It continues to grow....
NEILLSVILLE, Wis. (AP) - The Clark County Sheriff's Department is investigating whether there is a link between the man suspected of killing six deer hunters in northern Wisconsin this week and the unsolved murder of a hunter three years ago.
"We jumped on it right away, my detective who is in charge of this," Clark County Sheriff Louis Rosandich said Wednesday. "This incident which occurred in Clark County is not out of the minds of our citizens or anyone else."
Jim Southworth, 37, of Medford, was shot to death Nov. 23, 2001, as he hunted alone on family land 10 miles east of Neillsville.
Rosandich said investigators immediately got in touch with officials in Sawyer County to share information after six hunters were killed and two others wounded in a shootout Sunday.
"Of course the case which has occurred over in Sawyer County, it does certainly perk our interest, but it is too premature to make any determination as to a link to the Clark County incident of 2001," he said. "We're hoping that the information they gain may help us in solving our case."
An autopsy found Southworth was shot twice in the back, and court records say several of those killed Sunday were shot in the back.
Sketch of one of the suspects in the 2001 killing of Jim Southworth.
In the Southworth killing, hunters in the area reported seeing a pickup truck with three Asian men in it in the area where Southworth's body was found, Rosandich said. It happened about 80 miles south of Sunday's shooting.
The three men were described as Asian, from 5-foot-4 inches to 6-feet tall, driving a silver or gray Nissan or Chevrolet pickup truck, possibly a late 1980s model.
Chai Vang, 36, of St. Paul, Minn., who is being held on $2.5 million bond in the Sawyer County shootings, is 5-foot-4, according to a court document.
Citing an unnamed online search engine, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Wednesday that Vang has owned a 1987 pickup truck.
Sawyer County authorities say a dispute over a tree stand on private property likely sparked this week's shooting, and one of the theories in Southworth's murder was that he may have been shot after confronting a trespasser. His body was found about 200 yards from his tree stand.
Vang, a St. Paul truck driver, had an out-of-state license to hunt in Wisconsin during 2001, said Mike Bartz, a Department of Natural Resources warden manager. He also had licenses in 2000, 2002 and this year.
Rosandich said his department has pursued numerous leads, but "nothing has really benefited us in getting any closer at solving this case."
"We've kind of been at this dead end since this case started," he said.
He said investigators handed out fliers and other information in Wisconsin's Asian community, but they were never able to even come up with possible identities for the men reported in the area.
Rosandich said officials from the state Justice Department already were involved in the Clark County case, and are assisting in the Sawyer County investigation. Justice Department spokesman Brian Rieselman said officials would not comment on a possible link in the cases.
Sawyer County Sheriff James Meier said he was unaware of any connection. "None, except for maybe the Asian connection. That is a lot of speculation," Meier said.
There is a $50,000 reward for information in Southworth's death
