Archive for August, 2010

Authorities looking in Spokane for Onalaska triple homicide suspect

Saturday, August 21st, 2010
2010.0821.triple.hom_2

Lewis County Sheriff Steve Mansfield speaks with deputies at the scene today of last night's triple homicide in Onalaska.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

ONALASKA – The sheriff’s office believes the Onalaska man suspected in last night’s triple homicide is in the Spokane area after they got word he made a cell phone call from there about noon today.

John Allen Booth Jr., 31, is being sought in connection with the shooting deaths of three people around 2 o’clock this morning at a home on Wings Way, just off Gore Road in Onalaska.

A fourth person was shot but airlifted to an unidentified hospital. Lewis County Sheriff Steve Mansfield said detectives think the shooting is related to a drug debt collection.

Three people found dead after shots fired report in Salkum

Saturday, August 21st, 2010
John Allen Booth

John Allen Booth

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office is looking for a 31-year-old man they say is armed and extremely dangerous after discovering a triple homicide overnight in Salkum.

Deputies were called about 2 o’clock this morning to a report of shots fired inside a Salkum  home and found three people dead inside and one person critically wounded, according to a news release.

John Allen Booth Jr., 31, from Onalaska may be driving a blue or teal 1988 Dodge Diplomat. Its license plate reads 550 YFA.

The injured person, whose age and sex were not released, was flown by helicopter an undisclosed place or hospital.

Sheriff Steve Mansfield said they think this is a drug-related homicide and they need to get Booth’s picture out to the public.

“He’s armed, he’s dangerous, it’s an ugly deal,” Mansfield said.

The sheriff’s office is asking anyone with information to call 911 immediately or call Lewis County Crime Stoppers. A $1,000 reward is being offered.

Chehalis National Guardsman charged with assault of 7-year-old boy

Saturday, August 21st, 2010

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – A 39-year-old National Guardsman from Chehalis was ordered held on $25,000 bail when he was charged yesterday with second-degree assault of a child.

Steven Grant Williams was arrested by Chehalis police after a Snoqualmie police officer reported the 7-year-old boy’s body was covered in bruises when the child was returned to his grandparents on Tuesday.

Deputy Police Chief Randy Kaut said after the arrest it was one of the most extensive child abuse cases he’s seen in his career.

Authorities describe the injuries to Williams’ girlfriend’s son as two black eyes and including bruises on his back and buttocks. The child told the police officer on Tuesday his mother’s boyfriend had bound him with black tape, covered his eyes and mouth and beat him with a belt, according to charging documents.

The boy, who lives with his paternal grandparents in another county, had been visiting for two or three weeks with his 27-year-old mother and Williams who live in Chehalis.

In Lewis County Superior Court on Friday afternoon, Deputy Prosecutor Colin Hayes told a judge the photographs paint “quite a different picture” than the words in the charging documents convey.

The whites of the child’s eyes were substantially red and somebody had written in black pen on his buttocks, “stop staring”, Hayes said.

Second-degree assault of a child is a felony with a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. The class “B” felony involves an adult recklessly or intentionally inflicting substantial bodily harm, or knowingly inflicting harm which by design causes pain or agony equivalent to that produced by torture upon someone younger than age 13.

Defense attorney Bob Schroeter when he argued for lower bail on Friday suggested perhaps his client shouldn’t be charged with a crime.

“These charges only came up when he went back to stay with his grandmother,” Schroeter said.

The Chehalis Police Department on Friday morning said they are investigating the mother as well.

The couple moved to Chehalis about five months ago, after Williams was discharged from the Army, according to Schroeter. The 39-year-old now serves in the Washington National Guard with a unit based in Kent, Schroeter said.

Charging documents say this was the first time the boy had come to visit the pair since they moved to Washington.

The mother works at night and Williams who is otherwise unemployed spent more time with the boy because his mother sleeps during the day, Williams told detectives.

Both the mother and Williams suggested the child’s black eyes might have come from him hitting his head on a lamp in the night or could be related to a bug bite, according to charging documents.

Charging documents offer Williams’ account he gave for some of the bruises as told to Chehalis police detectives.

Williams said he was trying to teach the boy about personal hygiene and when they would have him take a shower before bedtime, and Williams tried to wash the boy’s hair, he had to hold him because the boy would thrash around, scream and yell. The child would bang his shin, elbow or back against the bathtub, he said.

Williams said the bruises on the boy’s wrists and shoulders were from holding him in the shower. During the washings, he never really hit his head that hard, Williams told detectives.

Williams also said he spanked the boy on his bare bottom for lying, and the child bruises easily.

His arraignment is set for Thursday with a court-appointed attorney.

Breaking news: Morton area body confirmed as missing teenager Austin King, sheriff’s office says

Friday, August 20th, 2010

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

Authorities have confirmed the body found off a logging road some 10 miles from 16-year-old Austin King’s Morton area home is that of the teenager.

Austin King

Austin King

The remains were identified through DNA analysis by the Washington State Patrol Crime Lab.

The cause of death has still not been determined, according to a news release from the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.

Detectives are still working several leads in the case, the sheriff’s office said. The death is being investigated as suspicious.

The teenager was last seen by his mother Christy Harper at about 12:15 a.m. on June 23 when he said goodnight to her and went off to his detached bedroom outside of their mobile home with two buddies to watch television.

Austin was initially classified by the sheriff’s office as a runaway, and two or three weeks later re-labeled endangered-missing. Searchers organized by a Morton woman following up on information from a Portland-area spiritual psychic discovered the remains the afternoon of July 20.

The teenager did not have a car and detectives are investigating how he may have gotten to the place his body was found, Sheriff’s Cmdr. Steve Aust said.
•••

To read previous coverage of Austin King’s case, see below:

• “Park filled with mourners for missing Morton teenager Austin King” from Saturday July 24, 2010

• “News brief: Specialist to help examine body found near Morton” from Thursday July 22, 2010

• “Vigil for Morton teen still on; body found yesterday not identified” from Wednesday July 21, 2010

• “News brief: Body of male found near logging road outside of Morton” from Tuesday July 20, 2010

• “News brief: Sheriff’ office seeks tips to find missing teen” from Thursday July 1, 2010

• “Morton teenager remains missing” from Thursday July 1, 2010

• Also, Roy Stemman, a writer in the United Kingdom, published a story, “Psychic guides searchers to teens body” in his Paranormal Review on July 27, 2010 after interviewing psychic Sonya Grace and Morton resident and search organizer Jennifer Mau, founder of the local chapter of Guardians of the Children.

News brief: Overnight fire in Toledo destroys shed

Friday, August 20th, 2010

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

A shed was destroyed by fire overnight in Toledo.

Lewis County Fire District 2 was called just before 4 o’clock this morning to the blaze on the 300 block of North Second Street, just two blocks away from the fire department.

The 10-foot by 10-foot wood structure was heavily involved with flames which were threatening some trees, according to Fire Chief Grant Wiltbank.

They arrived in less than seven minutes and pretty much got it knocked down in just a couple of minutes, Wiltbank said.

Firefighters prevented the trees from burning and had to take extra care as the building was just a few feet away from a roughly 40-foot drop off into the Cowlitz River, according to the chief.

The cause isn’t yet known, he said.

News brief: Littlerock-area house fire under investigation

Friday, August 20th, 2010

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

A fire that caused about $40,000 damage to a house south of Littlerock last night is being investigated.

About 30 firefighters from Rochester, Littlerock and two other Thurston County fire districts got the blaze under control in about 10 minutes, West Thurston Regional Fire Authority Chief Robert Scott said this morning.

The occupants of the two-story wood frame house on the 14,400 block of Littlerock Road got out safely, Scott said.

When crews arrived to the late evening fire, flames were showing outside the home and extending inside, he said. After it was extinguished, they spent some time checking for hot spots inside, Scott said.

Sharyn’s Sirens: Daily police and fire roundup

Friday, August 20th, 2010

EX-MILITARY MAN ARRESTED FOR GIVING CHILD TWO BLACK EYES, OTHER INJURIES, POLICE SAY

• A 39-year-old Chehalis man who recently got out of the  military was arrested yesterday for assaulting a 7-year-old boy in one of the most extensive child abuse cases Deputy Police Chief Randy Kaut has seen in his career, Kaut said this morning. Police arrested Steven G. Williams for second-degree assault of a child yesterday afternoon at a residence on the 900 block of Pennsylvania Avenue in Chehalis, according to Kaut. The child lives with his grandparents in another county and after he returned from a two-week visit with his mother, they discovered bruises on his back, his buttocks and two black eyes, Kaut said. The boyfriend has been staying with the mother in Chehalis, he said. The child was treated, he was not in the hospital for any length of time, and is okay now, Kaut said.

WOMAN TRIES TO OUTRUN POLICE IN VEHICLE

• An overnight traffic stop that began on the 1400 block of North Pearl Street in Centralia led to a police pursuit when a 42-year-old female driver sped off and was chased out Old Highway 99 ending in Grand Mound near U.S. Highway 12. Centralia police reported the approximately 12:30 a.m. incident reached speeds of 60 mph and ended with a Centralia officer conducting a so-called PIT maneuver, using the patrol car to tap her vehicle to stop it. Roxanne K. York, 42, told police she knew she had outstanding warrants and “prison time hanging over her head,” police reported. She was booked into the Lewis County Jail for eluding, and the warrants, according to police.

ATV ACCIDENT SENDS TWO MEN OVER 40-FOOT BANK

• A pair of Vancouver men were rescued yesterday afternoon following an ATV accident outside Randle in which one man heading up a steep hill rolled it over, running into the second men and sending them both – and the Quad – over a 40-foot embankment, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. Members of Lewis County Fire District 14 and also Packwood Search and Rescue were called about 3 p.m. to the scene about two miles from the Blue Lake off-road vehicle trailhead, according to Cmdr. Steve Aust. The 57-year-old driver and the 39-year-old other man were taken to Morton General Hospital with non-life threatening injuries, Aust said.

FARM WORKER JAILED FOR HITTING MAN IN HEAD WITH GARDEN HOE, SHERIFF’S OFFICE SAYS

• A 53-year-old Mossyrock man was arrested for second-degree assault after he allegedly hit another man in the head with a garden hoe at DeGoede Bulb Farm on Wednesday morning. Deputies called about 10:30 a.m. to the U.S. Highway 12 farm near Mossyrock arrested Jaimie R. Hernandez, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. The victim suffered a minor cut, sheriff’s Cmdr. Steve Aust said.

TENINO MAN ARRESTED AFTER FIRING RIFLE TOWARD DOT WORKSITE

• A 51-year-old Tenino-area man was was arrested after allegedly firing a powerful hunting rifle into a gravel pit where two Department of Transportation employees were working Wednesday night and yelling if they didn’t turn off their equipment, he was going to “spray some lead,” according to the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office. It happened about 9:30 p.m. near 169th Avenue Southwest and Gibson Road west of Tenino, according to Chief Criminal Deputy Jim Chamberlain. When deputies arrived to the nearby home, a man staying in a motor home there was contacted. Chamberlain said Rodney L. Thiesfeld, 51, had a mark that appeared to be from a rifle scope on his forehead. A 30.06 rifle and some ammunition was seized, he said. He reportedly fired the gun near them but not at them, Chamberlain said. Thiesfeld was booked for felony harassment.

CAR STOLEN NEAR CHEHALIS

•  A white 2001 Pontiac Grand Am was reported stolen from the 1900 block of Rice Road west of Chehalis on Thursday morning. The car, valued at $5,000, disappeared sometime between 10 p.m. on Wednesday and 7:30 a.m. on Thursday, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.

FLEEING SHOPLIFTER BACKS VEHICLE INTO SAFEWAY EMPLOYEE

• Police were called after a fleeing shoplifted backed his vehicle into an employee who followed the man out into the parking lot at the Safeway in Chehalis on Wednesday. It was an older man who reportedly packed his groceries into a bag he brought with him and left the store on the 1100 block of South Market Boulevard without paying, according to the Chehalis Police Department. Deputy Chief Randy Kaut said the vehicle struck the employee in the knee, but the employee was not seriously hurt.

MULTIPLE PROWLS REPORTED AT FAIRGROUNDS

• Chehalis police were called to the Southwest Washington Fairgrounds Wednesday night to a report of several vehicle prowls in the area where vendors are camping.

ROBBERY SUSPECT JAILED

• Emerald A. Kulberg was arrested in connection with a home-invasion robbery early last week at a travel trailer home in between Napavine and Winlock. A 30-year-old man was hit in the head with a flashlight and his safe was stolen from the 100 block of Wilson Road early in the morning of Aug. 9. Kulberg was booked into the Lewis County Jail for second-degree robbery on Wednesday, the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office reported today.