Lewis County Sirens.com

Updated at 4:38 p.m.

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Five weeks after a local man was believed to have vanished in Mineral Lake, his body has been found in the lake.

Deputies were called yesterday morning to the north Lewis County community along state Route 7 where they recovered human remains from the water, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.

Gerald L. Harris, 54, of Mineral went missing on July 5.

As recently as Tuesday, the sheriff’s office reported they continued to conduct interviews with people and were waiting for a break in the case. They couldn’t say for sure if Harris drowned or maybe something else had occurred.

Harris had a court date coming up the week after he went missing and it didn’t look like the case was going to have a very good outcome for him, sheriff’s Chief Deputy Dusty Breen said earlier this week.

Deputies were called about 9 a.m. yesterday after two boaters fishing on the lake observed something floating in the water, according to Breen. With help from the boaters, sheriff’s office personnel were able to recover the body and bring it to shore at a boat launch, Breen stated in a press release this morning.

After lunch time today authorities identified the deceased as indeed Harris. Lewis County Coroner Warren McLeod said he died of drowning.

The details of Harris’s disappearance are murky.

Deputies had been dispatched just before 4 p.m. on July 5 to the lake on a call reporting suspicious circumstances, according to Breen.

A boater had encountered Harris’s 49-year-old girlfriend adrift in a boat on the lake and she said Harris had been in their boat, then he wasn’t in their boat but she was significantly impaired by at least alcohol and her recollection wasn’t very clear, Breen said.

Deputies got help from other boaters to search the area, brought in the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office Dive Team to check the lake with sonar devices, but also checked Harris’s residence and other locations in the community.

They entered him into the system as a missing person and continued to investigate.

Harris had been charged this spring with second-degree assault and possession of methamphetamine after an incident at the home he shared with his girlfriend on May 30. Harris bailed out of jail on June 1 and was due back in court for a hearing on July 13. A no-bail warrant was issued for his arrest when he failed to appear.

Breen indicated this afternoon that detectives still don’t have a clear picture of what occurred prior to Harris being in the water. His girlfriend has been interviewed multiple times and they are trying to piece together what they can from her recollections, according to Breen.

The sheriff’s office continues investigating the death and looking for answers, he said. The coroner has labeled the manner of death as undetermined.

He said the sheriff’s office is asking anyone with information to contact  the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office at 360-748-9286, or Lewis County Communications at 360-740-1105.

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For background, read “Search continues for missing man in Mineral Lake” from Friday July 7, 2017, here

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By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Police say a person reported he was robbed at knife point of a wallet and a large amount of money in Centralia yesterday afternoon.

The victim whose age and hometown were not revealed received a minor cut to his arm and was treated at the scene, according to the Centralia Police Department.

Officers were called at 2:19 p.m. yesterday to to the 1100 block of View Avenue about the robbery.

Police say two suspects rode away from the scene on black BMX-style bicycles.

They were described as two white males in their early twenties; one had curly blond hair and the other was wearing a black baseball cap, according to police.

The police department advises in a brief summary of the episode they will reveal nothing further about the encounter.

“No more information on this incident will be made available until the investigation has been completed,” states an email to the news media this morning from the department.

Leõn Esparza shared a photo on his Facebook page from the hospital in Vancouver. / Courtesy photo

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The National Frozen Foods employee who was severely injured this weekend when he was struck by a large forklift remains hospitalized in the intensive care unit today.

Leõn Esparza was airlifted to PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center in Vancouver after police, firefighters and medics responded to an approximately 3:15 a.m. call Saturday to the plant at Northwest State Avenue and West Street in Chehalis. Initial information indicated he was flown to Seattle, but he wasn’t.

His left leg was, as he described this morning, crushed and shattered. A police officer who was first getting to the scene applied a tourniquet.

The 31-year-old Centralia man said he has undergone three surgeries and was awaiting another surgery today, on his right hip which is or may be broken. He said he was medicated, when he spoke briefly on the phone this morning, and in lots of pain, but very lucky to be alive.

The fire department said this weekend Esparza had just gotten off shift and was leaving when he was hit, apparently by the back wheel of a forklift.

Esparza said he has no idea how long the hospital plans to keep him. He still doesn’t know if they can save his leg, he said.

“It’s going to be awhile,” he said. “Don’t sugar coat it, I’m in a lot of pain and I don’t know what’s going to happen.”

He said he had family with him at the hospital. He also said he just started working for the vegetable processor a few weeks ago.
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For background, read “News brief: Employee airlifted after tangling with large forklift” from Saturday August 5, 2017, here

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Police are investigating after a 26-year-old man reported he was car-jacked yesterday evening in Centralia.

The black 1999 GMC Yukon was later found burning on state Route 6 about four miles west of Pe Ell.

Police were called about 5:20 p.m. by the victim who said he had been traveling in the borrowed SUV north on North Gold Street and was being tailgated by a silver sedan so he pulled over near Ham Hill Road.

He said a man from the silver car got out, approached him and struck him in the head with a stick, according to the Centralia Police Department.

“He said he ran (away) so hard he lost his shoes in the bushes, he hitched a ride home and called 911,” detective Sgt. Carl Buster said this morning.

The 26-year-old Centralia man described his assailant as about 6-foot 4-inches tall, on the heavier side and bald, maybe with a tattoo under his eyes, Buster said.

Police booked the victim into the Lewis County Jail because he was wanted for a warrant, but got a call from the Pacific County Sheriff’s Office about 11 p.m., according to Buster.

Someone had reported the GMC Yukon was on fire on state Route 6 about milepost 23, he said.

Buster said he expected detectives would be getting the report from Pacific County and attempt to contact the registered owner of the Yukon.

The victim didn’t have a visible injury, according to the incident report Buster referred to for his information this morning.

Arial view of Kuper Court. / Courtesy photo by Chief Robert Scott

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The cause of the fire that swept through more than 30 acres of tall grass and at least one grove of trees in Grand Mound is being investigated by the state Department of Natural Resources.

Firefighters called at 3:56 p.m. yesterday to the area of 201st Avenue Southwest and Kuper Court managed to stop the fast-moving flames just behind a row of numerous houses, but a garage and two outbuildings were lost, according to West Thurston Regional Fire Authority.

Residents on Dakota Court were asked to evacuate, Fire Chief Robert Scott said.

WTRFA was joined by eight neighboring fire departments and DNR with approximately 100 firefighters battling the blaze. One DNR firefighter suffered a minor hand laceration.

Scott said today it appeared to be human caused, but said DNR is responsible for the investigation and he didn’t have any details.

Photos taken by the chief show charred wood fencing and curled vinyl siding on the backs of some houses.

It was just two days earlier the same fire department tackled a three-acre brush fire a couple of miles to the northwest, where a pump house burned but they managed to save a dozen homes.

The first wave of firefighters were relieved about 9 p.m. and personnel with DNR stayed overnight, he said. They are continuing mop up today.

Scott said the department stands prepared in case anything else breaks out during the next few hot days, but residents would be well served to help themselves, ahead of time.

He advises people to create defensible space around their homes, clearing away anything combustible from near their houses.

“You don’t think about it much, this side of the state,” he said.

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – It looks like challenger Carla Shannon and appointed Lewis County Clerk Scott Tinney will advance to the November election, based on numbers released for the primary.

Out of 9,302 ballots cast and counted in yesterday’s primary election, a third candidate, Linda Williams, took in just a tad more than 26 percent.

The numbers between Shannon and Tinney are close.

The Board of (Lewis) County Commissioners selected Tinney in November to finish out the term of retired Lewis County Clerk Kathy Brack, who left in the middle of a four-year term.

Tinney came from the Thurston County Clerk’s Office but resides in Lewis County.

Shannon was actually the first choice of three names forwarded to county commissioners by the local Republican party after Brack’s retirement.

Shannon is a deputy clerk in the Lewis County Clerk’s Office, where she has worked about five years.

All three identify as Republicans.

Shannon so far has secured 36.07 percent, or 3,114 votes and Tinney has 37.85 percent, or 3,268 votes, according to the Lewis County Auditor’s Office elections division.

As of 8 p.m. yesterday, the elections division had tallied 8,268 votes and then today processed and counted another 1,034 in the all vote-by-mail primary.

More ballots may come in, but they must be postmarked by no later than yesterday to be valid, Elections Supervisor Heather Boyer said today.

The office won’t count those until Aug. 14 and they will certify the election on Aug. 15.

Regardless of who wins in November, the elected position will be on the ballot again in November 2018, for a regular four-year term.

Lewis County Fire District 5 had an Emergency Medical Services levy on the ballot and while a majority of voters cast ballots in favor of it, it’s not clear it will clear the hurdles to pass.

As of today, 58.96 percent, or 895, people voted yes but the measure needs to pass by a super majority of 60 percent.

Boyer said the EMS levy also requires validation, meaning the total number of votes has to reach at least 40 percent of the number who voted in the last general election. That number is 1,585, Boyer said.

As of today, only 1,518 individuals cast ballots on the levy.

The Napavine-based fire district failed to get at least 60 percent support for an emergency medical services levy in November.

More than two dozen firefighters worked the area off Hilt Road in Rochester last night. / Courtesy photo by West Thurston Regional Fire Authority

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Flames spread over a little more than three acres in Rochester yesterday evening but crews stopped them before they afflicted any homes.

Firefighters were called just after 5 p.m. for a brush fire in the area of U.S. Highway 12 and 183rd Avenue Southwest but found their fire off of Hilt, Denmark and Roseburg streets, according to West Thurston Regional Fire Authority.

They were joined by several neighboring fire departments to tackle the fast moving long, skinny fire on the backside of various properties, Lt. Lanette Dyer said.

A 22-year-old firefighter was taken to Providence St. Peter Hospital suffering from smoke inhalation and dehydration, Dyer said. She was treated and home by about 11:30 p.m., she said.

Dyer said although one pump house burned, a dozen homes were saved.

The scene was turned over to personnel from the state Department of Natural Resources around 7:30 p.m. They planned to watch overnight.

The Chehalis Fire Department kept busy yesterday stamping out small fires, three of them caused by cigarettes tossed into the bark of planting beds at the Twin City Town Center.

A fourth brush fire that broke out along Shoreline Drive was also caused by a cigarette, according to Fire Capt. Ted McCarty.

McCarty said a man said he dropped a cigarette as he and others were being chased out of the area of the old city treatment plant. He approached a deputy at a gas station on Main Street and said he thought he might have ignited a fire, McCarty said.

“And the deputy looked up to see the smoke,” McCarty said. It was held to about an eighth of an acre, he said.

It’s only going to get worse, McCarty said.

An excessive heat warning is in place for much of Western Washington through Friday, with the potential for record-breaking temperatures on Thursday, according to the National Weather Service. A fire weather watch is advising that conditions will be favorable for the rapid spread of any fires.

Washington State Patrol Trooper Brooke Bova reminded motorists via Twitter today that throwing a lit cigarette out the window of a vehicle can also earn them a $1,025 ticket.

Authorities are reminding the public of steps to take to avoid heat illnesses, such as drink plenty of fluids, stay out of the sun and check up on relatives and neighbors.

Young children and pets should never be left unattended in vehicles under any circumstances, the NWS advises.

“This is especially true during hot weather when car interiors can reach lethal temperatures in a matter of minutes,” the NWS stated in a bulletin this morning.