Lewis County Sirens.com

This was updated 11:30 a.m. on Monday March 28, 2011

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CENTRALIA – A 43-year-old man was seriously injured today when a 50 caliber rifle malfunctioned while some friends were target shooting northeast of Centralia.

Lewis County sheriff’s deputies and aid responded to the 2:30 p.m. call to a shack and spread of remote rural property used as a shooting range off Big Hanaford Road at Tono Road.

“The guy pulling the trigger didn’t get hurt, it was the guy standing next to him,” sheriff’s Cmdr. Steve Aust said.

Aust said it appeared the firing pin struck the round before it was properly seated and it basically exploded inside the gun, with the force of it moving sideways.

The victim, who is from Point Roberts, Wash., sustained injuries to his upper body, taking pieces of casing in his chest and eyes, along with possibly puncturing a lung, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. His name was not released.

Riverside Fire Authority Capt. Scott Weinert said the patient was taken to Providence Centralia Hospital and then airlifted to a hospital up north, but he wasn’t sure which one.

He had serious injuries, Weinert said.

The sheriff’s office said the victim had put the gun together himself and was using it for the first time.

After shooting four rounds, a friend of his was getting ready to fire it. When the bolt would not close, the gun’s owner knelt next to it not realizing the firing pin had not retracted on the previous shot, according to the sheriff’s office.

It happened when he forced the bolt closed.

“You’re talking about a bullet casing that is several inches long and you have all that pressure in there,” detective Sgt. Dusty Breen said.

A 50 caliber rifle is about as big as an ordinary person can legally possess and use, according to Breen.

The lower portion of the gun is a AR15-style and the upper portion manufactured by Bohica, Breen said.

The National Rifle Association describes 50 caliber rifles as among the most expensive made and primarily used by long-range target shooting experts.

Point Roberts is a small piece of Whatcom County on a peninsula accessed only by water or through Canada.

Nearby neighbor Dick Teitzel said it’s only the second accident he can recall at the make-shift range he and friends built some 30 years ago.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

VADER – When 18-year-old Kayla Croft-Payne first went missing, the little store in Vader displayed a flyer at their counter and handed out copies of the appeal for information about the teenager’s whereabouts.

Now, almost a year later, the small poster has moved, tacked to a wall by the door and surrounded by others offering items for sale, chimney cleaning services and even tutoring.

Still, not much more than a week goes by without a customer asking if anyone’s heard anything about her, according to clerk Kelli Gammel.

“It’s a sad story. A very sad story,” Gammel said.

While Croft-Payne moved away from Vader at least twice in her late teens, she would always come back. Her mother, Michelle Croft, lives in the small south Lewis County town.

The teen would pop into J and G’s Grocery periodically, Gammel said.

“A very pretty girl, she could have been a model,” Gammel said. “Tall, slender. She was popular with a lot of people.”

Gammel, who’s known the teen’s parents since before Croft-Payne was born, describes her as somewhat “street-smart” but also gullible.

When Croft-Payne turned 18, she got several thousand dollars from a trust fund and moved into an apartment in Chehalis. That was September 2009. Neither the money or the new place lasted long, according to her family.

That’s when things spiraled out of control, Gammel said.

“The last time she came into the store, she was with an older man who kind of gave me the creeps,” she said.

Gammel says she’s picked up plenty of rumors about what happened to the young woman, but she had begun to bounce around and “we didn’t really know who she was hanging out with.”

“Somebody knows something,” she said. “But when Kayla disappeared, she wasn’t hanging out in Vader.”

Late last spring, the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office put out a public request for any information on Croft-Payne, saying she was reported missing on May 5 by a friend who had not seen or heard from her for several days.

She hadn’t logged on to her MySpace internet account since April 28.

At the time, she was living in a trailer behind a place on the 200 block of Newaukum Valley Road, between Chehalis and Napavine.

She was very social, talking to friends online daily, sheriff’s detective Jamey McGinty said.

“Then it just stopped,” he said. “No contact with her attorney, her MySpace, Facebook. It just stops.

It was the sort of disappearance that prompted the sheriff’s office to put every available detective on it to track down leads for at least two weeks, according to McGinty.

But now, without new tips coming in, the case work is mostly routinely checking her Internet accounts and a nationwide database in case she were to get arrested, detective’s Sgt. Dusty Breen said earlier this week.

Croft-Payne has friends all over, some – who like she did – used drugs, according to those who know her.

She was raised by her mother in Centralia and Chehalis and then for about three years during middle school – when she got put into foster care – lived in the area around Toledo.

She spent six months in a drug and alcohol treatment program for pregnant women in Tacoma.

By March of 2009, she was clean, but wanted to get away from the drugs in Vader. She and the baby moved in with a married friend in Winlock.

At first, it went fine, said Cassandra Sines the friend who is now 24. Croft-Payne attended an alternative high school program, she said.

But then she was partying and not coming home to take care of her baby, Sines said. Methamphetamine was her drug of choice then, though later she used heroin, according to Sines.

By June, Child Protective Services put the child in foster care.

The last time Sines saw Croft-Payne in person was in January 2010.

“I don’t know if she was on drugs or what that day,” she said. “She was kind of being bitchy, and we told her to leave.”

Still, they “talked” online almost daily. Croft-Payne was sort of addicted to social media, she said.

“The last couple of times I (messaged) with Kayla, she wanted to get clean,” Sines said.

It was Sines who gave the missing person information to the sheriff’s office. But the initial phone call on May 5, was made by Croft-Payne’s close friend Ashley Smith, who used Sine’s phone, Sines said.

“Ashley asked me to give her a ride to go find Kayla,” she said. “We drove to Onalaska, to Vader, she wasn’t there.”

Smith got panicky, called 911, and gave Sines’ name instead of her own, Sines said.

Neither Croft-Payne’s father or her mother  know a lot about the friends their daughter was hanging out with in the months before she vanished.

“The drug scene’s been sucking her back for years,” said her father, Thomas Payne.

Payne, who’s 46 and lives in Longview, said even though his daughter was sometimes rebellious, she would always call.

He last spoke with her a month or two before she disappeared.

“She wanted to get away from all the people she was doing drugs with, get a fresh start, get her life together,” Payne said.

She wanted to see her younger sister, and asked if she could move in with him, he said. He told her only if she went into drug treatment first. She said she’d be down but didn’t make it, he said.

Not knowing, and not getting much information from the sheriff’s office has been agonizing for the union construction worker who is also father to a 10-year-old girl.

“I’ve got lots and lots of friends that would love to go out and look for her,” he said. “But we’ve got no idea where to start in the world.”

Late last year, detective McGinty asked Payne and his daughter to come in and give DNA samples, just in case they were needed, he said.

Payne tells Jada her big sister is just being a butt head and not calling, he said.

“All she knew is we were giving DNA to help find sissy,” he said. “She’s 10, she hasn’t put two and two together yet. Thank God.”

The part of the conversation with McGinty that has stayed him with the most, is the idea his daughter may have died from an accidental drug overdose and her body hidden by friends afraid of getting in trouble.

Payne hopes renewed attention to the case will bring someone forward with information.

“I don’t care, I just want to find out where she’s at one way or the other,” he said. “To put her to rest or get her help.”

Lewis County detectives say the last place they can verify Croft-Payne being seen is in Cowlitz County. She stayed at least one evening in a trailer park in the Toutle area, according to detective Sgt. Breen.

The theory she died from a drug overdose did come through the investigation, McGinty said.

Late last July, they had a cadaver dog search around a river in the Toutle area, but they did not get any definite “alerts” from the dog, according to Breen.

If Croft-Payne did succumb to drugs and anyone knows where she can be found, the sheriff’s office would like to hear about it.

Hiding a body is not a felony, it’s only a misdemeanor, according to Breen.

The teenager’s mother last spoke with her in April.

“She called, said she was on her way down and didn’t show up,” Michelle Croft said.

Last weekend, as she spoke about her missing oldest child, her 4-year-old grabbed a helium ballon from the living room wall of their home and ran outside, announcing she would “send it to Kayla.”

“We usually write messages on them,” Croft said. “We’ve had a rough time. At first she thought it was her fault sissy didn’t come home.”

Croft learned her daughter was reported missing by reading a newspaper article about it, she said. At first, she thought her daughter’s father was hiding her, she said.

The 44-year-old mother didn’t like seeing the sheriff’s office label her daughter transient. She wasn’t, Croft said.

“When she didn’t get her way, she’d stay with friends,” she said. “And when she didn’t get her way there, she’d be back.”

Croft said she doesn’t have much money because she doesn’t work, but she’s gotten help from Gammel in making missing person flyers. She driven from Tacoma to Portland, posting them in convenience stores, she said.

“The not knowing, it’s killing me, it’s killing me inside,” she said. “It’s hard to take care of Shelbie, sometimes I just want to lay down.

“But I feel like if I’m not out there putting pictures up, I feel like I’m giving up.”

Croft, who said she’s in recovery from meth addiction, has also been spending time with people in the drug world, hoping to learn something about her daughter’s whereabouts, she said.

“Kayla, she ran with people in their 30s and 40s,” she said. “She grew up fast because she got put into the system.”

She’s heard her daughter was hanging out with gang members from the Mexican Mafia in Longview, she said.

“I was told she was being trafficked for sex,” she said. “I was told she had a pretty high drug bill.”

But that’s just one rumor the mother of two has come across.

Sheriff’s detectives say Croft-Payne spent time in places such as Lewis County, Kitsap County and Grays Harbor County.

They’ve followed tips into Pierce County and even tracked down a wood chipper after they heard someone made comments she’d been put through one. It was covered with cobwebs, Breen said.

In June, they went to a court hearing where Croft-Payne was expected, in connection with getting custody of her baby.

“She was trying to get her child back, trying really hard,” McGinty said. “For her to not show up, it wasn’t like her.”

They checked with her grandmother in Montana, wondering if she left the state. She wasn’t there.

“There’s been tips she was alive,” McGinty said.

After hearing a rumor she was on the east Coast, Breen sent for a license photo, but it was another woman, he said.

Last October, it appeared Croft-Payne posted a message on someone’s else’s MySpace page, the detectives said.

But when McGinty contacted technicians at MySpace, he learned  her comment was labeled with the date when the recipient opened it, not when she sent it, he said.

Croft-Payne’s MySpace page also appears as though she logged on in July, but it wasn’t her, that’s when the company logged in to check her account, he said.

The detectives don’t know what happened to her, but they’d like to find her.

“Our minds aren’t settled whatsoever,” Breen said. “However, the more time goes by … it doesn’t look good.”

The sheriff’s office has shared a copy of her case file with law enforcement officers in Cowlitz County.

For McGinty, who estimates he investigated some 150 missing or runaway person cases during his four years as a detective, this one is different.

“I’d get runaways, at least four a month,” he said. “Sometimes they’d come back that night, sometimes the next day.”

She is the first who has not surfaced, he said.

Croft-Payne is a white female with blue eyes and brown hair. Detectives say now she is probably about 5-feet 9-inches tall and 130 pounds.

Anyone with any information on her whereabouts is asked to contact the sheriff’s office at 360-748-9286.

Anonymous tips can be left at: Crime Stoppers of Lewis County 1-800-748-6422 or the sheriff’s office online crime tips page.

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A vigil is planned for Kayla Croft-Payne at 6:30 p.m. on April 28 at Penny Playground in Chehalis, at Southwest 13th Street, off Interstate 5 exit 76.

Organizers are looking for donations of purple and green helium balloons. For information, contact Jerome Painter at jeremy@zebracomputers.com

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – A judge agreed today a Centralia woman accused of killing her premature newborn should be evaluated by doctors from the state psychiatric hospital.

Laura Lynn Hickey, 24, made a brief appearance this afternoon in Lewis County Superior Court. She is charged with first-degree murder.

Prosecutors allege Hickey – who was about halfway through her pregnancy – used a serrated knife to cut off her baby’s head  as it was trying to take a breath after she unexpectedly delivered it into a toilet two weeks ago.

She told police she didn’t think it was going to live and she didn’t want it to suffer.

Defense attorney Ken Johnson made the request for an evaluation from Western State Hospital.

They’ll look into issues of competency, insanity and diminished capacity, he said.

“In cases like this, you certainly want to look at potential defenses,” Johnson said. “Also the facts in this case, that are unusual, may indicate a mental issue.”

Hickey lived in a fifth-wheel trailer at the Peppertree Motor Inn and RV Park in Centralia. According to the attorney who represented her for her first court appearance, she has no income and no assets.

Hickey reportedly told police she used methamphetamine two days before the incident and had been awake since then. She has previous misdemeanor convictions for theft, vehicle prowl and trespass.

Charging documents indicate an emergency room doctor estimated she was about 21 weeks along in her pregnancy when he examined Hickey after what she initially said was a miscarriage.

Preliminary findings from the autopsy indicated the fetus was born alive and was viable, according to charging documents.

Whether a fetus at that stage of development can survive outside its mother’s womb is an issue that will come up in this case, Johnson said today.

Hickey has three children who were previously put into foster care by the state.

Last May, her 5-year-old and her 2-year-old were taken out of her home and in July, when she gave birth to her third child, it too was taken, according to a spokesperson for the state Children’s Administration.

Sherry Hill, communications director for the state agency, said she can’t disclose the reasons for the removals, however, she said the law provides for such action when a child is abused, neglected or no parent is capable or caring for it.

Hickey remains in the Lewis County Jail, held on $1 million bail.

She is expected to return to court on April 7.

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Read “Mother charged with killing newborn, held on $1 million bail” from Friday March 11, 2011, here

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The Lewis County Coroner’s Office concluded the deaths of the Winlock father and son were homicide and the mother shot herself.

Each of the three died of penetrating gunshots to the head, according to Coroner Warren McLeod.

His finding followed today’s autopsies.

Rodney Walter, 57, Cathy Lee Walter, 65, Devon Walter, 18, their three dogs and a cat were found shot dead on Tuesday night at their home on the 300 block of Frost Road. They were last heard from on Sunday.

McLeod, in a brief interview, said his reason for the determination was because that’s what the pathologist – who conducted the autopsies – said happened.

Lewis County Sheriff Steve Mansfield said the announcement by the coroner doesn’t mean he expects to release any further information about their investigation today.

Still not revealed is if there was a suicide note or what kind of firearm was found.

“I’m not saying anything about that now,” Mansfield said. “We’ve still got several things to do and look at.”

Rodney Walter was a truck driver, and the family moved into the two-story log cabin six or seven years, according to neighbors.

Mansfield indicated yesterday solid ideas about what prompted the double-murder suicide were few. Detectives continue to look for a motive, he said.

“Why did this happen, we’re still working on this,” he said this afternoon. “We’ve got a little ways to go.”

Update: The sheriff’s office said in a news release on Friday morning, March 18, they believe there are no other participants in the shooting beyond the three individuals who are dead.
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For more, scroll down to this morning’s news story, or click here

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

WINLOCK – The three members of the Walter family who authorities believe died as a result of a murder-suicide were considered  thoughtful neighbors who somewhat kept to themselves and weren’t familiar to law enforcement until Tuesday night’s discovery at their Winlock-area home.

Rodney Walter, 57, Cathy Lee Walter, 65 and their 18-year-old son Devon Walter, along with their family pets, were found dead of apparent gunshots at their two-story log cabin on the 300 block of Frost Road.

An adult daughter from Tacoma who normally spoke or texted with her mother daily drove to the house when she hadn’t heard from her mother after a couple of days, Lewis County Sheriff’s Steve Mansfield said yesterday.

Mansfield said he had no idea what might have sparked the tragedy, and neither did the daughter.

“They seemed to be a family that kept in contact with each other,” he said.

It wasn’t a home known to the sheriff’s office as a drug house or an address they went to for domestic violence calls or anything like that, Mansfield said.

“That’s what’s so strange about this,” he said. “They were not even on our radar as a family with problems.”

The sheriff’s office has not said which one of the three they think fired the shots, although by yesterday afternoon, they had a “very good idea” of who they think it was, Mansfield said.

“We’ve got several other pieces of this put together, but nothing we can share at this point,” the sheriff said.

Neighbor Dave Boyer said yesterday he thought they’d lived on the gravel road six or seven years, a place where the next house might be a quarter of a mile away.

“They were alright, they were nice people,” Boyer said. “They’d wave and say hi.”

Rodney Walter had a small trucking company. His loaded rig was parked near the family’s home, leading Boyer and his friend Marty Russell to speculate about who did or didn’t pulled the trigger.

“One and one adds up to two,” Boyer said. “He was leaving on a run, why would he have a load on his truck?”

The home sits in a rural area of the county east of Interstate 5 and not far from Lewis and Clark State Park.

An American flag flew from the porch and tie-died curtains covered an upstairs window of the vacant house yesterday afternoon. A small sign in front noted the property was certified wildlife habitat.

Cathy Walter had a duck pond, according to neighbors and goats in the back which – unlike the three dogs and cat – were not shot dead, Boyer pointed out.

Devon Walter was remembered as a “little feisty” by Boyer. “To the best of my knowledge, he didn’t go to public school,” he said.

Devon Walter was briefly a student in the Toledo School District, a long time ago, according to the district superintendent.

“The system doesn’t show he was enrolled anywhere in the state,” Superintendent Sharon Bower said yesterday. “I don’t know if he was enrolled in another state, or what.”

The young man attended for three weeks in 2003, when he would have been in middle school, Bower said.

Neighbor Tim Sweeney recalled Devon when he was younger coming to his place and asking if he could do work for him.

While he didn’t know them well, the Walters were the kind of neighbors who help each other, Sweeney said.

He recounted a time when his truck broke down and Rodney Walter stopped, crawled under it and got it going for him. He laughed when remembered a day when Cathy Walter asked for help in rounding up her ducks.

“They stayed to themselves,” Sweeney said, adding that many of those who reside on the hill live that way.

Autopsies were scheduled to take place this morning.

Lewis County Coroner Warren McLeod said however, he didn’t expect any surprises.

McLeod released the names this morning, noting the official identification of the victims is pending signatures from family members.

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Read “Winlock family and pets shot dead in suspected murder-suicide” from Wednesday March 16, 2011, here