Perhaps you can help ramothe out

[anjel-kitty.livejournal.com]

I had entered Zentrancon's (a small anime convention held at the end of Oct in Philly) mascot contest and was pleased to find out I got second place. Then the next day someone posts on the announcement of the winners post that the First place winner's (named Chaynz Childers) art is actually stolen art work of someone named deadsquierll

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v701/dasociety/zcon/electricnekochilders4.jpg

drake_anaya annouces that this art actually belongs somone named dead squirrell and provides a link
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/1031699/
Well my friend ramothe is in charge of the whole contest and con merchandise, and has a conversation with the first place artist in question about the work. Rather than doing everything she can to prove it is her work she claims she "doesn't care about winning" "is pissed off because people are accusing" her of art theft, and wants her entry to be taken out.

Now does this sound suspicious to anyone? I'd post the full convo, but ramothe has it under flock and I don't want to break her confidentailty.

So I have two questions:
Do you guys thing this is art theft? And also do you know who this dead squierrl person is.
I am fairly sure since there is a question about it, this entry will be disqualified but I just wanted to put the word out there that this is a possible art theif and get ya'lls advice about it.