HANSON COUNTY, S.D. (KELO) – The South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation and Hanson County Sheriff’s Office is looking into an incident that led to one man taking his own life in rural Hanson County earlier this week.
Sheriff Brandon Wingert with Hanson County tells KELOLAND News that 60-year-old Donald Letcher was approached at his home in Epiphany on Tuesday by an online group called ‘Predator Poachers’.
On their website, the group describes itself as ‘independent journalists and private citizens who travel the country conducting intervention-style sting operations to catch child predators.’
Wingert says the group spoke to Letcher about him allegedly possessing and viewing child pornography. After that conversation, the group contacted law enforcement.
Wingert says a Deputy with his office did arrive and speak to Letcher but had to step away to take a phone call. At that point, Wingert says Letcher barricaded himself back inside his home and then shot himself.
He was flown to a hospital in Sioux Falls where he later died.
The South Dakota DCI is looking into the child pornography allegations against Letcher.
This isn’t the first time Letcher has been the subject of a law enforcement case. In 1995, he was convicted of sexual contact with a child under 16. That ruling was later overturned by the South Dakota Supreme Court because the lower court didn’t allow him to present a witness.
In 2022, according to the Mitchell Daily Republic, Letcher served jail time for running over a six-year-old girl in her driveway while he was drunk. Wingert tells KELOLAND News that Letcher was recently granted a suspended imposition of sentence in this case.
KELOLAND News doesn’t typically report on suicides but because of the extenuating circumstances of this situation we made the decision to report this case.
