In January 2023, Detective Constable Aaron Flint from Lincolnshire Police’s Wildlife Crime Unit appealed for information after the discovery of various body parts from three barn owls, one tawny owl and one red kite were found dumped in a ditch near Sleaford (see here and here).
Today, DC Flint has provided an update on the investigation:
Raptor Persecution UK 
What’s left – trapped? I take it the deaths are being treated as suspicious and still being investigated? It doesn’t sound like any answers will be found though, alas, like a lot of raptor deaths
Just wondered how, if the body parts were a relatively small part, %, of the whole, how can shooting be ruled out?
And equally strange…
To avoid any confusion, I’m actually referring to the reply to Tim from the Lincolnshire Police WCO.
I assume finding the remains of 3 raptors together in a ditch is not something which would occur naturally?
If the birds were in good health prior to death then the most logical conclusion has to be the birds died from unnatural causes, and someone placed the dead birds together when they were disposed of-which may indicate that they died as a result of an unlawful act?
There therefore is the possibility that someone in the area is persecuting birds of prey and dumping their bodies to be scavenged by crows or foxes in the belief that this will conceal their crimes.
The finding of these dead birds may just have been a lucky opportunity which provided a window onto what may be happening in that part of Lincolnshire
So, have Lincolnshire police concluded their investigation, or are they still investigating what might have happened to these birds?
A good investigator needs an enquiring mind, and I am not always convinced some police officers have that “enquiring mind”!