In the Crosshairs

A Maine Tragedy

Widower and hunter discuss the case of the white mittens and how they forever altered our relationship to outdoor sports.

by Robert Blechl

Kevin Wood awoke that morning unaware of the grief that would forever change his life a few hours later.

In his home were his life's treasures: wife Karen Ann and twin infant daughters Lindsey and Laura.

The Woods were new to Maine, having two months prior bought a house in Hermon, on the outskirts of Bangor. Both thought the Treadwell Acres subdivision would be a sound locale for their daughters and for Kevin to launch a career in pediatric psychology.

But the afternoon of November 15, 1988, brought the unthinkable.

The twins were still inside when Karen, 37, stepped into the backyard. Guesses vary as to why. Deer hunters had been nearing the premises in recent days, and the consensus is that she'd gone to warn a pair that'd ventured too close to the house.

Moments later, 130 feet from the back door, she was shot dead.

Anguish to Anger

“We met in high school,” Wood says. “She was a remarkable woman, physically beautiful, but that paled in comparison to her sensitivity and concern for the needs of others. And how much she enjoyed those kids. They really completed her life.”

Before the birth of her daughters, Karen Wood had completed a bachelor's in business and worked in banking, a career to which she'd planned to return.

The natives of Binghamton, New York, dated in college and married after Kevin earned a graduate degree in psychology. His pursuit of a Ph.D. took them to Iowa. For 12 years they'd delayed parenthood until they felt financially secure. At last the day arrived, and the family of four departed Iowa for Maine, where Kevin landed a job at Eastern Maine Medical Center. The twins celebrated their first birthday three weeks before their mother was killed.

“A lack of indictment clinched it for me,” Wood says. “I couldn't raise my daughters in an environment like that.”

Devastated, Wood sought direction and the solace of family in Binghamton. Five months later he returned to Iowa.

“There were a lot of reasons why I left Maine,” he explains. “There's a provincial attitude that exists. You hear people kidding that you have to be there three generations to be a Mainer. There's that attitude of ‘protecting their own.'” There were even articles describing ‘him' as a Boy Scout leader and hardworking grocery manager.

“I'm not saying he's not a decent person. But ultimately we have to be responsible for our actions and held accountable. Karen shouldn't be blamed for her own death because she wasn't wearing blaze orange on her property.”

White Flag or White Mittens

The person in question is Donald Rogerson.

Rogerson, along with friend and attorney Peter Anderson, had been stalking deer near the boundary of the Wood backyard. The men were separated and out of contact at the time of the shooting. Wood was at the medical center, counseling a suicidal patient.

Rogerson was carrying a pump-action Remington Model 760, caliber .30-06, loaded with a standard deer cartridge.

The Maine Warden Service determined that he fired the fatal shots 286 feet from a nearby house. Maine law prohibits the discharge of a firearm within 300 feet of a residence. Rogerson said he'd locked a “white flag” (the upturned tail of a fleeing deer) in his rifle sights before firing the first shot and following it up with a second. The vicinity was subsequently searched for droppings, hair, and hoof prints. Investigators found no trace of deer.

Though Rogerson was charged with manslaughter, the first grand jury declined to deliver an indictment. Ten months later, however, the Warden Service convened a press conference: it was revealed several weeks prior that a nephew of the late Lewis Vafiades (Rogerson's defense attorney) had served on the first grand jury.

Two questions came to light as well, spawned in part by a small band of conspiracy theorists who believed Rogerson might have been taking the fall for someone else. First, why were Wood's white mittens found beside her body and not on her hands? (The key defense was this pair of mittens, which Rogerson sympathizers say he mistook for a “white flag.”) Secondly, why were investigators unable to conclusively link the bullet from Rogerson's rifle with the fatal one?

Gary Sargent, now seven years into retirement, was lead investigator for the Warden Service. Sargent says the mittens, if they covered Karen Wood's hands prior to the shooting, were either removed or inadvertently slipped off during the time Rogerson picked her up, carried her, and tried to resuscitate her.

No additional investigation was done on the bullets.

“It was a well-used rifle,” Sargent says, “and there was too much wear in the [barrel] for a positive identification. But there was never a question that [Rogerson fired the shots].”

Mounting controversy soon prompted a second grand jury, which voted to indict. The trial ended in acquittal.

Recounts Wood: “Vafiades went to so far as to cast doubt as to whether Rogerson was the shooter and that Karen was somehow at fault. You have to get a sense that community support was markedly in favor of the shooter. It caused a lot of pain.”

Sargent felt pain of a different sort as the November sun sank behind Treadwell Acres. “The hardest part of that night was seeing the girls in that house. It struck at the heart.”

Public Perception, Private Hell

“I've never been anti-hunting,” Wood maintains. “I'm pro-responsible hunting. I appreciate people who are responsible and take responsibility for their actions.”

Wood, who owns guns and hunts pheasant, draws a distinction. “Slob hunters—they're out to shoot at noise or movement, so hyped up, adrenaline flowing—give all good hunters a bad name.

“There's another reason why I left Maine: the slant that filled the local newspapers in the wake of Karen's death,” Wood says. “Can you imagine what it was like reading editorials criticizing Karen, how she had the audacity not to wear blaze orange in her own backyard and how people come to build these houses in pristine wilderness?”

Frederick Badger, the Wood family attorney, calls it “a sad case to work on.”

“Public perception,” says Badger, “had Karen wandering the woods, a ‘New York transplant' who did not understand that when deer season is on everyone is supposed to be deferential to that.

“It was an in-state vs. out-of-state phenomenon,” Badger explains. “People started looking at [Rogerson] as the victim, as a hometown boy who made a mistake. But the reality is he killed a woman in her own backyard and wasn't held accountable for it.”

What constitutes a backyard became a wrangling point in the trial. In 1988, Treadwell Acres consisted of some 10 homes accessed by a cul-de-sac and enveloped by trees.

“There wasn't much of a back lawn to the Wood house,” Sargent recalls. “Its backside abutted the trees, through which a swath was cut to the well. Karen stood in that swath when Rogerson pulled the trigger.

“There was a lot of undergrowth,” Sargent remembers. “It was dense enough that standing where Rogerson stood I couldn't see the house. Not that it makes any difference in my opinion. You don't shoot at something you can't identify.”

Wood says the thickness of the trees—as stated repeatedly in local editorials—was exaggerated.

“Defenders of Rogerson would say it was densely wooded. It was hardly forested. There was a cleared area with seeded grass. Incidentally, too, there was a swath of short grasses, shrubs, and power lines 40 yards wide to demarcate people's homes. Rogerson shot across the swath of cleared area with his four-power scope.”

The Verdict

Wood believes the prosecution made a strong argument.

“I was surprised at the not-guilty verdict. I honestly thought it would be a hung jury because one rational person would hear the evidence and not be swayed by community opinion.”

After his acquittal of negligent homicide in 1990, Rogerson faced a civil suit. It was resolved to the agreement of both parties. Details remain undisclosed.

Though they'd sat within feet of each other throughout the criminal proceedings, Wood and Rogerson never met. “I've never made a point to meet him,” Wood says. “And, to my knowledge, he never made a formal request to meet me.”

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