Gun theft complaint added to family feud

Allegations of gun theft added yet another wrinkle this week to the bitter, on-going dispute within one of Glenn County’s largest and most prominent farming families.

Herb Holzapfel, a rancher and brother of District Attorney Robert S. Holzapfel, filed a complaint with the

Glenn County Sheriff’s Office accusing his nephew, Kurt Foglesong, of stealing several rifles about three years ago, sheriff’s Det. Greg Felton said Wednesday.

It is not clear why Holzapfel chose to make the report now, and sheriff’s investigators declined to speculate on possible motives.

Attempts to reach Holzapfel and Foglesong were not successful.

The guns in question supposedly belong to Holzapfel’s late father, Felton said.

Lt. Richard Warren said a complete list of the property Holzapfel claims to be missing was still being compiled by and no value estimate was available.

“We’re working through years worth of information and it could take a little while to follow it up to its logical conclusion,” Warren said.

Felton said it is still too early to call it a criminal investigation, saying that for now he is simply checking out the complaint made by Holzapfel.

Felton was also quick to note that the complaint could just be a misunderstanding or an accident.

Foglesong reportedly lived at house on the family ranch on County Road 60. Holzapfel told officials the guns in question were already in the house when Foglesong moved in, but were gone after he moved out some time in 2007, Felton said.

“Bottom line, it’s still too early to know,” Warren said.

The Holzapfel-Foglesong land dispute has been waged in courts and in public since the 1980s, but was recently spotlighted again after a Coroner’s Inquest late last month determined that Foglesong’s father, Ivan “Bud” Foglesong was most likely murdered July 21, 2007, when the small hunting cabin he was standing inside suddenly burst into flames.

The jury voted 9-6 in determining the death was a homicide.

Investigators initially concluded that Ivan Foglesong started the fire that claimed his life, ruling it an accidental death.

However, family members persistently objected to that conclusion. The Foglesongs have claimed the fire was more likely another in a string of harassing and destructive incidents that reportedly included multiple tire slashing and other acts of vandalism.

That case will be sent to the state Attorney General’s Office for further investigation, the Sheriff’s Department reported.