Friendly deer played role in arrest

After avoiding the law for almost 20 years, it was a tame deer that finally blew accused child molester Dudley Taylor's cover.

After avoiding the law for almost 20 years, it was a tame deer that finally blew accused child molester Dudley Taylor’s cover.

The former Yukoner was charged with three counts of sexual assault against three young children in March 1990.

He was released on $1,000 bail and in November of that year, disappeared.

The case against him never went beyond a preliminary hearing, the details of which are under a publication ban.

Although the trail went cold, it was never abandoned entirely.

Last year, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation contacted Robert Burks, police chief of Tonasket, a town of approximately 1,000 people in northern Washington, about the possibility of Taylor living in the area.

Included in the information the bureau sent to Burks was the fact that Taylor may be living off the grid, and also a photograph of the wanted man.

“One of the things that stood out was a picture of the guy petting a deer in his living room.”

Burks didn’t think much of this at first, he said in an interview with the Star on Wednesday, until he remembered a deer he had encountered on the road some time ago. The animal came up to the chief’s car and put its head in the window so he could pet it.

“I asked around and found out there was a guy out living in the bush who liked to keep a tame deer around.”

From there, Burks said, he searched local property records for the name Dudley Taylor.

He didn’t find a Dudley, but he found a Dwayne, as well as the name of a woman who the FBI had associated with the accused. With the two names and the curious fact of the domesticated deer, Burks knew he had his man.

He contacted the FBI with the information he had gathered, and asked them to let him know when they would be coming for the Canadian fugitive.

“The agent said, ‘Don’t do anything about it, we’ve got to do this carefully so he can be extradited.’”

But it wasn’t until a year later, on Sept. 17 of this year, that Taylor was finally arrested by U.S. Marshals.

Deputy Bill Downey, the arresting officer, said today that although Taylor had told friends he would never go to jail without a fight, he was taken into custody peacefully.

“It’s a given that he would be armed,” Downey said. “There were three rifles and three handguns in the house,” but Taylor never made any move to get them.

Downey said the Marshals, the federal law enforcement agency which typically deals with cases of fugitives and illegal aliens, obtained their information from Const. Craig Thur of the Whitehorse RCMP major crimes section.

RCMP spokesman Sgt. Mark Groves confirmed the major crimes unit has been investigating the case since 1990, but could not say whether they ever received Burks’ tip, and, if they did, why it took a year to arrest Taylor.

Taylor voluntarily agreed to be extradited back to Canada last Friday. He will most likely be sent back within a week, Downey said.

According to a Nov. 14 article in the Spokane Spokesman-Review, Taylor had been collecting $550 a month in Canadian disability pension cheques.

Calls to Service Canada, the department responsible for disabity payments, were not returned before press time this afternoon.