The mysterious case of the poisoned fish

Posted

The pond in Nick Lynch’s backyard in the northwest Bronx was supposed to be a home to 15 koi fish, three turtles and a duck – until the animals all died within a day or so of each other, the owner said, in what he blames on a poisoning attack.

Mr. Lynch said he called the police after the apparent poisoning on July 25, and that two officers came in and took notes of his statement. But police at the northwest Bronx’s 50th precinct have no record of the call, a spokesperson said. Neither does the city’s police headquarters, according to the office of the deputy commissioner for public information.

A call to 911, 311 or the 50th precinct’s desk would automatically generate a report, but none seems to exist in this case, the precinct’s spokesperson said. Police are trying to find out who might have responded to Mr. Lynch’s call and visited his house at Cannon Place in Kingsbridge, the spokesperson said.

Mr. Lynch, who was born and raised in Riverdale, had been cultivating the pond at his newest for the past three years, according to his and neighbors’ accounts. The pond was part of an aquaponics garden – a system in which the waste produced by aquatic animals, such as fish, provides nutrients for plants, which in turn purify the water.

He said he planned to share the food he grew with his neighbors. Mr. Lynch and his family worked countless weekends bagging dirt in his backyard, building a wall of stones around the pond, and buying the fish, he said.

“I wanted to make the neighborhood a little bit nicer,” he said.

He is still trying to do so, rebuilding his pond after the animals’ mysterious deaths. But he destroyed the aquaponics gardens’ initial crop of cherry tomatoes, onions and potatoes, fearing the vegetables might have turned toxic, too, Mr. Lynch said.

No one, including Mr. Lynch, could offer any explanation as to who might have poisoned the fish or why, if the fish had indeed been poisoned.

“Some people are just like that. They are doing hateful things for no reason,” said a neighbor, David Sampe, who helped build the fishpond along with his eight-year old son.

The case is perplexing, said Joann Mead, president of the Mid-Atlantic Koi Club, of which Mr. Lynch is a member.

“This is such an extraordinary instance of somebody going out and killing the fish that I’m gobsmacked,” she said. “I’ve never come across anything like this. I’ve had fish stolen from members. Not someone murdering the whole pond plus the duck.”

Mr. Lynch said he had spent $5,000 of his own money on the project, and the pond and its fish were not insured. He has now raised $315 for the new pond through the GoFundMe website, where people can ask for donations for various causes. The money helped cover the cost of his newest acquisitions of two koi, three butterfly fish and one black fish, he said.

The Mid-Atlantic Koi Club has also offered to help: “We are going to be contacting some of the dealers that we work with to see if they would be willing to donate a fish,” Ms. Mead said. The club also posted a link to Mr. Lynch’s fundraising page on its website and plans to share his story with its members, she said.

Mr. Lynch said he did not initially suspect any foul play. At first, he noticed that one of his fish looked like it was sleeping. Later in the day, three fish died, but he thought they might have succumbed to an infection. But after the duck also died, he said that he knew “something was wrong.” He expressed doubts an infection would kill two different species of animals.

As Mr. Lynch was draining the pond, he “saw a bag with substance on it” – a small plastic bag similar to those in a supermarket’s produce department – but “when I pulled it out, it already had been liquefied,” he said.

Another neighbor, Tre James, said it was “such a shame [Mr. Lynch] has to go through this when he’s working … to try and make a better living situation for his family and the neighborhood as well.”

“It’s not just something he built for himself,” Mr. James said. In addition to the fish, Mr. Lynch and his five children planted and continue to maintain a few flowerbeds on their block, the neighbor said.

Mr. Lynch now plans to grow squash and beans in the aquaponics garden he is rebuilding. He has also had security cameras installed around his home and yard.

“My personal pride and my personal word [are] on this to get this up and running,” he said. “I wanted to show my kids that even when you are faced with adversities and difficulties, it’s a real test to your fortitude...to get up and start all over again. Nothing is easy, especially this.”

Fish pond, fish pond poisoning, Nick Lynch, Lisa Herndon