Lewis County Sirens.com

Marcus T. Dantinne, left, accompanied by attorney Shane O’Rourke, told the judge he was sorry for what he did.

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The 24-year-old who called in an anonymous bomb threat to a Morton lumber mill and admitted to police he just wanted to get a friend out of work so they could hang out was sentenced today to house arrest.

Marcus T. Dantinne pleaded guilty to threat to bomb property, a felony. He apologized this morning in Lewis County Superior Court.

“I truly am greatly sorry for all the badness I’ve caused throughout this,” Dantinne told the judge. “I’m seeking attention from Cascade Mental Health right now.”

Dantinne, who lives with his mother in Morton, was arrested on Nov. 17, after the scare that shut down Alta Forest Products just north of town of some 60 employees. The company’s mill in Shelton was also evacuated because they didn’t know if the threat was site specific.

Police traced the call to Dantinne who reportedly took the phone apart so he wouldn’t be discovered.

Dantinne spent two days jail before being allowed to wait out his case by posting an unsecured, but co-signed  $10,000 bond. His mother was with him in the courtroom today.

He faced a standard sentencing range of three to nine months of lockup, but the lawyers agreed to recommend he be sentenced as a first-time offender, meaning zero to 90 days in jail.

Lewis County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Will Halstead and defense attorney Shane O’Rourke agreed he should serve one month, and suggested to the judge he be allowed to do so under electronic home monitoring.

This morning in court, O’Rourke read a letter from Dantinne’s social worker regarding his eligibility for the alternative; she expressed he suffered from severe social anxiety, and that confinement at the county jail would be detrimental.

The young man has several issues, one of which is autism spectrum disorder, but has been very focused on his outpatient treatment, according to the letter.

Judge Nelson Hunt went along with the sentence.

“Kind of a stupid reason for a bomb threat,” Hunt said. “Usually there’s more to it, than I want a day off with my friend.”

Hunt advised him he has lost his right to possess firearms, and ordered him to begin his electronic home monitoring stint by the evening of March 17.

Dantinne will be under supervision for a year, during which he will have to comply with all his treatment requirements, according to Halstead.

Not yet determined, is the amount he will owe in restitution.

Halstead told the judge the mill indicates the hoax cost them a tad bit over $42,000.
•••

For background, read “Authorities: ‘Dumb’ bomb threat brings class B felony charge” from Wednesday November 19, 2014, here

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – They called it mental health first aid.

Providers from Cascade Mental Health have been teaching local law enforcement officers about the many disorders people are affected by and how to best deal with them in the field, as well as how to obtain resources for them.

Sheriff Rob Snaza

Over the past two weeks or so, 52 officers from the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office and other agencies each got five hours of training at the clinic’s Centralia location, according to the sheriff’s office.

It’s part of partnership between the sheriff’s office and Cascade Mental Health, that is already in place at the jail and is expanding.

Deputies and corrections officers are often the first to see and deal with people suffering from mental health disorders, and they continue to see many of them, according to Sheriff Rob Snaza.

Snaza says the jail is not always the best place for them.

“Law enforcement has a tough job of needing to enforce laws, yet apply basic understanding of mental health disorders to specific situations so they can try to seek appropriate resources to help people,” Snaza stated in a news release announcing the training earlier this week.

Corrections Bureau Chief Kevin Hanson notes in the news release his people and Cascade Mental Health have been working together, well, for many years.

They are in the process of strengthening programs already in place to ensure the best possible outcomes for those affected by mental health issues, according to Hanson.

Hanson recently shared with the Lewis County Board of Commissioners that he and Deputy Chief Bruce Kimsey were accepted as board members at Cascade Mental Health.

Hanson also said regular meetings are now underway for what they are calling Mental Health Alternative Programs, something that is akin to an informal mental health court.

The prosecutors and courts are on board with it, he said.

The sheriff’s office is also developing something called a Crisis Intervention Team / Critical Incident Response Team to work both at the jail and out in the field, according to Chief Deputy Stacy Brown.

Sheriff Snaza is allowing those who are interested to undergo further training in regard to that, according to Brown.

Undersheriff Wes Rethwill told county commissioners at a recent meeting the sheriff’s office is ahead of the curve on what is a huge issue across the state, across the country.

“In the past, they get into the criminal justice system” Rethwill said. “That’s not working, how it’s been handled in the past.”

Detectives and the coroner’s office had to hike into the trees to recover the remains of a female.

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Human remains found by a survey crew on a wooded Chehalis hillside yesterday are those of a female, but authorities don’t know who she is.

Chehalis Police Department detective Sgt. Gary Wilson said, after finishing up the recovery today, there were no indications of foul play.

Police were called about 12:45 p.m. yesterday to the 2200 block of Northeast Kresky Avenue after the discovery, about a quarter mile east of the roadway, according to police. Officers hiked into the scene and confirmed the remains were human.

Chehalis detectives, members of the Lewis County Coroner’s Office and a forensic anthropologist spent the morning today collecting evidence and making the removal.

Wilson said the mostly skeletal remains were laying out in the open. There were no signs of a transient camp or something similar, he said.

A little more than four years ago, a homeless man was found dead in his tent in the same general area. He was 67 years old and died of a complication related to cancer.

The area, east of the Yard Birds Mall, is above a swath of property where some earthmoving and cleanup is underway.

Wilson said the police department doesn’t have any missing people. He said he can estimate the individual has been dead around a year, based partly on items they found.

Personal belongings were found near the victim, police said.

The place where she was found was remote, Coroner Warren McLeod said.

“The climb was such a steep angle, the fire department put up ropes for us to hang on to so we wouldn’t fall,” he said.

Both Wilson and McLeod said they found some clues to a possible identity.

“We’re working on a lead on who this person might be,” McLeod said. “We’re going to see if we can find any local dental work or X-Rays.”

The condition of the body is such that no autopsy can be done. McLeod is arranging for the remains to be sent to the King County Medical Examiner’s Office where Dr. Kathleen Taylor, the forensic anthropologist, will examine them.

She will help to try to find out who the female is and do an examination that may help her establish a cause of death, he said.

Police tape blocks off a trail taken to recover human remains today.

Taylor R. Rushton goes before a judge for a bail hearing in Lewis County Superior Court.

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – A 36-year-old Lewis County man accused of going to a female friend’s workplace and shooting up her unoccupied vehicle will get his chance to make a plea in Lewis County Superior Court on Thursday.

Taylor R. Rushton was arrested last week and ordered held on $50,000 bail.

The arrest came after an investigation of an incident that took place at the beginning of the month at the Chevron station on Mellen Street in Centralia.

Police called about 2 a.m. on Feb. 7 found several small holes in the front quarter panel of Nichole Perry’s small four-door car, according to charging documents.

Charging documents state Perry told police Rushton had shown up about 11 p.m. and accused her of taking his car key and then returned three hours later and fired upon her vehicle.

The clerk said she was inside when she saw the green truck pull up near her car, Rushton get out, pull out a handgun and shoot it four or five times, the documents state.

Charging documents say the green Ford Ranger was last seen approaching the freeway entrance; and another witness described its driver as 5-feet 8-inches tall wearing a baseball cap.

Officers recreating the scene concluded the shots were fired from a close distance and also fired towards the north, so persons walking or driving on Mellen Street could have been harmed, the documents allege.

Police believe the two are or were dating, and but when Rushton appeared in court last week, defense attorney Don Blair said both of them deny ever having any kind of relationship.

Rushton was arrested on Wednesday and on Thursday prosecutors charged him with one count of drive-by shooting, alleging it was a domestic violence incident. The maximum penalty is 10 years in prison.

Prosecutors asked for him to be held on $100,000 bail, citing the dangerousness of the incident. Blair argued against that, noting the rural Chehalis resident has lived here his whole life, has a job and owns his own home.

“He made no efforts to flee, he has no criminal history,” Blair told the judge.

Judge Nelson Hunt said the fact the two denied a dating relationship meant any motive is unknown, necessitating higher bail.

The firearm used had not been located by police, according to the court documents.

Blair said he expected Rushton was going to retain him. His arraignment is Thursday morning.

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

A group of Centralia-area residents are in trouble after they allegedly robbed two individuals who thought they were meeting at the Capitol Mall in Olympia to purchase a car advertised on a Lewis County online for-sale site.

The victims were going to buy a Honda Accord for $1,500 but were approached in the parking lot by two males armed with handguns, according to the Olympia Police Department.

They relinquished the cash they’d brought and then followed a red VW Jetta the men got into and called 911, according to police.

It happened just before 7:30 p.m. on Saturday.

Arriving officers caught up to one of two backseat passengers who ran away on foot and other officers stopped the Jetta as it entered the onramp to Highway 101, according to police.

The female driver and a juvenile passenger were detained.

Arrested and booked into the Thurston County Jail for first-degree robbery were the driver, Kirstan A. Flat, 19, of Chehalis, and Joshua L. Meza, 18, from Winlock, according to police. Lt. Jim Costa initially described the group as from the Centralia area.

The juvenile in the front passenger seat was later released to a parent, and Costa said he’s not sure what the juvenile’s involvement was.

Police this morning were actively searching for the fourth suspect who had fled the car on foot, according to Costa.

No injuries were reported and it’s not clear if the suspects actually had an Accord to sell.

The coroner and his deputies take a look at a casket stuck in a creek off the Newaukum River just east of Onalaska.

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

ONALASKA – The caravan left the coroner’s office at 8:30 a.m., sharp, today.

Lewis County Coroner Warren McLeod and nine members of his team set out on a mission to retrieve a casket discovered partially submerged in a creek last weekend, get it opened up and deal with whatever they found inside.

If it contained somebody’s loved one, the work would begin to figure out who it was and how to get them and their coffin back into their original burial plot.

If it was empty but suspected of once containing a body, McLeod would still have to find out who the previous occupant was, where they had previously been laid to rest and then tell their family that the remains had likely slipped out and been carried downstream.

When he visited the site earlier this week, he could see the lid was damaged, and knew it was possible any remains had been swept away.

The area, a little more than three miles east on state Route 508, beyond Onalaska’s center, has seen flooding several times in recent years.

The hope was, McLeod would find clues that the steel container was the one that once belonged to a pirate.

A SeaFair pirate, who until a few years ago lived near the South Fork of the Newaukum River, with the help of his wife, transformed a never-yet-used casket into fancy outdoor storage for bottles of liquor, ice and whatever bounty such men would need when they sat around a campfire and smoked cigars.

Susan and Pat Patterson lost their casket-turned-bar after a flood several years ago.

The property where they once lived is, as it turns out, one or two addresses upstream from the caravan’s destination.

Robert and Robin Bryan relocated last summer to a home on seven acres on the south side of state Route 508.

He said today, a neighbor notified him the other day he’d found a casket in the creek behind their home. His wife said they needed to report it to authorities.

“I told him, if there was somebody still in it, they needed respect, needed dignity,” Robin Bryan said.

The caravan arrived just before 9 a.m. to the Bryan’s property, and with shovels in hand, the coroner’s team set out.

Robert Bryan and his 8-year-old granddaughter Crystina Rollins, accompanied them down a brushy, muddy path to the creek.

“You can see it just beyond that sink,” he said.

Previous flood events have left a variety of odd objects in the shallow creek.

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The bottom side of the river-colored steel casket shows an orange-ish tint. Deputy Coroner Sarah Hockett says she can’t see inside, even though it appears one half of a “split-top” may be missing.

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Lewis County Coroner Warren McLeod sees the arriving half dozen members of Lewis County Search and Rescue just before 9 a.m. and points to their target.

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Deputy Gabe Frase, red plaid, brings a cable out to attach to the coffin. Chains are wrapped around it. A couple of neighbors have joined those on the creek’s bank to watch.

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Deputy Sgt. Alan Stull pilots the Polaris four-wheeler, a piece of equipment obtained from the military, which has been outfitted with “tracks” to replace its wheels. He revs up the motor as he begins to pull, and the casket starts to rise from its resting place.

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The news media is there.

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Stull pauses, as deputy coroners decide they must dig around the casket first to loosen it further from the grip of the creek bottom. Stull then resumes pulling it toward him.

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The casket has been flipped right side up. “I’ve always wondered what’s in that,” Onalaska Elementary School third-grader Crystina Rollins says. “I’m hoping nothing.” Deputy Curt Spahn pries up the top of the casket.

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They see a mound of mud and gravel inside.

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The see what they think is an ice bucket inside. / Courtesy photo by Lewis County Coroner’s Office

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Bingo. They pull out pieces of particle board, with holes bored out, just the size a bottle of rum could sit in. Mystery solved. “This is good,” McLeod says. “We didn’t want it to be somebody.” The time is 10 a.m.

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Deputy coroners examine the interior further. I don’t know why. Maybe hoping to find some pirate loot.

They decide to leave the casket where it lay.

“It’s not occupied, so I don’t have a problem with it,” Robert Bryan said.

The members of the search and rescue team return to their day of winter training elsewhere in the county.

Long time coordinator of the group, Sheriff’s Deputy Gene Seiber said, before departing, he does not recall the Patterson’s pirate casket turning up after the big 2007 flood.

If several years from now, the container is swept away again and found again, it won’t be a closed casket that causes another mystery, since it doesn’t have a lid, Seiber suggested.

Robin Bryan brings out cinnamon rolls for the coroner’s group.

Mission accomplished.

Postscript: Robin Bryan calls a news reporter to say she informed her landlord of what transpired. The landlord handles the estate of the man who previously resided there, and has died, she said.

“She got quite a laugh out of it,” Robin Bryan said. “She said, ‘It’s still there? He knew all about it.’ ”

The former owner had discovered the casket on his property at one time in the past, and reported it, Robin Bryan said. And then it was just left there, she said.

“She got a big laugh out of it, and said I’m so glad you handled that,” she said.

•••

For background, read:

• “Coffin discovered in Lewis County creek” from Tuesday February 17, 2015, here

• “Search and rescue to attempt recovery of partially submerged coffin” from Friday February 20, 2015, here

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Susan Patterson’s son called her the other day, laughing so hard he could hardly talk.

“He said, ‘It’s back’,” Patterson said.

“I said, ‘What? What’s back?” she said.

“The casket,’ he said.

And she laughed too. She’s still laughing.

“That thing is just going to haunt me forever,” Patterson said.

It’s a long story.

The Patterson family at one time owned a steel, never-before-used casket. The slightly damaged container meant for the dead had been languishing in the Fife warehouse of a shipping company where her son worked.

The Onalaska woman jumped at the chance to take possession of it.

It was the perfect enhancement to a spot on their property they called Pirate Cove. A place with a fire pit where her husband Pat and his SeaFair pirate friends would hang out and smoke cigars, she said.

The now-retired couple moved from West Seattle, home of the infamous group, to Onalaska years ago. Pat Patterson, now 72, has been a pirate for 38 years.

She replaced its lining with a skull and cross bones print fabric and they transformed the casket into a bar. It sat on a couple of logs. Beneath one end of the “split top” was storage for liquor bottles and the other half held a cooler, she said.

They only had it a year, maybe two, she said.

It disappeared during one of the floods, she couldn’t remember for sure which one, she said.

But it’s reappeared twice, and she feels almost certain the one that turned up over the weekend in a creek off the Newaukum River belongs to her family.

“That thing just keeps coming back, every time I think it’s gone, it comes back,” she said.

Patterson said she spoke to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office and the coroner earlier this week.

Lewis County Coroner Warren McLeod learned of the find on Sunday. He and members of Lewis County Search and Rescue plan to attempt to recover it on Saturday morning. It’s on private property, a hike through fairly rough terrain, he said.

McLeod described the found coffin as steel gray, partially submerged, the foot end driven into the creek bottom, almost as if deposited there by raging floodwaters.

He said he couldn’t tell if it was occupied or not.

Patterson recalled theirs as maybe bluish-gray.

The first time the Patterson’s casket-turned bar disappeared might have been around 2006 during a flood. She recalled telling her husband over a cup of coffee that if anyone found it, it could be disturbing, so they placed a note on a community bulletin board in town: If anyone finds a casket, contact the Pattersons.”

“The boys searched and searched for months,” Patterson said. “Nick, my grandson found it out in the woods, standing straight up, but buried in the mud.”

They couldn’t dislodge it, so they left it where it stood.

The following year, they were flooded again and while they were cleaning up, they got a knock and their door. It was a sheriff’s deputy, she said. Asking about a casket.

“He said, ‘Yeah, I guess that last one knocked it loose, it’s now lodged downstream at the neighbor’s’,” she said.

Her recollection was it was stuck and never recovered.

Another flood hit in January 2009, and this time they lost everything. Their home was condemned. The couple moved to the other end of Onalaska.

“I never really thought about that casket after that,” she said.

She told her husband earlier this week the casket has risen again. She almost 100 percent sure it’s theirs, she said.

She told the coroner they don’t want it back.
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For background, read “Coffin discovered in Lewis County creek” from Tuesday February 17, 2015, here