The crime is probably solvable if the Sheriff's Department is able to devote the resources to thoroughly investigate it.
There are only about 4 suspects (the homeowners who got the improved view of the lake). The trees were huge, so it is unlikely that the guilty homeowner cut them himself. Thus, he had to contact and pay a professional tree cutter. He probably did not anticipate all the scrutiny and was not as careful as he should have been.
Thus, if I were doing the investigation, I would:
1. Ask the four homeowners to let me look at their phone and bank records for the relevant periods. (Anybody who refused would be the immediate suspect.)
2. Subpoena the phone records of those homeowners and check for calls to tree-cutters. I would also subpoena bank records of the homeowners and look for large cash withdrawals during the relevant period.
3. Have a heart-to-heart talk with the tree cutter, and get him to flip on the homeowner--probably offer him immunity.
I think that there is a pretty good chance that the homeowner responsible for the tree cutting is reading this column. If so, I say to you, You should be very, very worried. Think along these lines: How much extra should I slip the tree cutter to buy his silence? Where do I get the cash without leaving a paper trail? (This could get very expensive.) What about my wife? (I better better not get her mad at me, and a divorce is out of the question until the statute of limitations on tree cutting runs out.) What about the neighbors? Who did I tell about this? Who saw what was going on? Are they going to continue to keep their mouths shut? Hell, I've got a lot to worry about. This isn't as easy as I thought it would be.
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