Lewis County Sirens.com

Chase Ettner, right, and his lawyer Ken Johnson appear in Lewis County Superior Court.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The 27-year-old man charged with arson after setting fire to his own Chehalis apartment two weeks ago pleaded guilty today.

Chase N. Ettner wanted to apologize for his actions, recognizing the potential seriousness of the situation, his attorney told a judge this afternoon.

“He has no prior record, he’s not criminally inclined,” Chehalis attorney Ken Johnson said. “He’s seriously embarrassed by this incident, and he’s remorseful.”

Police and firefighters called the night of July 16 to the 100 block of North Market Boulevard found residents had evacuated the brick building and a resident or residents working on extinguishing the flames.

Ettner had jumped out the window of the ground floor apartment he shared with his wife and was laying on the ground extremely intoxicated, surrounded by an unruly crowd, according to responders.

A gas can was found inside the apartment; the oven and stove were turned on, police said. The carpet and a futon were damaged by fire, according to the fire department.

Chehalis police initially said Ettner may have been trying to harm himself or possibly his wife. He also told police, according to charging document, he made sure everybody was out before he “torched the place.”

Ettner and his wife had argued, but she had left, according to attorneys.

Residents from five apartments in the 21-unit brick building had to find somewhere else to stay temporarily.

Both lawyers and Ettner agreed alcohol played a large role that night, and indicated because of that, it’s really not clear what his intentions were.

Johnson suggested the household had alcohol issues.

Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Will Halstead recommended Ettner be sentenced to two years in prison following a plea agreement.

The standard sentencing range for the crime – first-degree arson domestic violence – for Ettner is 21 to 27 months.

Halstead additionally requested he be ordered not to consume alcohol.

Ettner’s voice broke when he addressed Judge James Lawler this afternoon in Lewis County Superior Court.

He said it’s been years without hard drugs, but the alcohol came back and he wants to put it behind him.

“I never thought I would do anything to send myself to prison,” he said.

“I really don’t know what came over me that night,” he added.

Judge Lawler agreed with a two-year sentence.

“I hope you can make that change, because if you don’t, you know what’s waiting for you,” Lawler said.

A no-contact order was entered on behalf of Ettner’s wife, but Johnson said his client who’s spent most of his life in Tennessee may go back there and also thought it best if they went their separate ways.
•••

For background, read:

• “Police: Intoxicated Chehalis man arrested after starting fire in his apartment” from Monday July 16, 2012 at 9:22 a.m., here

• “Prosecutors: Drunken apartment resident tried to hurt self, get back at wife with arson” from Tuesday July 17, 2012 at 9:51 a.m., here

The Lewis County coroner displayed the urns of the unclaimed dead for the news media in hopes a bit of publicity might turn up relatives.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Anyone out there missing a grandmother? A cousin? Maybe a great uncle?

More than a dozen individuals who have died with no family to claim them for burial remain in the custody of the Lewis County Coroner’s Office.

Over the past 14 years, each unclaimed person has been cremated, their ashes placed in a a temporary plastic urn or even just a cardboard box, and then shelved.

Many of them were older when they died, although David J. Robertson, for example, was just 48 when he passed away at a Centralia nursing home in June of 2010.

Two local men who passed away earlier this year are among them.

Some may have been estranged from their family, or simply had no living relatives, according to Coroner Warren McLeod.

“One gentleman we spoke to his neighbor, he said no, he doesn’t have any family,” McLeod said.

It’s been somewhat distressing to McLeod and employees at the coroner’s office that so many have not gotten a proper burial.

“It’s frustrating,” McLeod said. “I mean, these folks have been stored in the back store room.”

“You gotta figure somebody somewhere loves them,” he said.

When McLeod took over as elected coroner in January 2011, there were many unclaimed sets of cremated remains being stored in the office.

Last year, volunteers worked with the coroner to take the military veterans among them to be buried at Tahoma National Cemetery in Kent.

Since then, McLeod’s deputy coroners have checked and re-checked and found relatives of just a few.

Just last week, they matched up an urn containing a woman’s remains with her son who lives in Olympia, according to McLeod.

“When he was contacted, he said, oh, I thought someone else in the family took care of her,” McLeod said.

Five families have been found in the past several months, he said.

Now that virtually all avenues have been exhausted, the 16 remaining individuals will finally go to their final resting spot.

Claquato Cemetery west of Chehalis has donated a plot. A burial service is in the planning for next month.

The 16 urns will be placed in a shared concrete liner in a part of the cemetery known as the county section.

McLeod said he was told that’s where the county buried people who were unclaimed from the 1930s until the mid-1990s. He said he didn’t know why that practice ended.

Just in case in the future, a relative turns up who wants to retrieve their loved one, each urn will be sealed separately with a copy of the death certificate.

Their names won’t be engraved on any headstone, but the grave will be marked, and the cemetery will keep a listing as well as copies of the death certificates on file, according to McLeod.

The burial and a non-denominational memorial service is tentatively set for the week of Aug. 20.

If any of them do have a family member who wants to claim them, there is still time. The coroner thought publishing a list could possibly turn up more relatives.

Some of them still have friends in the area, just not family who could legally claim their bodies, according to the coroner’s office.

“Once we have the date, if people from the public want to come, they’re welcome,” McLeod said.

The following individuals are scheduled to be buried at Claquato:

• Lawrence T. Erickson, Centralia: 7-10-1915 to 5-4-1998

• Richard Farrell, Randle: 3-31-1943 to 10-26-1999

• Delores Fletcher, Centralia: 10-11-1928 to 3-24-2000

• Mary Katherine Gibson, Chehalis: 5-17-1936 to 3-31-2000

• Gladys Vivian Pitts, Centralia: 10-5-1915 to 10-6-2003

• Hiram Mahlon Coleman, Pe Ell: 7-22-1935 to 1-18-2004

• Edward M. Dombrowe, Chehalis: 4-22-1924 to 7-15-2004

• Harry Edwin Fields Jr., Chehalis: 8-25-1946 to 10-17-2004

• Stella Richardson, Centralia: 3-7-1928 to 8-12-2006

• Michael S. Edin, Centralia: 2-20-1944 to 10-5-2009

• David J. Robertson, Centralia: 6-7-1962 to 7-27-2010

• Eugene Briese, transient Chehalis area: 7-1-1943 to 12-6-2010

• Gary M. Ward, Centralia: 8-23-1961 to 6-15-2010

• William Dane, Centralia: 8-17-1942 to 3-1-2011

• Richard Fisher, Centralia: 12-16-1938 to 1-14-2012

• Curt Lynn Allison, aka Curtis Hughes, Curtis: 11-17-1950 to 4-7-2012

Updated

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

Aid was called this afternoon to a train versus vehicle collision near Tenino.

A family of four were in a pickup truck which was hit by an Amtrak passenger train just north of Tenino, according to responders.

Courtesy photo by WSP

Trooper Guy Gill says they are very lucky to be alive.

Three were injured. Two individuals were transported by medics with advanced life support capabilities and one person was transported with basic life support personnel, according to Thurston County Fire District 12.

It happened in the area of McDuff Road near 143rd Avenue Southeast, according to Fire Chief Robin Duncan. Gill described the location as McDuff Road and Fenton Avenue.

It was a 2004 Ford F-150.

The train struck the front area of the pickup, Gill said on Twitter. “Three feet the other way and we would be dealing with multiple fatalities right now.”

The trooper said the two adults and two children are going to be fine. The driver is Thomas G. Hertter, 52, of Olympia, according to Gill.

The train was traveling approximately 79 mph.

Duncan said he thought the call came around 2:45 p.m., but couldn’t be sure as the fire department had three calls at about the same time.

The town’s Oregon Trail Days celebration is going on this weekend.

Robert T. Hendrickson listens as his lawyer addresses a judge about the March holdups.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – It’s off to prison for a 23-year-old Centralia man whose short-lived bank robbery career included trying to hold up a credit union that keeps no cash in its drawers.

Robert T. Hendrickson admitted to making off with money from Chase Bank on South Market Boulevard the morning of March 17, and moments earlier attempting to do the same at the nearby Twin Star Credit Union.

When he asked for all the cash in the drawer there, an employee said there wasn’t any, but he could get some out of their ATM.

Hendrickson and the driver of the getaway car were captured less than 30 minutes later after a high speed chase and a wreck on Cooks Hill Road in Centralia. Hendrickson was taken to the ground by a police dog when he tried to run.

“This is extraordinarily uncharacteristic of his general demeanor,” his attorney told a judge. “My client has admitted a drug problem.”

Hendrickson pleaded guilty and was sentenced to five and a half years on Thursday in Lewis County Superior Court.

The charges included a bank robbery the night before in Olympia at a U.S. Bank branch inside a Safeway store.

Chehalis defense attorney Chris Baum said he worked with other lawyers to get the two cases combined for the plea agreement.

Baum suggested to Judge James Lawler in court on Thursday afternoon that his client was influenced by his partner.

“(Robert) Hughes sat in the car,” Baum said.

The attorney noted Hendrickson was never armed and never threatened anyone with a weapon.

Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Will Halstead recommended five and a half years, the middle of the standard sentencing range for the crimes.

Hendrickson, who has no previous felonies on his record, told Judge Lawler he’s going to use the time to change his life.

Hughes, 32, of Tenino, pleaded guilty last month and was sentenced to five years for the incidents in Lewis County. He faces more potential time for the Thurston County bank robbery, Halstead said.
•••

For background, read: “Foiled Chehalis bank heists lead to serious charges for local pair” from Monday March 19, 2012, here

Twin Star Credit Union was closed temporarily after an attempted robbery the morning of March 17.

Jeff Calcagno, his wife and grown sons stop briefly in Chehalis today after spending more than a week in an Olympia hospital.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Jeff Calcagno is tired, but he’s alive.

The 55-year-old Battleground resident finally left the hospital today, nine days after his heart stopped as he was passing by Winlock on Interstate 5.

Calcagno had been driving home from Kent, where one of his business’s four warehouses is located.

He doesn’t remember much at all about the entire day, but several local troopers, firefighters and medics likely won’t forget.

It was about 3:30 p.m. on July 18, when his Subaru Legacy twice drifted into a semi truck in the next lane, struck the inside concrete barrier and then veered off onto the right shoulder into a ditch.

Two passing motorists, both emergency room nurses from the Portland area, stopped, found him with no pulse and pulled him from his car to begin CPR.

Soon, they were joined by a sheriff’s deputy, trooper, paramedics from Lewis County Medic One and firefighters from Winlock and Napavine.

Resuscitation efforts continued on the shoulder of the freeway. Medics shocked him and administered drugs until his heart was beating again.

Calcagno was rushed in an ambulance to Providence Centralia Hospital, and then transferred to Providence St. Peter Hospital in Olympia with its specialized cardiac care.

Paramedic Clayton Skinner spoke of how unlikely that sort of outcome is, crediting the immediate CPR started by the nurses.

Lewis County Fire District 15 Assistant Chief Kevin Anderson noted how the nurses were in the right place at the right time for the patient.

Calcagno and his wife Pam Calcagno today said even the doctors teared up when they heard the story.

“The cardiologist said 95 percent of people don’t have that outcome,” Pam Calcagno said.

For the first few days, he was in an induced semi-coma state and then recovering, the couple said.

Their 25-year-old son Christopher flew home from where he was working in Afghanistan. Their 21-year-old son Nicholas came and the family stayed in Olympia.

The Calcagnos were told it was just a chance occurrence. His heart just went into an irregular rhythm and then stopped, they said. It was possibly a rare consequence of a heart attack he had a couple of years ago, according to Calcagno.

Yesterday, doctors installed a mini defibrillator in his chest. About the size of a pager, with wires, the device will “kick start” his heart if something happens again, the Calcagnos said.

“It’s like a little team of paramedics in his chest,” his wife said.

His heart is strong and healthy, she said. He did have six fractured ribs, but medical personnel at the hospital just called that “very effective CPR.”

Calcagno said he’s just beginning to realize what happened.

The family said there’s no words to express their gratitude for strangers who saved his life.

“We can’t say how much we appreciate these people and want to meet them,” Pam Calcagno said.

Her husband feels the same way.

“There’s amazing people out there,” Calcagno said. “You don’t know it till you’re on the other side of that coin.”

Nicholas said he plans on taking a CPR class now.

Assistant Fire Chief Anderson notes the incident should serve as a reminder to the critical role people can play in their communities if they are trained in CPR.

District 15 wants folks to know they can get more information about obtaining training in CPR and first aid, by contacting them at 360-785-4221.
•••

For background, read: “Passing nurses help revive driver whose heart stopped on Interstate 5” from Wednesday July 18, 2012, here

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – A judge this afternoon ordered a 24-year-old Winlock man held on $500,000 bail following his arrest for a sexual assault of an 8-year-old girl in a Mossyrock-area campground almost five years ago.

Reginald L. Juntunen was identified only late last month as a suspect through DNA, according to the Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office.

He was in Lewis County Superior Court yesterday on an unrelated matter when he was taken into custody.

Temporary defense attorney Bob Schroeter told the judge Juntunen is a graduate of Winlock High School and a life-long resident of the South Lewis County town.

Charging documents in the case allege the child was anally raped by a dark-skinned male wearing a hoodie and a stocking cap who forced her into the public restroom.

The girl, who is now 12, said she rode her bicycle to the nearby bathroom when she saw the man.

She said he told her he had a knife and to stop screaming, and he left in a yellowish car, according to the documents.

Deputies at the time collected a tissue the girl had wiped herself off with when she returned to the family’s motor home, the documents state.

On July 2, the sheriff’s office received a report from the   Washington State Patrol Crime Laboratory declaring a match with Juntunen.

Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Joely O’Rourke said his DNA would have been entered into the system from a previous felony.

Juntunen told detectives yesterday he’d been to the park camping with his family when he was nine years old and two years ago fishing with a friend, but not in 2007 when he was 19 years old.

“When asked by Detective Callas if he could explain how his DNA was recovered from semen found on a female child, Juntunen’s eyes got very large, he appeared to be in shock, and he simply said ‘no’,” charging documents state.

O’Rourke said she has not yet spoken with the victim, and doesn’t know where she is from.

Juntunen is charged with first-degree rape, first-degree rape of a child and  first-degree kidnapping with sexual motivation. Each offense carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.

The Winlock man is currently in Lewis County Drug Court, having entered in connection with a case in which he allegedly sold jewelry to a Centralia boutique that had been stolen in a February burglary in Winlock.

Yesterday he was in court to plead not guilty to burglary and theft related to a case in which he and another individual allegedly were involved in a May break-in at another Winlock residence and a stolen banjo and guitar were sold to a pawn shop.

He has a 2008 drug conviction.

Juntunen is represented by Chehalis attorney Chris Baum.

He will return to court next Thursday morning to make his plea in this new case.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS –  Ricky Allen Riffe’s mother and father came to court this afternoon, but their son who is accused in the 1985 kidnap and slaying of an elderly couple won’t been seen by a judge until next week.

Riffe, 53, was brought back yesterday to Lewis County from his home in Alaska where he has lived since 1987.

Rick Riffe

Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer this morning said Riffe would go before a judge today, but Riffe’s attorney requested a postponement until Tuesday, because he is out of town.

The former Lewis County resident was arrested earlier this month at his home for the deaths of Edward and Wilhelmina Maurin of Ethel more than a quarter of a century ago.

Riffe is just a hard working family man who was shocked by his arrest, his attorney John Crowley said.

“He knew the people had been murdered and the police investigation followed a number of leads,” Crowley said. “And on many occasions they had talked to Rick and his brother John.”

Riffe lives in King Salmon, Alaska, a small fishing community where he helped raise his two step-children, and worked as a heavy equipment operator, according to the attorney. One of the grown sons is in his third-year of law school, he said.

“From everyone that we’ve talked to, his character was that of a gentle nature, he has no criminal history,” Crowley said of his client.

The Seattle-based attorney said he’s concerned about some of the reports he’s read in the news, especially a commentator who wrote the only way Riffe wouldn’t be found guilty would be by a confused jury.

“Mr. Riffe is concerned the people might think the same thing,” he said. “All he wants is a fair trial, with evidence, he knows he will be found not guilty.”

The Lewis County sheriff and prosecutor held a well-attended press conference the day after local detectives made the arrest, saying Riffe and his younger brother John Gregory Riffe had long been primary suspects in the old case.

Sheriff Steve Mansfield described how the sheriff’s office felt it had a strong case back in the early 1990s, but for whatever reason wasn’t able to persuade a prosecutor to file charges.

Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer – new to the office 18 months ago – likened it to a puzzle in which he realized they had all the pieces they needed.

The case has been the sole assignment of one of the sheriff’s detectives for the past four months, according to Meyer.

Sixteen pages of charging documents describe numerous people who were interviewed, after the bodies were found and then witnesses who turned up in the early 1990s.

One of “Minnie” Hadaller’s sons, Dennis Hadaller, hired two private investigators who spoke with new sources in 2004. Many of the witnesses listed were reinterviewed by sheriff’s detective Bruce Kimsey in recent years.

John Riffe died of ill health a week before detectives purchased tickets to travel to Alaska to arrest the brothers. He was 50.

Ricky and John Riffe formerly lived in the Salkum area toward Mayfield Lake and Adna, according to the sheriff’s office.

Ed and Minnie Maurin

The charging documents allege some of the following details for the charges of kidnap, robbery and murder:

Ed Maurin, 81, and his wife, 83, were reported missing Dec. 19, 1985 after guests arrived for a Christmas party at their house along U.S. Highway 12 in Ethel and found nobody home.

“(I)t appears that the defendants gained entry into the Maurin residence, closed the curtains, searched the home, uncovered bank records and forced the victims to call the bank,” Prosecutor Meyer writes.

An employee at Sterling Savings Bank in Chehalis said Ed Maurin phoned about 9:35 a.m. that day and advised he needed $8,500 cash, that “the kids” were going to help them buy a car.

Family members told investigators there was no such plan.

A truck driver who was contacted in 1991 pointed to Ricky Riffe and offered several pieces of information, including a possible reason the Maurins was targeted.

The unnamed witness recalled seeing the couple outside their Ethel home when he and the brothers drove past it about two weeks before the deaths.

He recalled mentioning they must have money, because they owned all the Christmas trees surrounding their property and their son had a successful logging business.

Another man came forward in 2004, who said he withheld information for fear the Riffe brothers would kill him or his family.

That man told of driving with his mother from his home in Mossyrock “into town” that December, when he saw the Riffe brothers in a car with the Maurin couple.

“He remembered waving and getting a good look at Greg, who was in the backseat.”

The brothers confronted him and threatened him shortly after if he spoke about what he saw.

Numerous other people are cited as having told detectives of seeing a man or men who matched the brothers’ descriptions at various key places that day, often noting one wearing a dark stocking cap, wearing an Army jacket or carrying a gun.

Ed Maurin withdrew cash from the bank, even though the bank suggested a cashier’s check.

A witness re-interviewed in June, claims to have seen the couple in their car with an unshaven “scuzzy” male passenger in the backseat on state Route 6, and then again about a mile from where the two bodies were subsequently found.

The witness had a machine shop and had been working on a “skidder” and then was going to meet it and the operator at a logging site on Bunker Creek Road.

He indicated he was following behind a westbound green Chrysler or Dodge that was traveling only about 35 mph and backing up traffic. He passed the car.

“He said an elderly man was driving and looked up at him with a scared / frantic look in his eyes.”

The younger male was sitting in the backseat, resting his upper body and arms on the back portion of the front seat.

When the witness me up with the skidder operator on Bunker Creek Road, just past Ceres Hill Road, he saw the same vehicle creeping toward him about 25 mph. He said he remarked he was amazed the old man was still driving, and the car continued up Bunker Creek Road.

The witness said afterward he went to pick up a generator at Kresky Auto around the lunch hour and saw the same man from the backseat of the vehicle walking on a berm between Yard Birds and the Lewis County Mall.

Early on the morning of Dec. 20, the couple’s car was found abandoned in the parking lot at Yard Birds. Inside were the keys, a large amount of blood stains and a man’s hat like Ed Maurin wore.

On Christmas Eve, the Maurin’s bodies were found off a logging road off the end of Stearns Hill Road, seven miles west of Chehalis.

They had been shot in the backs with a shotgun while in their car.

Crowley said as far as he can tell, it’s an old case, with no new evidence and no new witnesses. When Riffe was arrested, he thought at least there might be some DNA evidence, but he hasn’t heard of any, he said.

“For whatever reason, they decided to arrest him,” Crowley said. “Other than, they think he did it.”

Riffe is charged with two counts each of first-degree murder, first-degree kidnapping and first-degree robbery, as well as one count of burglary.

Numerous aggravating circumstances are alleged including particularly vulnerable victims and deliberate cruelty.

He is being held on the $5 million arrest warrant.

The attorneys and Riffe will go before Judge Richard Brosey in Lewis County Superior Court at 4 p.m. on Tuesday and likely talk about the bail amount.

•••

For back ground, read:

• “Breaking news: Sheriff: Cold case solved in 1985 shooting death of elderly Ethel couple” from Monday July 9, 2012 at 9:13 a.m., here

• “Sheriff: It’s safe for further witnesses to come forward following arrest in deaths of Ethel couple” from Monday July 9, 2012 at 5:14 p.m., here