Lewis County Sirens.com

Sgt. Rob Snaza launches the sheriff’s office boat at the Ike Kinswa State Park on Lake Mayfield. / Courtesy photo by Marty Hayes

Updated at 6:47 p.m.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

Authorities are looking for a possible drowning victim at Lake Mayfield, following a 911 call about 2:30 p.m. today.

Firefighters from Salkum and Mossyrock responded to the boat launch at Ike Kinswa State Park expecting to conduct a rescue, and scoured the banks for about an hour, according to Lewis County Fire District 8 Chief Duran McDaniel.

Both the sheriff’s office and the Mossyrock Fire Department launched their boats, with members of the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office water rescue team responding as well.

A local man said he and another man had been diving off a nearby bluff, McDaniel said. There’s no approved swimming area or even any good swimming areas there, McDaniel said.

“One guy dived in and he thought the other guy dived in behind him,” McDaniel said.

But once deputies learned from the man the incident had occurred about 11:30 a.m., the fire departments were released from the scene, McDaniel said.

For whatever reason, the one man had already been home and come back to the lake, McDaniel said.

McDaniel said he it wasn’t clear at all what happened. The depth of the water beneath the bluff is about 100 feet, he said.

“We don’t know the status of the person,” McDaniel said. “It’s in the sheriff’s office hands.”

Sheriff’s Sgt. Rob Snaza said they finished their work on the water about 4:20 p.m., but the sheriff’s office is continuing to investigate this evening.

“I have no names or anything to give out,” Snaza said.

Other than a wheel assembly, only small pieces of debris could be seen spread over a small area in the parking lot of Chehalis Collision Center. / Courtesy photo by Bill Klumbs

Updated

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The small plane that crashed and burned last night near the airport in Chehalis was a three-quarter-sized replica of a popular WWII fighter plane, just put back together after being purchased and trailered in from out of the area.

The P5151 Mustang was piloted by a Centralia-Chehalis area resident who rented a hangar less than two weeks ago, Chehalis-Centralia Airport Manager Allyn Roe said.

“They spent the past week and a half getting the airplane reassembled,” Roe said. “I had not seen this plane fly, so I do not not know if it was its first flight or not.”

The pilot, a man whose identity has not been released, was killed when shortly after take off, the aircraft slammed into a fenced parking lot across Interstate 5 from the airport.

The crash into or just in front of two parked trucks included at least two explosions and a fire that burned very, very hot, according to neighbors and the fire chief.

It basically disintegrated, Chehalis Police Department Chief Glenn Schaffer said. “There was nothing left on the ground to indicate what type it was.”

Lewis County Coroner Warren McLeod confirmed the pilot was a Lewis County resident and said an autopsy will be conducted tomorrow. He’s been in contact with the family, McLeod said.

Police said the pilot’s family was at the airport before take off and also briefly at the crash scene.

The victim’s name will be released after he makes final positive identification through dental records or DNA, McLeod said.

The last fatal aircraft accident in the Chehalis-Centralia area was in 1991, according to Roe.

Roe said the short flight was witnessed by an out-of-the-area corporate jet pilot, who described the small plane as taking off to the north and really not going any higher than about 100 feet.

“Essentially it appeared that it was struggling to climb and gave an indication the motor was stalling,” Roe related.

It headed east instead of the normal traffic pattern of going west, Roe said, always in a right-hand turn.

“And then it rolled into what we describe as a knife edge,” he said. “One wing up, and one wing down.”

It was just before 7 p.m. when firefighters and police were dispatched to the fire just east of the freeway, along Maryland Avenue.

The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating.

Allen Kenitzer, an FAA spokesperson, said the aircraft is classified an experimental plane, meaning it was built by an individual and not a factory. The NTSB is the lead agency, he said.

No one on the ground was injured as it landed inside the fenced area of Chehalis Collision Center, a repair business.

“So nobody else was hurt,” Chief Schaffer said. “Whether that was a conscious decision by the pilot, I don’t know.

“But we’re fortunate and thankful that was the case.”

Schaffer said the business had a security camera pointed toward the area where the plane landed. It’s not information that will help police with their part of the investigation though, he said.

“We let the NTSB know, and pointed them in that direction,” Schaffer said.

Peter Knudson, a spokesperson for the NTSB, said an investigator was at the scene gathering information.

The pilot was not in communication with air traffic control, but the investigator spoke to at least one witness who said after takeoff, the plane appeared to be unstable, sort of pitching and rolling, Knudson said.

A preliminary report describing the facts and circumstances ought to be available within about 10 business days, he said, but the average length of an investigation is 12 months.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The now-former manager at Yard Birds who admitted to police he pocketed thousands of dollars on the job saying he’d gone bankrupt and was behind in his medical bills pleaded guilty today and is working to pay the money back.

David E. Briscoe

David E. Briscoe, 58, was charged in April with first-degree theft. He appeared out-of-custody this morning in Lewis County Superior Court.

His lawyer David Brown said he is trying to sell some property, to make restitution.

The Centralia man was responsible for managing the business’s swap meet area, vendors, storage units and recreational vehicle spaces on the property at the 2100 block of North National Avenue in Chehalis, according to police.

In his written statement read aloud by Judge James Lawler, Briscoe said he collected rent payments and kept them, and that it went on for three years, resulting in significant financial harm to the victim.

The crime, with the major economic offense enhancement, carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine, or as little as zero to 90 days in jail given his lack of a criminal history, the judge said.

Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Mark McClain said he plans to ask for one year and a day, while defense attorney David Brown will be requesting something less.

He was not sentenced today, but a date was set for Sept. 25, when they would meet again and schedule the hearing.

They are giving it some time, to see if over the next couple of months Briscoe can get prosecutors to change their mind about their recommendation, McClain said.

McClain said he’s not sure how much money was stolen, but thinks it could be more than $40,000, and said Briscoe has indicated it was at least $20,000.

•••

For background, read “Police: Yardbirds employee stole thousands of dollars from business” from Tuesday April 29, 2014, here

A small plane and parked vehicles burn in the parking lot of Chehalis Collision Center. / Courtesy photo by Martha Harjo

Updated at 9:34 p.m.

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – A small plane crashed this evening into a parking lot across Interstate 5 from the Chehalis Airport, killing its pilot.

It struck two pickup trucks which caught fire, sending a column of black smoke into the sky at the scene just southeast of the Chamber of Commerce Way freeway interchange.

“All I have now is witnesses saw it took off at the airport and saw it go up and come down,” Chehalis Police Department Sgt. Gwen Carrell said. “It was a kit plane.”

The pilot’s family was at the airport when it took off, she said.

Firefighters called about 6:48 p.m. to the 900 block of Maryland Avenue were still spraying water and foam onto the vehicles more than a half hour later.

“I was just getting ready to water my flowers and I heard a big crash, kaboom,” nearby neighbor Judy Martin said. “I saw all this huge black smoke and then heard another explosion.”

Chehalis Fire Department Chief Rob Gebhart said it was only the one victim involved.

The two trucks were fully engulfed in flames, he said.

“I started putting out the fire on the pickups and kept thinking I was going to come around the corner and see a plane, but I didn’t, because there wasn’t much left,” Gebhart said.

Chehalis police were taking initial photographs and interviewing witnesses from the scene, as well as some who had been driving on the freeway. A representative with the Federal Aviation Administration is expected in the morning.

Numerous individuals from the neighborhood gathered on the sidewalk and street trying to get a glimpse of the goings on behind the chain-link fenced lot where it happened, belonging to the relatively new auto body business Chehalis Collision Center.

Wendy Cline who has lived on the corner for most of her life with a view of the small airport said she could only recall one time when a plane crashed.

“It ran off the end of the runway, I think,” Cline said. “It’s sad, it’s so sad.”

Gebhart said it was perhaps 10 years ago, when a Navy plane that came to give rides to the public crashed as it landed, because its landing gear wouldn’t come down. But nobody died, he said.

He couldn’t recall a fatal crash at the small but busy airport during his 27 years with the fire department, he said.

Firefighters and aid arrive to the scene of small plane crash in Chehalis. / Courtesy photo by Amanda Moore

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Firefighters continue to put water and foam on two trucks and what’s left of a small airplane in the parking lot of Chehalis Collision Center. 

Updated at 3:25 p.m.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

A high speed chase that ended on Interstate 5 in Centralia this morning began near Tumwater when a stranger at a woman’s doorstep demanded her car keys and money.

She had just opened her door to go to work and turned to get her purse when a man holding a small board over his head robbed her, according to the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office.

Sheriff’s Lt. Cliff Ziesemer said deputies called around 8:30 a.m. to the residence on the 4500 block of Black Lake Belmore Road Southwest learned that he grabbed the money and the 51-year-old woman threw the keys to her 2013 Subaru Forester out the door.

A neighbor hearing her calls for help briefly held the man at gunpoint but he fled, running down a fence and nearly hitting three people, Ziesemer said.

When the stranger got into the woman’s car, her dog jumped in as well, according to Ziesemer.

A nearby deputy gave chase and speeds reached as much as 125 mph down Interstate 5, according to the sheriff’s office.

An attempt to tap the fleeing car to spin it out of control failed to stop him, as did spike strips that flattened the two front tires near Grand Mound, according to Ziesemer.

“He continued about 100 mph on two flat tires,” Ziesemer said.

The Subaru rear-ended a sport utility vehicle just north of Centralia and finally the deputy used his patrol vehicle to pin the Subaru against the concrete barrier, according to authorities.

The driver, a 33-year-old Portland area man, was taken into custody, he said.

Ziesemer said he didn’t know exactly why the man did what he did.

Shawn B. Ollision was arrested and booked into the Thurston County Jail for eluding, robbery and other offenses including three counts of first-degree assault.

The 55-year-old Olympia woman whose Honda Pilot was struck on the freeway was transported to Providence Centralia Hospital as a precautionary measure, the Washington State Patrol reports. Both vehicles sustained what was described as reportable damage.

The Tumwater woman and her dog are doing okay, according to the sheriff’s office.

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Two Centralia residents were arrested for allegedly helping a wanted man – who uses the identity of his dead 11-year-old brother – get out of jail and get out of town before authorities realized who he really was.

John Lewis, 53, has an arrest warrant from California and was arrested in Doty while deputies were investigating a large-scale fuel theft operation on July 31. He was believed to be 47-year-old Jason A. Lewis.

Lewis County Sheriff’s Office deputies using information obtained from phone calls made from the jail were led on Thursday to a home on the 2700 block Graf Road where they found almost a half pound of methamphetamine and arrested 51-year-old Shauna Teagle, according to authorities.

A second resident of the home, Eric D. Waller, 43, was already in the jail, but was arrested on the same information, Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Eric Eisenberg said yesterday.

Waller and Teagle went before a judge in Lewis County Superior Court yesterday afternoon where they were charged with possession of meth with intent to deliver, as well as accomplices in Lewis’s bail jumping and identity theft.

Prosecutors contend Teagle admitted to dealing drugs with Lewis and Waller for years.

Lewis came to the attention of law enforcement officers late last month when surveillance video at a Texaco station in Silver Creek showed three vehicles arrive and somehow pump about $6,000 worth of fuel without paying. A subsequent search at the 100 block of Elk Creek Road in Doty turned up his canopied pickup truck with darkened windows and contained two large fuel tanks, a portable pump and a nozzle.

Lewis’s motorhome was parked inside a barn on the property.

More than a month earlier, an un-named source had told detectives the property owner, Harold Lusk, and a man from California were cooking methamphetamine for sale at the property and stealing large quantities of gasoline from local stations. The cook was supposedly hiding in the barn in a travel trailer. No mention was made in Lewis’s charging documents of meth-making materials located during the search.

Local authorities found a warrant for John A. Lewis out of Sacramento, and a criminal history involving drugs and theft that stretches back to 1986, according to charging documents.

Detectives uncovered records that John Lewis adopted the identity of his younger brother Jason Lewis, who died in 1977 at age 11, according to charging documents.

He was believed to have left town in his 1994 Mountain Air motorhome but charging documents indicate he gave that to Teagle and Waller in exchange for their help; and that Teagle provided him a car.

According to Teagle and Waller’s charging documents, the couple put up $2,000 for his bail and gave him $3,000 travel money. Another individual was paid $250 to arrange Lewis’s bail at Jail Sucks Bail Bonds.

Teagle allegedly arranged to have Lewis’s wife Debra Bean picked up from the Portland airport when she flew up to retrieve her husband.

Lewis bailed out two days after his arrest and failed to return to court for his arraignment.

Lewis is charged in Lewis County Superior Court with first-degree theft, first-degree trafficking in stolen property and possession of methamphetamine, and is also wanted now for bail jumping and identity theft.

Previously charged with Lewis in connection with the alleged fuel trafficking are Lusk, 28; Alyssa J. Hanson, 20, of Doty; and Raymond T. Hankins, 48, of Yelm.

Judge Richard Brosey set bail for Waller yesterday, at $100,000. Although he was about to start a new job driving a log truck, Waller is unemployed so qualified for a court appointed attorney, temporary defense attorney Bob Schroeter said.

The judge was told Teagle earns $1,600 a month managing a spa in Olympia, but also qualified for appointed counsel. Her bail was set at $50,000. Teagle is a 2012 graduate of drug court.

Their arraignments are set for this coming Thursday.
•••

For background, read “Sheriff’s Office: Large scale gasoline stealing operation uncovered” from Friday August 1, 2014, here

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The Lewis County coroner has concluded a man found dead in the woods south of Randle on Wednesday died from suicide.

The body with a pickup truck was discovered by brush or berry pickers at the end of the 161 Road and is believed to be an individual reported missing from Bonney Lake at the end of May, according to authorities.

Coroner Warren McLeod said he has tentatively confirmed that and expects to make final  identification early next week.

Lewis County Sheriff’s Office Cmdr. Steve Aust said it appeared the body had been there awhile.

McLeod said an autopsy conducted yesterday found no signs of trauma and the cause of death is probable carbon monoxide poisoning, based on items found at the scene.