Man passed over for job accused of mailing dead animals to successful applicant

Authorities say a man passed over for an elementary school coaching and teaching position allegedly mailed four dead skunks and a dead raccoon to the successful applicant. Travis Tarrants, 40, of West Baden Springs, southern Indiana, was charged on Tuesday in Jackson Circuit Court with two counts each of stalking, intimidation and criminal mischief. He’s being held without bond.

Court documents say that Tarrants began harassing the successful applicant because he was chosen over Tarrants for a fourth-grade teaching and basketball coaching position at Springs Valley School Corporation in French Lick. One of the packages intercepted at a post office contained a dead raccoon and a message that said, “RESIGN! IT WILL NOT STOP.”



Investigators also believe that Tarrants placed four phone calls to the Indiana Department of Child Services, making claims that the teacher/coach was having sex with an underage student and was sexually abusing the daughter of an acquaintance. Letters alleging a sexual relationship with an underage student also were sent to both teacher/coach and his fiancee at their jobs, documents said.

One contained a picture of a man’s genitals and the teacher/coach’s telephone number. Both victims also received voicemail messages threatening to kill the man’s fiancee and her baby. Tarrants also is accused of writing “(Explicit) u” and “u will die” on the vehicle’s of the victims in white spray paint. In an interview with investigators, Tarrants' girlfriend said that he had trapped five to seven live skunks in late spring. She said she thought it was odd that he had kept them alive for several days.