Asta - a tagged hen harrier - fled from a nest in Northumberland in 2020 and settled on a moor in the North Pennines.
But when satellite tracking showed this rare and threatened bird suddenly showing up in a new location a few months later and had completely stopped moving, a police investigation was immediately launched.
The perfectly intact tag was found attached to the scavenged carcass of a carrion crow, while Asta was nowhere to be found.
