Tuesday, August 19, 2003

By John C. Street

DNA testing will be used in an effort to determine whether a deer seized from a Jefferson County farm last month is Goliath, a prized whitetail who was stolen nearly four years ago.

A tissue sample was taken from the animal on Sunday and results of the tests are expected within two weeks. The tests will help determine whether the deer is the one taken from Rod and Dianne Miller's farm on the night of Oct. 20, 1999.

Goliath, whose value was estimated at $500,000 to $1 million after he was stolen, was the object of an extensive search by the state police, the FBI and the Pennsylvania Game Commission. At the time of the theft, he had 28 points and weighed 260 pounds, making him the largest racked 2-year-old whitetail ever bred in captivity.

On July 29, four members of the Pennsylvania Deer Farmers Association believed they discovered him at White Oak Whitetail Deer Farm near the town of Hazen and alerted the Millers, who obtained a court order giving them possession of the animal.

Jim Spence, owner of White Oak Whitetail Deer Farm, petitioned the court for DNA testing, claiming the deer, which he calls "Hercules," is rightfully his.

Jefferson County President Judge John Foradora approved the request and ordered that the deer be tranquilized by injection so that DNA samples could be taken. Veterinarians said the procedure was too risky because of the hot weather and the short time since the animal was last tranquilized July 30 for the return to the Millers' farm.

Instead, in front of numerous witnesses, including four officers from the state police, Goliath was shot with a sampling dart, which removed a small amount of tissue from the deer's hindquarters.

Jim Shields, veterinarian for Spence, meticulously packaged and labeled the tissue for delivery to a testing lab. Additional DNA samples were taken from Goliath's first-year shed antlers, which the Millers had kept in their possession, as well as his second-year rack, which Spence provided.

Spence's attorney, Troy Harper, claims his client "had proper possession of the deer." He is considering filing a motion on Spence's behalf to dissolve the court order that returned the deer to the Millers.

While the outcome of the DNA tests will likely have a large bearing on whether that motion is approved, it does not necessarily mean the end of the dispute if the tests come back with a positive identification of Goliath.

"The DNA samples are being sent to a lab of the Millers', not our, choosing. We wanted to have them sent to a second lab, one that we selected, but the Millers would not agree," Harper said.

The Millers, who put up their farm as collateral for a bond that allowed them to retain possession of the deer while tests are made, have no doubt that the deer is Goliath.

Rod Miller says he could identify Goliath by his facial features alone. Also, there is a tattoo the Millers put in the deer's left ear, the basic configuration of the rack (antlers get larger every year but the basic shape remains the same) and a wart that only the Millers, who bottle-fed the deer as a fawn, knew about.

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