Lewis County Sirens.com

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Lewis County Search and Rescue got back its stolen Honda generator but is still looking for 18 portable radios and other equipment taken when its mobile command trailer was broken into out in Packwood.

A 19-year-old Packwood resident was arrested and charged last week for trafficking in stolen property after he allegedly offered to sell the generator to one individual and then did sell it to another person.

Jesse James Aalmo pleaded not guilty on Thursday in Lewis County Superior Court.

Search and rescue volunteers were preparing to train two weeks ago  when they discovered somebody had forced their way inside the trailer  parked at the former Hampton Mill in Packwood, and tried to break in to three cargo trailers where their equipment is stored.

Deputies arrested Aalmo on April 11 after talking with a man who said he bought the $550 generator from Aalmo for $100, according to charging documents.

Another man told deputies Aalmo offered to sell him a portable radio for $50, charges documents allege.

Chief Criminal Deputy Gene Seiber said Aalmo didn’t admit to the theft and the sheriff’s office is still hopeful the radios will turn up.

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Read “News brief: Lewis County search and rescue vehicles plundered” from Monday April 4, 2011, here

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

The (Longview) Daily News reports a five-car wreck yesterday afternoon on Interstate 5 north of Castle Rock sent four people to the hospital.

The Washington State Patrol blamed hail for the approximately 5 p.m. collisions.

Read The Daily News’ story here

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Lewis County Sheriff Steve Mansfield said his office has not yet learned the identity of the skeletal remains found last week near Morton, but a forensic pathologist has ruled out two missing people.

Specialists have confirmed the remains are not those of Nancy Moyer from Tenino or Lindsey Baum of McCleary, Mansfield said today.

A motorist who pulled off U.S. Highway 12 near Morton to take a break spotted the remains off the side of a logging road about 5:30 p.m. on April 7, according to the sheriff’s office.

The sheriff’s office at the time said they were hopeful it wouldn’t take long to figure out who the deceased was, based on dental work.

The remains were to be sent to the King County Medical Examiner’s Office for examination.

Both females vanished in 2009.

Moyer, 36, was last seen by a co-worker on March 6, 2009. The 5-foot tall mother of two was reported missing when her husband returned their children to her Tenino home two days later.

She was not there, but her purse and vehicle were.

Eleven-year-old Lindsey was last seen June 26, 2009, when she left a friend’s house in McCleary to walk home.

The walk should have taken 10 minutes, but she never arrived home.

The sheriff’s office released little information about last week’s find, but said it was doubtful the remains had been in the place they were found for very long, because it was a well-used logging road.

Sheriff Mansfield said they are also trying to determine the identity of the remains through DNA.

Dental work was used to find the identity of a skull found March 26 near Mineral.

It belonged to Michael Lloyd Riemer, a 36-year-old Pierce County man who went missing in December 1985.

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Read “Breaking news: Skeleton found near Morton” from Friday April 8, 2011, here

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

Neighbors and passing motorists on Interstate 5 can expect to see smoke and fire engines tomorrow when a shuttered nursing home on Long Road in Centralia is burned down.

Riverside Fire Authority will conduct live fire training exercises at the structure on the 1000 block of Long Road, the former home of Evergreen Centralia Health and Rehabilitation Center.

Traffic will be detoured from Long Road onto South Street during the training, according to Fire Chief Jim Walkowski.

Evergreen was home to some 40 individuals when the December 2007 flood forced their evacuation. It’s owners donated the one-story structure to the city, which in turn offered it to the fire department. It will be demolished afterward, according to Walkowski.

The chief said in a news release he is especially appreciative of getting a commercial building to practice with, as firefighters can gain the kind of experiences they cannot with a residential structure.

Some 30 personnel are expected to take part.

The exercises will take place from between approximately 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS –  The suspect in last summer’s death of 16-year-old Austin King in Morton appeared briefly in court today as his trial date nears, however, attorneys are moving toward a plea agreement instead.

Jack A. Silverthorne

“We’re working towards settlement,” defense lawyer J.P. Enbody said outside the courtroom.

An acquaintance, Jack Arnold Silverthorne, of Renton, is charged with first-degree murder and remains held on $2 million bail.

Silverthorne spent his 21st birthday on Saturday in the Lewis County Jail.

He is charged with first-degree murder and remains held on $2 million bail. He has pleaded not guilty.

The judge signed an order today allowing a crime lab test which will “consume some trace evidence”. Neither attorney described in court what the evidence was or what article it was found on.

Austin King

The 16-year-old vanished from his family’s home in the Tilton River Mobile Home Park early on June 23 and was the subject of a month-long search headed up by volunteers. His body was found some 10 miles away off a logging road outside Morton. His skull was cracked.

Authorities believe Silverthorne – who was staying in the trailer park with his grandmother at the time – took Austin up into the woods, and his motive was related to an attraction to a girl, the mother of Austin’s child, according to charging documents.

His trial remains scheduled for the week of June 6.
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Read more about the case in “Morton homicide: Suspect had broken hand, victim had cracked skull” from Wednesday Nov. 10, 2010, here

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

A 12-year-old student was arrested for making a bomb threat yesterday at Onalaska Elementary-Middle School.

Students were evacuated to the high school and deputies called about 9:40 a.m. searched the cafeteria and found nothing suspicious, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.

The seventh-grader allegedly had told friends he put a bomb in the cafeteria and it would go off in seven minutes. He told authorities he was just joking.

The student, whose name was not released, was booked into the Lewis County Juvenile Detention Center for making a bomb threat.

The arrest follows a similar incident at Adna Middle-High School on April Fools Day in which deputies were called to search a classroom after a student reportedly made comments on his Facebook page related to having a gun at school, according to sheriff’s Cmdr. Steve Aust.

That student also said it was just a prank, Aust said.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

As expected, authorities questioned the 27-year-old man convicted of the August slaying of a woman on the Yelm to Tenino Trail looking for information about 36-year-old Nancy Moyer’s disappearance from her Tenino home in March 2009.

Bernard K. Howell III

Moyer, a mother of two, was reported missing on March 8, 2009 by her ex-husband who went to her house and discovered she wasn’t there.

Nothing significant came out of the interview with Bernard K. Howell III, according to the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office.

“He gave us nothing, denied any involvement,” Lt. Greg Elwin said.

Moyer’s home is less than a mile from where Howell lived with his father when he was arrested last summer with a dead woman inside his pickup truck.

Detectives were prevented from talking with him about other cases until the case involving the death of Vanda Boone was finished.

Howell confessed to killing Boone and was sentenced last Thursday to more than 26 years in prison. He was interviewed about Moyer late last week.

Moyer was last seen by co-workers two days before she was reported missing. She hasn’t been seen or heard from since.

The sheriff’s office has contacted the FBI to see if they can glean anything about the type of individual who might have been involved in Moyer’s disappearance, Elwin said.
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Read about Bernard K. Howell III, here