Bizarre, Criminal law

Can You Guess What This Person Was Charged With?

travis-tarrants Travis Tarrants, 40, has the distinctions of not just being accused of being a stalker but a stalker with a dead animal fetish. Oh, I forgot, he really really wanted to teach fourth graders in French Lick, Indiana.

Tarrants is not someone who takes rejection well. After another man got a job as a teacher and basketball coach with the Springs Valley School Corporation, Tarrants is accused of stalking the man
and making his life a living hell. He allegedly made repeated calls to the Department of Child Services to say that the victim was having sex with an underage student and was abusing his fiancée’s daughter. He is also accused of sending dead animals in the mail, including four skunks and a raccoon. The packages were sent to the victim at Medora High School.

The dead raccoon was accompanied by a note reading “RESIGN! IT WILL NOT STOP.” All of the packages were written to leave the impression that they came from others, like the man’s fiancée.

Another letter that was misrepresented as coming from a 15-year-old student contained a picture of a man’s genitals and the victim’s telephone number.

The cars of the victims were also sprayed painted with “F*** u” and “u will die.”

One witness may be Tarrants’ girlfriend who reportedly said that she never understood why he trapped five or seven live skunks and kept them alive for days.

Tarrants faces may two felony charges of stalking, two felony charges of intimidation and two felony charges of criminal mischief.

You may also be wondering why the town has its name. You will be disappointed if you were looking for something romantic, exotic, or prurient. French Lick was named after the early French settlers who traded near a salt and mineral lick in the area.

22 thoughts on “Can You Guess What This Person Was Charged With?”

  1. If he was spray painting death threats and willing to handle skunks, it sounds lucky that they caught this guy before he hurt anyone. Thank goodness law enforcement was able to solve this, and Tarrants was unsuccessful in painting the victim as a pedophile.

    I feel so very sorry for not only his adult victim, but the teenager he victimized with his false claim of molestation. That would be devastating for her to have such rumors spread about her.

    But my biggest question is how was Tarrants able to have a girlfriend? After having trapped and kept 7 skunks, you’d think most gals would have suddenly been too busy washing their hair. And that’s sad about the skunks. As long as they are not rabid, they are shy fluffy little things that don’t hurt anyone. They are incapable of hurting anything, which is why they have the whole stinky defense mechanism in the first place. But boy will they ruin your whole week if they detonate. I’m curious if he was in the interrogation room, stinking so much the detectives’ eyes were watering, claiming innocence.

    1. Karen – he had the skunk catching down to a science. Clearly he was very good at it.

    1. Mysterious death of his mother. Never solved….also mysterious death of his step-father but cant seem to find anything on that at this time.

  4. Moved to Indiana more than forty years ago and this is the first time I’ve ever heard the suggestion that the historic town of French Lick has a prurient name. Get your mind out of the gutter.

  5. His girlfriend was a 24 year old that had sex with 17 year olds. The hick from French Lick.

  6. Any male who has been a consumer in a French cathouse knows what the “French lick” means. Those people in Indiana named that town that name for the same reason. There were women there at the time of the naming who had offerings.

  9. Do you proof read? At all? If you let interns or whoever write under your byline, (because I seriously hope you didn’t write this) at least read their work. – …”has the distinctions of not just being accused”? “After another man got a judge as a teacher and basketball coach”? “You may also be wondering why the town says such a seemingly prurient name.”
    C’mon. Have some standards for gods sake.

    1. If he needs a proofreader, it shouldn’t be you.

      It’s for God’s sake, not for gods sake.

      1. Got ’em! Nicely nitpicked! :p

        However, the point stays valid…. this blog does struggle with linguistics more than it should…
        A lot more than you’d expect from people working with legalese all day…

        1. BelgianBrain – most of JT’s articles are written sometime around midnight ET. At that hour I am not sure how coherent I would be. 🙂

    2. If you look to to the blue menu bar below the painting of men in wigs (you may need to minimize the sidebar) to see it with the links to other parts of the blog you will see the link to the corrections thread which J T provides for such help in proofreading which he has specifically requested

  12. I’m not as shocked by the details of the story as I am by the reference that this mutant had a supposed girlfriend. Now, that’s shocking. The old saying must be true–there’s a lid for every pot. In his case, there’s a lid for every ginormous pot.

  13. I do not see that he had a fetish, only that he likes sending dead animals in the mail.

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