Charlotte Foster
Legal

Where the Crawdads Sing author wanted for questioning over murder

Best-selling author Delia Owens has been receiving global attention for all the wrong reasons, as it has been revealed she is wanted for questioning over a murder committed in Zambia. 

Owens, who shot to the top of the New York Times best seller list with her novel Where the Crawdads Sing, has been back in the public eye recently as her novel is being adapted into a film, and has garnered a lot of buzz. 

However, as the spotlight has been placed back on the story, many people have noticed some strange parallels to Delia's personal life and the protagonist in her novel. 

Before Owens published Where the Crawdads Sing, she worked as a zoologist and conservationist in Africa alongside her husband Mark. 

During the 1990s, the couple were focusing on battling poachers in Zambia’s North Luangwa National Park, as detailed in Owens’ second book, The Eye of the Elephant, which was released in 1992.

In 1996, the couple then featured a documentary about their work, as they had established a reputation of being ruthless in their efforts to stop the poachers. 

Bizarrely, the documentary included a scene that depicts, according to Jeffrey Goldberg writing in The Atlantic, “the filmed murder of an alleged poacher, executed while lying collapsed on the ground after having already been shot.”

 

Goldberg has been following the Owens case since the beginning, and his 2010 story in The New Yorker revealed that the couple – along with Mark’s son Christopher – were suspected by Zambian authorities of being involved in the killing. 

The Zambian national police launched an investigation but the body of the executed poacher was never found, as Mark, Delia and Christopher returned to America. 

The story is back in the public eye as the film adaptation of Where the Crawdads Sing continues to excite fans of book, which follows protagonist Kya, a young woman accused of murder. 

It’s hard to say whether Delia would actually face charges, but in The Atlantic piece Goldberg spoke to Zambia’s director of public prosecutions, Lillian Shawa-Siyuni, who confirmed that Mark, Delia, and Christopher Owens are still wanted for questioning.

“There is no statute of limitations on murder in Zambia,” Siyuni told Goldberg. “They are all wanted for questioning in this case, including Delia Owens.”

Image credits: Getty Images

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legal, Delia Owens, author, questioning, murder