STILLWATER, Okla. — Four people have been charged in connection to a dead longhorn being left on the front lawn of an Oklahoma State University fraternity house last month, according to court documents obtained by WFAA.
Alpha Gamma Rho (AGR) members Bennett Fady, Luke Ackerley, Brody Shelby, and Andrew King were arrested Wednesday for a misdemeanor of unlawful removal/disposal of a carcass at FarmHouse fraternity.
On Dec. 1 ahead of the Big 12 Championship game between Oklahoma State and the Texas Longhorns, the Stillwater Police Department responded to a call about a dead longhorn on the front lawn. The carcass had an expletive carved into its side, and the stomach was cut open.
FarmHouse fraternity members told police they suspected it was dumped by members of Alpha Gamma Rho, the rival fraternity. The two houses had been in an ongoing prank war.
While the story seemed to cool off following the conclusion of the Big 12 Championship Game, the Stillwater Police Department continued to conduct a thorough investigation behind the scenes to hold the guilty parties responsible.
A necropsy report determined the cow died of disease about 36 hours before it was found — meaning it was dead before the frat boys got ahold of it, according to law enforcement. Police determined the Longhorn died of natural causes and the branding and incision of the abdomen occurred postmortem.
In the court documents, police said that the longhorn came from the property of a family member of a separate AGR member. According to investigators, the four had borrowed another AGR member's pickup truck to haul the longhorn, and the owner of that truck said he didn't know what it was going to be used for.
Stillwater police served a search warrant at the AGR house to get video from the time of the incident but said a large portion of surveillance video was missing from around that time. While serving the warrant, police interviewed AGR members about the incident and came up with Fady, Ackerley, Shelby and King as suspects.
All four suspects were arrested and booked into Payne County Jail. They where released on their own recognizance and have pleaded not guilty.
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