It has been nearly two and a half years since Daria Goggins’ Holsteins were killed in Richmond, and she’s still looking for answers.

Goggins announced this week she’s doubling the reward for information — from $2,500 to $5,000 — leading to the arrest and conviction of whoever is responsible for killing her pet cows, Isadora and Theodore. She also has set up a private tip line, 629-8766, and any tips that come in will be investigated by the private investigator she has retained.

Standing in front of a foundation that was poured recently to enable construction of a barn for her cows at her Richmond home, Daria Goggins talks at Nov. 21, 2015, about finding her pair of Holsteins shot and killed a day earlier. Goggins said Friday she is increasing a reward for information on the case from $2,500 to $5,000. Staff photo by Joe Phelan

“Most people would let this go,” Goggins said Friday. “But that’s not my personality. I really want justice. It’s so important to me.”

The Richmond Police Department investigated the animal killings.

“This was an intentional act. Someone went there with the intention to inflict harm on those animals,” Richmond police Sgt. James Donnell said Friday. “We would love to solve this.”

Sometime on the afternoon of Friday, Nov. 20, 2015, one or more people lured twins Theodore and Isadora out of their pasture on Savage Road in Richmond and shot each cow once with an arrow from either a crossbow or a compound bow.

It had been raining that day, and the contractors who had been working on the property were not there.

Goggins and her brother Mark had gone to Lewiston to drop off a vehicle to be detailed. When they headed out again from Richmond to pick it up when it was done, Goggins said she noticed the Holsteins weren’t where she expected them to be. When they investigated, they found the lock on the gate to the cows’ paddock had been cut. And then they found the 12-year-old cows, which had been led from their pasture, by a stone wall that ran along the back end of the property.

“When farm animals get killed, people say it must have been bored teenagers or someone who enjoys killing animals,” she said.

But Goggins said she thinks the killing of her Holsteins was a crime of revenge or retaliation.

At the time, police were looking for anyone who had noticed a 2000 green Dodge 2500 extended cab pickup with tinted windows in the back, and they said they had identified two persons of interest who were not considered suspects.

In the wake of the killings, Goggins’ life changed dramatically. She said she was in a state of self-imposed house arrest for a year. During that time, she met and befriended a number of people involved in horse rescue, and she started getting involved. To date, she has rescued 16 horses. She also has more cows, and 10 lambs she bought from the lamb sale at the Windsor Fair and has raised.

“You might say I have overcompensated, but nonetheless, the animals are safe here and well cared for,” she said.

Goggins initially had put up $2,500 as a reward for information, and Richmond police asked anyone with information to contact the department. This time around, she said, she thinks people might feel more comfortable calling an anonymous tip line. And this time, she’ll have direct access to any tips that come in.

She hopes with the higher reward, people might start to question their loyalties and weigh them against the promise of a cash reward.

“I have done my time. I have lived with this every single day,” she said. “It’s so terrible. Of all the mistakes I have made in my life, there’s only one that bothers me more than my decision to buy this property and put my house here in Richmond.”

If someone is arrested and prosecuted, she said, she thinks it will help her move past the deaths of her well-loved cows.

Jessica Lowell — 621-5632

jlowell@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @JLowellKJ

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