Heaven sent: Late hunter’s family is sure he’s still helping out

Some might call it a miracle, others might call it a supernatural coincidence.
http://rutlandherald.com/article/20141203/NEWS02/712039972

Stephen Ankuda shot a 9-point buck Sunday morning on Skitchewaug Mountain, in the same place and at the same time of day that his late brother, Fred Koledo, shot a buck two weeks ago. The family says it’s more than a coincidence. Photo: Provided PhotoPublished December 3, 2014 in the Rutland Herald Heaven sent: Late hunter’s family is sure he’s still helping out By SUSAN SMALLHEER Staff Writer Some might call it a miracle, others might call it a supernatural coincidence. On Nov. 16, Fred Koledo, 77, died of a heart attack minutes after shooting the biggest buck of his life, an 8-pointer. Two weeks later, on the final day of deer season, his younger brother Steve Ankuda, 60, got a 9-point buck at the same time of day and in the same place on Skitchewaug Mountain. “I was in Fred’s stand, on the last day, and within minutes I saw it,” said Ankuda, a well-known local attorney not known for flights of fancy or New Age thinking. Ankuda said his brother shot his buck at 7:30 a.m. Thanks to his cellphone, he knows he shot his at 7:32 a.m. Sunday. His buck was one point bigger than his brother’s, and weighed a bit more at 182 pounds. Ankuda said deer season had been “miserable this year because of Fred.” “Within the family, everybody says Freddy sent it to me,” Ankuda said. “It was a nice turn of events on the hunting season, which was so dismal with Fred’s dying.” Koledo, a well-known local real estate agent and the longtime chairman of the Springfield Housing Authority, had made a half-humorous plea during the Koledo-Ankuda deer camp pre-season dinner and traditional camp festivities. He asked his own late, older brother Tom Koledo, “to send him a big buck.” Tom and Fred were very close, and Tom had died two years earlier, said Fred’s daughter Heather Koledo. Fred Koledo was like a father to the younger Steve, the youngest of the big Koledo-Ankuda clan. Fred had a deer stand on the ground, and Ankuda was hiding behind the pile of brush Sunday morning when the 9-pointer came into view. Ankuda said the foot of snow Springfield received the day before Thanksgiving helped him, not by the usual tracking, but by making the deer more visible. “My eyesight isn’t what it used to be,” said Ankuda, who claims to have shot about 20 deer over the years in the Skitchewaug Mountain area. He also took a bear by bow about five years ago. Ankuda said no other hunters had mentioned seeing a big buck in the Skitchewaug Mountain area of Springfield, although several hunters — and game cameras — had seen a 12-point buck in the Greeley Road area. Ankuda said his family is convinced that his brother sent him the deer, as another brother had sent the big buck to Fred. “My uncle Steve sat in my dad’s deer stand Sunday morning, and shot a 9-point buck at the same time (of day) that my dad got his. Sounds like a bit more than coincidence if you ask me,”said Heather Koledo, Fred’s daughter. “It’s a little too weird for me,” Ankuda said. “Fred did whisper to me that he would haunt anyone other than me sitting near his stand in the future,” he said. Ankuda said he would save the horns, but otherwise would forgo having the buck’s head mounted. “I have a wife,” he said.