‘Where the Crawdads Sing’ Author Wanted in Connection With Zambia Shooting

Author Delia Owens and two others are needed for questioning in Zambia in reference to the dying of a suspected poacher in 1996.

Owens is the creator of the favored 2018 novel Where the Crawdads Sing, which has been became a film starring Daisy Edgar-Jones and produced by Reese Witherspoon. Delia’s ex-husband Mark Owens, and his son Christopher Owens, are additionally needed for questioning in reference to the incident.

The Owens household was the topic of a Nineteen Nineties ABC documentary referred to as Deadly Game: The Mark and Delia Owens Story. The Atlantic has regarded into the documentary once more, and dug deeper into the story.

The unique documentary, launched by Diane Sawyer and narrated by Meredith Vieira, confirmed the execution of an unidentified man who’s known as a “trespasser.” He had already been shot earlier than being executed whereas collapsed on the bottom. The capturing is not proven on digicam, neither is the identification of the one who shot him.

Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, and the journalist who’s been following the story for over a decade, additionally wrote in regards to the topic in a 2010 article in The New Yorker. That piece included an interview with the ABC cameraman Chris Everson, who filmed the killing. He accused Christopher Owens of firing the deadly pictures.

“I don’t know what was going on in Chris’s mind,” Everson stated. “He had a rush of blood to the head. I don’t know why he shot him in the first place. I don’t.” Everson then claimed that Christopher fired the ultimate three pictures on the man’s physique on the bottom. “I should never have allowed it to happen,” the cameraman stated.

Zambia’s director of public prosecutions, Lillian Shawa-Siyuni, confirmed to The Atlantic that Delia, Mark and Christopher Owens are nonetheless needed for questioning in relation to the killing of the alleged poacher, in addition to different potential felony actions within the area of North Luangwa.

Twelve years in the past when interviewed by Goldberg in regards to the killing, Delia denied any data of the incident and acknowledged that “Chris wasn’t there.” The Owens returned to America from Zambia shortly after the documentary aired in 1996.

Delia Owens had beforehand printed three memoirs, Cry of the Kalahari (1984), The Eye of the Elephant (1992) and Secrets of the Savanna (2006), earlier than she launched her debut novel, the worldwide greatest vendor Where the Crawdads Sing in 2018.

Delia and Mark moved to Africa in 1974, initially setting in Botswana, which fashioned the premise of her first memoir. They had been reportedly expelled from Botswana for campaigning in opposition to the native cattle business earlier than settling within the North Luangwa National Park, and later in Mpika, Zambia.

The film adaptation of Where the Crawdads Sing, produced by Reese Witherspoon, shall be launched in film theaters on Friday, July 15.

Newsweek has contacted Delia Owens straight for remark. Newsweek has additionally reached out to Sony Pictures Releasing representatives, the studio distributing the upcoming film Where the Crawdads Sing.