As Golberg reported in 2010, after the segment aired, Mark claimed in a letter sent to Zambia’s attorney general that the AR-15 assault rifle he was seen carrying was a fake, used purely for intimidation. But in the video, Goldberg points out, Mark can be seen shooing away an elephant that appears to be charging toward the ABC crew with the supposed fake rifle. Vieira later told Goldberg, “The guns looked real to me. I’d be horrified if they weren’t real. What would the elephant do if it charged? Yell ‘Bang, bang?’” According to Goldberg, in an April 1996 letter to donors to the Owens Foundation for Wildlife Conservation, the couple wrote, “We were not involved in this incident or any other incident of this nature.” But according to Goldberg’s report, Chris Everson, the ABC cameraman who filmed the shooting, claimed the alleged poacher was actually shot by Christopher Owens — Mark’s son and Delia’s stepson. Zambian police detective Biemba Musole, meanwhile, told Goldberg that Mark and his scouts allegedly “placed the body of the alleged poacher in a cargo net and dumped it in a nearby lagoon.” When Goldberg asked Delia in 2010 about her stepson’s possible involvement, she said, “He might say something that you could misinterpret. He’s trying to piece his life together. Just leave him alone. If you have something to ask him, ask us.” According to Goldberg, the US Embassy had advised the Owenses not to return to Zambia until the case was resolved. Heeding that warning, they settled in northern Idaho before parting ways. According to her website, Delia now lives in North Carolina, where Crawdads is located. “We were great research partners and great friends and had a great working relationship for years and years,” Delia told BookPage in 2018 about her marriage to Mark. “I think the stress of living there [Africa] we finally got the best of us.”
