Prosecutors in Colorado declare {that a} state park ranger looked for details about belly anatomy and damage payouts on-line earlier than stabbing himself and making an attempt to cross it off as an assault.
Staunton State Park in Colorado (Picture: Kathleen Lockhart / iStock through Getty)
Up to date August 21, 2025 09:48PM
On the morning of August 19, Callum Heskett, a ranger at Colorado’s Staunton State Park, radioed for assist, saying {that a} man had stabbed him whereas he was on patrol. When deputies reached the scene, they discovered Heskett bleeding, a pocketknife nonetheless caught in his torso. The suspect, who Heskett described intimately, was nowhere to be seen.
Now, authorities say the seasonal ranger’s stabbing was an elaborate hoax. On August 21, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Workplace (JCSO) mentioned it had arrested Heskett. The ranger faces felony costs of making an attempt to affect a public servant and tampering with proof, plus misdemeanor costs of false reporting to authorities, reckless endangerment, and obstructing authorities operations, and a cost of second-degree official misconduct, a petty offense.
Jacki Kelley, a spokesperson for the JCSO, mentioned that legislation enforcement grew to become cautious when the proof officers collected didn’t match what they might have anticipated to seek out on the scene of a stabbing just like the one Heskett reported. After interviewing Heskett and noting discrepancies in his story, investigators got here to the conclusion that the ranger had lied.
“With the account that he offered to us, there have been simply quite a lot of inconsistencies with the proof that must be related to against the law like this, that didn’t exist,” mentioned Kelley. She added that forensic investigators are nonetheless analyzing Heskett’s cellphone, as of August 21.
Heskett, who holds a state legislation enforcement certification, beforehand labored as a police officer in Lafayette, Colorado from 2023 to 2024. In accordance with an affidavit considered by the Denver Publish, earlier than the supposed assault, Heskett searched “how deep are arteries in decrease stomach” and considered a web page on Reddit titled “$1mil for every time you get stabbed.”
On the time of the stabbing, the JCSO mentioned it believed it was a “focused assault,” and urged the general public to be looking out for a white male in his early 30s, describing him as 6 toes tall and 200 kilos, wearing a grey shirt and blue denims. The incident sparked a daylong manhunt that closed Staunton for a number of hours, put close by colleges on lockout standing, and resulted in police questioning and releasing at the very least two folks. The search concerned practically 200 state and native legislation enforcement personnel, together with SWAT groups and air belongings.
“To search out out that it was an absolute hoax was very irritating,” Kelley mentioned. “Very irritating to a neighborhood that was requested to lock down, to deliver their canines and their kids inside, irritating to a neighborhood that might not get residence as a result of they couldn’t get in by way of a roadblock, irritating to kids who have been locked down in class. This hoax affected so many individuals with none thought to what that might appear like.”
Heskett stays on the hospital in what Kelley described as “good situation.” The sheriff’s workplace mentioned that it deliberate to switch him to the Jefferson County Jail upon his launch.
Situated southwest of Denver within the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, Staunton is likely one of the latest state parks in Colorado. It options some 30 miles of path, sport and conventional climbing, and campgrounds.
