Feds use DNA to nail elk poacher in Mount Rainier National Park
ASHFORD, Wash. — Mount Rainier National Park rangers used DNA testing to convict an elk poacher.
Rangers found a kill site on Nov. 6 well within the southeast corner of the park. They found hunters camping three days later just south of the park boundary.One hunter, 48-year-old dean Douglas Harriman of Arlington, said he had killed an elk in the White Pass area. He refused to let rangers take a blood sample, so they took samples of blood splatters in the camp and blood drippings from sacks of meat hanging in the trees.
The Fish and Wildlife forensics lab in Ashland, Ore., matched it to blood from the kill site in the park.
The Park Service says Harriman pleaded guilty in federal court to illegally taking wildlife. He was fined $500 and ordered to pay $2,500 restitution.
