Lewis County Sirens.com

Fred Wildhaber’s face is among the features on lost family heirloom.

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS –  Jeremy Wildhaber wants his totem pole back.

He called police after realizing it was missing but he’s not sure it was even actually stolen, he said.

Among the features on the 15- to 16-foot tall pole are an eagle, a salmon and a couple of faces, including his father’s, Wildhaber said.

“It’s kind of a family heirloom and its been part of the building since we’ve owned it almost,” he said.

It was previously the centerpiece column at his dad’s business Industrial Specialists and for a time was stored in a barn, but Wildhaber was preparing to have the paint touched up so it could be displayed at his new Jeremy’s Marketplace and Restaurant when it opens, he said.

He’s been remodeling the building on the 500 block of West Main Street in Chehalis, and was keeping it in a storage building about a block south, on the Darigold property.

It accidentally got left out by workers on Friday who were moving items around in the building and forgot to put it back inside, he said. He estimates it weighs as much as 400 pounds.

“It would have taken several guys and a trailer to move it,” he said.

He’s thinking, however, that since it was left laying on pallets, near a pile of walls to be discarded, someone may have thought it was bound for the dump and taken it home, he said.

Wildhaber is asking whoever has his totem to please return it. Or call him and he will come pick it up.

“I’m not going to press charges,” he said. “I don’t want anybody to chop it up for firewood because they’re afraid they’re gonna get in trouble.”

It’s not even complete as is, according to Wildhaber. He still has the detachable wings and ears.

Wildhaber can be reached at 360-827-0093.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

Three times he’s been found guilty; three times the conviction has been thrown out.

The Washington State Supreme Court heard arguments yesterday about the case of Kenneth L. Slert, who back in October 2000 fatally shot  53-year-old John Benson at a campsite near Ashford.

Slert claimed self defense.

The question is: Did dismissal of four potential jurors for answers to a jury questionnaire violate defendant’s right to public trial?

Watch and listen to appeals attorney Jodi Backlund and  Lewis County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Eric Eisenberg tell the court what should happen next, here

•••
For background, read “News brief: Supreme Court grants hearing on prosecutor’s request to overturn reversal of Ashford murder conviction” from Saturday September 14, 2013, here

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

An intoxicated 29-year-old Centralia man who woke up this morning on a stranger’s bathroom floor was detained by police but then hopped off a gurney and fled as he was being transported to the hospital emergency room.

Centralia police say Douglas Galloway was chased down and that he shoved an officer as he continued to try to escape.

It began with a 911 call about 6 a.m. when a woman in a house on the 900 block of North Pearl Street got up and discovered a man sleeping in her bathroom, according to police. Officers found Galloway highly intoxicated, and for unspecified reasons, an aid car was summoned so he could be taken to Providence Centralia Hospital, according to the Centralia Police Department.

When the ambulance stopped in the driveway at the emergency room, Galloway bailed, according to police. He was caught and booked into the Lewis County Jail for third-degree assault.

It’s not clear how, or why, he was in the woman’s house.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – A burial service for three individuals who have died in Lewis County with no relatives to claim them is set for 11 a.m. tomorrow at Pioneer Cemetery in Chehalis.

The public is welcome to attend.

The Lewis County Coroner’s Office underwent a renewed effort last year to find family members of those whose cremated remains had long sat atop a file cabinet at their office. Fourteen sets of unclaimed remains were then placed in a plot at Claquato Cemetery near Adna.

Tomorrow, a short ceremony will be held in the parking lot at Pioneer prior to the inurnment of three more, according to the coroner’s office.

“Even though these folks do not have families to claim them they deserve to have a respectful final resting place and this is our chance to provide that,” Lewis County Coroner Warren McLeod stated in a news release.

One of the individuals is a 49-year-old transient person from California, who died in a Centralia motel this summer, McLeod said. He said he tried and simply could not locate any relatives. Families of the other two elected not to claim them, he said.

They died of natural causes, except for the reason for the death of 52-year-old James Sprague could not be determined. Sprague’s body was discovered at Riffe Lake near Mossyrock in July 2010, months after the Denver man’s vehicle turned up some 30 miles away while authorities in Colorado were seeking him in connection with the slaying of his girlfriend.

Tomorrow’s burial is made possible through the generosity of the cemetery owner, John Panesko. Pioneer Cemetery was founded in the late 1800s as a Masonic cemetery and was known for some time as Greenwood Cemetery, according to McLeod.

It is located at 2000 Jackson Highway; parking is available across the street at the Chehalis Eagles. The actual burial will take place after the gathering ends.

The following are those being remembered:

• Manabu Ishikawa, 49, from Grass Valley, California. Died in Centralia in June 2013
• James Ross, 65, from Onalaska. Died in Onalaska in February 2013.
• James Sprague, 52, from Denver, Colorado. Found deceased in July 2010 in Mossyrock.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

Kirotv.com reports a Lewis County resident is behind bars for allegedly shaking a four-month-old girl into unconsciousness.

Richard Thompson says Kyle Davison, 22, was watching the infant for his ex-girlfriend, a baby that was transported to the hospital with brain trauma.

Davison was arrested in Mineral and was charged yesterday in Lewis County Superior Court.

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