request for remark on news of the investigation remaining open up and whether the outlet is cooperating.

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The Owenses moved back again to the U.S. soon soon after the controversial footage aired. This followed regional uproar and the American Embassy advising them not to return owing to security problems.

The couple’s foundation, the Owens Foundation for Wildlife Conservation, from which Delia Owens took a “step back” in 2019 in accordance to a previous newsletter, also did not immediately reply to a ask for for comment.

Delia Owens printed her debut novel, “Where the Crawdads Sing,” in 2019. It became a New York Moments bestseller with far more than than 15 million copies offered. The movie adaptation, produced by Reese Witherspoon, is established to be unveiled Friday.