$3K reward offered in search for suspects in St. Paul goat’s death

$3K reward offered in goat's killing

A $3,000 reward is being offered for information that leads to an arrest in the killing of a St. Paul school's goat.

ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) - This school year, the Great River Montessori School in St. Paul is missing a treasured member of its school community named Hazelnut the goat.

Hazelnut was a school pet, and her death has had far-reaching impacts on students.

"What remained of the goat was found in a storage bin, my understanding was that the goat was butchered so that the goat was used for meat," Head of School David Nunez said.

Back in June, school security cameras captured at least two unfamiliar people on school property. They apparently climbed a small fence to access the locked animal pen and carry Hazelnut away. Within about a week, Nunez says authorities found the animal’s body.

Since then, Ann Leland has been passing out flyers, in hopes of helping find the people responsible. She’s even put up $2,000 of a new $3,000 Crime Stoppers reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspects in Hazelnut’s death.

"It just upsets me when I think about her… [it] just stabbed me in my heart that she was so willing to go with this person that cut her up and mutilated her," Leland said on Wednesday. "You should be ashamed of yourself for what you did."

Great River was once home to three goats, but the two surviving animals were sent away after Hazelnut's death. Since then, the school has raised about $15,000 in donations; they hope to use that money to enhance security and bring the goats back home soon.