Investigators hope reward brings answers
By Linda Seida
A $1,500 reward for information regarding the bludgeoning death of a swan on the Delaware River remains unclaimed, but animal welfare authorities hope it will prompt someone who saw or heard something about the incident to come forward.
Investigators have received tips to help them catch whoever is responsible, but none so far has been enough to help them make an arrest.
”We’re getting a lot calling in on an anonymous level, which is helping, but if we had a good, solid lead that was not so anonymous, it would be helpful,” said Nikki Thompson, a humane officer with the Bucks County chapter of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA).
Grace Boy was a large, mature swan. Last Halloween, he brought home his new mate, Zoe, to meet the man who had fed and cared for him for seven years. In May, three of the pair’s four eggs hatched.
Someone on the river July 17 beat Grace Boy to death. Now Zoe is alone, trying to raise the only cygnet that remains.
A question of jurisdiction is complicating the investigation.
”There are several agencies involved in the investigation,” said Lt. Rick Yocum, a humane officer with the New Jersey SPCA. “Up to now, we can’t verify exactly where and exactly what happened, based on limited information.”
Authorities hope to answer these questions with help from the public.
”At this time, the investigation is open,” Lt. Yocum said. “Our hope is the reward will prompt a witness to step forward.”
Grace Boy’s death has confused and saddened his mate.
”Zoe’s not the same,” said the man who bonded with Grace Boy, Curtis Cooperman, 61, of Stockton. “For the last few weeks it was really sad. She looked downriver, she looked upriver, (as if to say) ‘Where is he?’”
The death has struck Grace Boy’s human companions hard, too.
”People really loved that swan,” Mr. Cooperman said. He attributed a local animal activist’s fatal heart attack this summer to the news of the swan’s shocking bludgeoning. Another woman “cried for a week,” he said.
Mr. Cooperman recalled sitting at his desk at about 11 p.m. on the night Grace Boy was attacked. He heard the repeated “slap, slap, slap” out on the river, possibly the sound of a canoe paddle or other instrument. He went out to his deck and saw two men on the river in a brown-camouflage jet boat. He couldn’t see their faces.
”Hey, jerk! What do you think you’re doing? These swans live here,” he remembers calling out. “I was a basket case. I’m over this where I can talk about it now.”
A discussion about Grace Boy is punctuated with fond memories of the swan. There was the time, for example, when he and his wife, Marcy Hyland, 59, heard a tapping, and when they investigated they found Grace Boy looking in a downstairs window, tapping with his beak to get their attention.
Grace Boy’s name originally was Grace, when Mr. Cooperman thought he was a she. The name change occurred when the male brought home a much smaller mate, and Mr. Cooperman realized the error. So he named the pair Gracie and Grace Boy. They mated, but never had any offspring, according to Mr. Cooperman.
Later, there was Rose. She only stayed for 18 days. “She didn’t like him and left,” Mr. Cooperman said.
Grace Boy finally mated with Zoe and had his family this summer.
His body was found downriver near New Hope, Mr. Cooperman said. No one is sure what happened to two of the cygnets.
It would have been difficult for Zoe to raise them by herself. “Two parents are needed to take care of them,” Ms. Thompson said. “The absence of Grace Boy made it harder for her to protect them.”
The Bucks County SPCA put up $500 of the reward. Ms. Thompson said another $1,000 came from the Lehigh Valley Animal Rights Coalition, and donations are welcome.
Authorities are asking anyone with information to call the Bucks County SPCA at 215-794-7425.

