Another artifact-theft defendant found dead of apparent suicide

Another artifact-theft defendant found dead of apparent suicide

Raid fallout » Santa Fe resident apparently shot himself in chest in Illinois, coroner says.
By Patty Henetz
Salt Lake Tribune
Updated:06/19/2009 04:13:31 PM MDT



A second defendant in the federal bust of archaeological looters in southern Utah has killed himself.

Steven L. Shrader, 56, shot himself twice in the chest late Thursday or early Friday behind an elementary schoool in the Village of Shabbona, Ill., authorities there said.

The DeKalb County sheriff's office had been looking for a "despondent individual" since receiving a call just before 11 p.m., said sheriff's office Chief Deputy Kevin Hickey.

Deputies launched a search with tracker dogs and found Shrader about 1 a.m. Flown by helicopter to a hospital in Rockford, Ill., he was pronounced dead at 2:18 a.m. Friday.

Shrader, a Santa Fe, N.M. resident, was among 24 people indicted in a 2 1/2-year investigation of looting and grave-robbing Indian artifacts on public and tribal land in southeastern Utah.

On June 10, federal agents simultaneously served warrants and arrested 19 residents of San Juan County and Moab in the bust. Shrader was one of four others also charged in the sweep.

The next day, Blanding doctor James Redd, who also was charged in the crackdown on illegal antiquity trafficking, took his life while sitting in his vehicle by a pond on his property. He died of carbon monoxide poisoning.

Winnebago County, Ill., Coroner Sue Fiduccia said Shrader was in Illinois to visit his mother. Fiduccia also said Shrader had left a note.

Hickey said the contents of the note would not be disclosed.

Reached at her home in Shabbona, Shrader's mother, Iola Schrader, said she "couldn't talk" and that she was alone.

Shrader voluntarily turned himself in last Friday at the FBI offices in Santa Fe and was taken into custody on a federal warrant, said FBI Special Agent in Charge Timothy Fuhrman of the Salt Lake City office.

Shrader was released from custody after his initial appearance in federal court in Albuquerque, N.M., on Monday. Federal agents took him back to Santa Fe that day. His residence was not the subject of any of the search warrants executed by the FBI and BLM. He was scheduled to make an initial appearance in Salt Lake City on Friday morning, Fuhrman said.

U.S. Attorney for Utah Brett Tolman said that during the operation, an undercover operative paid about $336,000 for more than 250 artifacts from the Four Corners area, including sacred prayer sticks, baby blankets, seed jars and other objects included in ancient Puebloan burial mounds.

Shrader, who faced two felony counts, was indicted for trafficking in stolen artifacts along with Carl Crites, 74, Marie Crites, 68, and Richard Bourret, 59, all of Durango, Colo.

An affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Denver implicates Shrader in a 2008 "arrowhead hunt" in Disappointment Valley near Dove Creek, Colo. The affidavit says an undercover operative, identified only as the "Source," was in the Crites residence in March 2008, where Crites displayed arrowheads he said came from Disappointment Valley, a huge area ringed by prehistoric ruins.

During a subsequent conversation between the Source, Shrader said he had gone to the valley with Crites. It was unclear from court papers whether he was on public land.

Reached at his home in Durango, Crites said he was unsure of Shrader's involvement in the federal case. "I don't know why he was charged even," Crites said. "I don't think he did anything wrong."

Crites lamented the loss. "That's a shock to me, because he was a friend," Crites said. "He was a good young man. A single man. A hard-working man. Very personable."

Crites declined to further discuss his relationship with Shrader.

Brandon Loomis contributed to this article.

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