Natalie Neysa Alund

nalund@tennessean.com

Tennessee Walking Horse Misty Blue was grazing behind her owners' Bells Bend farm on a warm night this week when the shot rang out.

A single bullet to 1,200-pound horse's head was all it took.

On Tuesday morning, her owners found the 17-year-old brown mare dead in their field off Old Hickory Boulevard near Bull Road Road where she had been raised from birth. Misty Blue had been shot execution style in the temple, according to 61-year-old Devinder Sandhu, whose farm employee discovered his family's beloved horse.

On Wednesday, the killer remained at large and the family that raised Misty Blue on their rural 100-acre Davidson County farm was pleading with the public in hopes of finding the person who fatally shot her.

"Misty Blue was born on our property and was our household pet," said Susan Eslick, the wife of Sandhu, an environmental engineer, coach and part owner of the Nashville Metros soccer team. "For 20 years the farm has been a place of delight and sanctuary for those who have visited. Since this happened it's all be horrible."

Eslick, who lives in Nashville with her husband and their son, said that before Misty Blue was killed, the mare had been grazing in pasture in the back of their farm on their private property with cows that often feed during the early morning hours.

Metro police spokesman Don Aaron said Sandhu called police Tuesday morning to report his horse had been killed.

When an officer arrived at the farm that day, the owner led him to a pasture where the officer found the horse shot in the head. The road closest to where the horse was found shot is a private dead-end road, Aaron said, and a preliminary investigation revealed the horse was killed sometime between Sunday afternoon and Tuesday morning.

Eslick said Wednesday her family wonders if the killing was a hate crime.

She said her husband is Indian and a practicing Sikh and as part of his faith he wears a turban. Since 911, she said, he's been targeted by different people because they assume he's Muslim.

"They tell him, 'Go back to where you came from,'" she said. "But my husband has been a vibrant part of the Nashville community. He graduated from Vanderbilt University. Whether this is a hate crime directed at my family who are constantly mistaken for being Muslim or just a random act of violence from someone looking for something to shoot ... is yet to be determined. All I know is the person who did this has no regard for a life whether it be a human or an animal."

North Precinct detectives are investigating the case with help from the department's Specialized Investigation Division, who Aaron said will attempt to determine a motive in the killing.

On Wednesday morning, sounds of sorrow could be heard coming from a barn near the field where Misty Blue was killed.

Inside was Misty Blue's mother, a 30-year-old horse, who Eslick said raised the mare on their property.

"Her mother is in the barn and just has been crying for her," she said. "It's just heartbreaking."

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The family has set up a Go Fund Me page in an effort to raise money to offer a reward to find Misty's killer. To donate visit https://gofundme.com/2bwz9vg.

"We're going to put our own money in too but we're going to try and get as much money as possible in hopes of getting someone to talk," Eslick said. "For anyone in our community, please keep your ears to the ground. We need help in bringing her murderer to justice."

Anyone with information about the case is asked to call Crimestoppers at 615-742-7463.

Reach Natalie Neysa Alund at 615-259-8072. Follow her on Twitter @nataliealund.