The Bard of Tecumseh

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Tecumseh is an unincorporated community in southern Missouri  (eastern Ozark County) with a population of 602, give or take a dozen.  Internet sources indicate that the population of Tecumseh has declined around fifteen percent over the past couple of years.   The median age is almost sixty, which may explain the decline in the number of residents of the community.  Tecumseh is located on the North Fork River at the north end of Lake Norfolk in an area that is scenic, though fairly isolated.

Over the past few days, however, the little berg of Tecumseh has made local, state, and even national news.

According to news articles featured in Ozark Radio News, The Kansas City Star, The Hill, as well as other publications, a fifty-year-old male resident of Tecumseh by the name of Walter Lee Hoornstra was indicted earlier this week for allegedly leaving a threatening voice mail on the personal cell phone of an election worker in Maricopa County, Arizona.  The U.S. Department of Justice has charged Hoornstra with one count of communicating an interstate threat and one count of making a threatening phone call.  Those two charges could result in the defendant being sentenced to up to seven years in prison.

According to information in the indictment the incident occurred on or about May 19, 2021, when Walter Lee Hoornstra left the following message on the election worker's cell phone voice mail:

"So I see you're for fair and competent elections, that's what it says here on your homepage for your recorder position you're trying to fly here.  But you call things unhinged and insane lies when there's a forensic audit going on.   You need to check yourself.  You need to do your (expletive) job right because other people from other states are watching your ass.   You (expletive) renege on this deal or give them any more troubles, your ass will never make it to your next little board meeting."

Walter Lee Hoornstra had his say and then hung up.  Now the government of the United States of America will have its say.

The case is being investigated by the Phoenix Office of the F.B.I.