The Two Game Wardens Who Cracked the CJ Alexander Poaching Case Finally Get to Tell Their Side of the Story

The criminal case surrounding the Christopher “CJ” Alexander buck captivated deer hunters across the country last year. In late 2023, Alexander claimed to have killed a record-breaking buck on his sister’s small property in Ohio. Shortly after he started sharing this made-up story with OL and other hunting outlets, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources opened a poaching investigation. Then the agency went silent.

A year passed before the agency released more details. And in that time, Alexander wove a compelling story in which he publicly accused the DNR of trying to undermine his accomplishment. Many social media users were persuaded by his story, and even donated to his GoFundMe account. Meanwhile, the two officers investigating his case couldn’t say a word.

Now that the case is closed — Alexander to pled guilty to 14 charges and was sentenced to fines and jail time — they’re able to go on the record about how the investigation played out, and why it took so long for them to share those details with the public. So this week on the Outdoor Life Podcast, we sat down with those two Ohio game wardens: Officers Matt Roberts and Isaiah Gifford.

We spoke with Roberts and Gifford after they received the Pope and Young Club’s Wildlife Law Enforcement Award last month for their work on the case.   

“You know, [Alexander] can tell a very good story, and he ultimately got a lot of the country to believe his story,” Gifford tells Outdoor Life. “It was our job to kind of pick apart that story and figure out the facts from lies.”  

Roberts and Gifford explain how Alexander’s story initially seemed credible, the clues they found that led them to believe otherwise, and how the DNR’s investigation evolved over the course of 20245. We also discuss what it was like building a case against Alexander with all that added attention he generated online.

“I know there were a lot of people online and on social media thinking we were out to get [Alexander] and we set him up … and it’s hard to sit back when you know that he’s already confessed to all this, and you can’t tell people why it’s taken so long to do this investigation,” Roberts explained. “Especially on a big deer case like this, when the whole world’s watching.”

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Their quiet dedication paid off. And now that the truth is out, the two game wardens can speak freely about how they cracked one of the biggest poaching cases of the century. Listen to this week’s episode on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.