A troubled man whose fear of reprisal for his undercover role in an artifact-trafficking probe prompted him to sleep with a gun, and whose heavy drinking landed him in the hospital this winter, apparently shot himself to death this week at his Salt Lake County home. Ted Gardiner, the civilian operative at the center of a 2 1/2-year federal crackdown that spanned the Four Corners region, had turned 52 just a week earlier. Police said Gardiner told his roommates about 6 p.m. Monday that he was suicidal. A short time later, a gunshot rang out from his bedroom in the home near 1700 East and 5000 South. "At this point, we're strongly leaning toward the fact that his death was the result of a self-inflicted gunshot wound," Unified Police Department Lt. Don Hutson said Tuesday. Gardiner's is the third suicide after a June 10 raid in southern Utah netted two-dozen suspects, most of them from San Juan County, on multiple felony charges of grave robbing and stealing from prehistoric American Indian ruins on Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service land. Two defendants in the artifact sweep -- James Redd, of Blanding, and Steven Shrader, of Santa Fe, N.M. -- committed suicide after being indicted...read more
COMMENT: With so many things going on, including illegal aliens from terrorist-harboring countries crossing our southern border, is this where we should be dedicating our law enforcent resources?
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