Archive for December, 2010

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Sharyn’s Sirens: Daily police and fire roundup

Monday, December 20th, 2010

MOTORIST DISCOVERED IN CREEK AFTER FLEEING TRAFFIC STOP

• A Longview man with an outstanding warrant was found hiding in China Creek in Centralia this morning after a traffic stop in which he reportedly gave an officer a false name and then ran away. The approximately 6:30 a.m. incident happened near West Cherry and Yew streets. Richard J. Gaskill, 27, was located quickly and booked into the Lewis County Jail for the warrant, driving with a suspended license and other offenses such as obstruction, according to the Centralia Police Department.

THEFT OF POOP

• Chehalis police were called Sunday about an incident on Northwest St. Helens Avenue where a woman said somebody came into her yard overnight and took her rabbit’s droppings.

BURGLARY IN CENTRALIA

• Centralia police were called about 9 p.m. yesterday to a residential burglary on the 600 block of South Washington Avenue where “several electronics” were missing. Police said entry was made through an unsecured door.

GUNS MISSING AFTER BREAK-IN

• The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office says it has a “person of interest” in a Centralia area burglary in which somebody forced open a gun safe and stole several firearms. A couple who live on the 2000 block of Van Wormer Street returned home about 10 p.m. last Thursday to find roughly $2,800 of valuables missing, including the guns, some jewelry and a bottle of Oxycontin, according to the sheriff’s office.

FOOD, COOKWARE AMONG ITEMS STOLEN FROM CABIN

• Somebody burglarized a Mineral area weekend cabin and shop taking canned meat, a crock pot, a tool box a battery charger and other items, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. A deputy was called Saturday morning to the 100 block of Round Top Road to take a report from the Tacoma resident.

CASH STOLEN FROM CHRISTMAS TREE BUSINESS

• Somebody stole more than $1,300 cash from a Silver Creek Christmas tree business when they broke into a building on the 300 block of Gershick Road, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. The burglary occurred between midnight and 1 a.m. on Thursday, according to Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown. Money was taken from a tip jar, a kitchen drawer and a cash register, Brown said.

BURGLAR TAKES NOTHING

• Police were called to an unoccupied house on the 200 block of North Buckner Street about 10 a.m. on Saturday where somebody forced their way inside, but nothing appeared to be stolen, according to the Centralia Police Department.

CAR PROWLS

• Two individuals were arrested for vehicle prowl after they were seen trying to open a car door in an apartment parking lot at the 1400 block of Johnson Road in Centralia about 2 a.m. on Saturday. Michael A. Gonzalez-Fox, 19, of Lacey, and Mykl C. Teeter, 18, of Olympia, were arrested according to Centralia police.

• Chehalis police were called just before noon on Friday to a report of a vehicle prowl on Northeast Cascade Avenue that had occurred overnight.

COUNTY SHOP BURGLARIZED

• Somebody cut a hole in a chain link fence at the Lewis County Central Shop compound on the 100 block of Forest-Napavine Road East and made off with a five-gallon propane tank, according to the sheriff’s office. It happened sometime between 7 p.m. on Wednesday and 9 o’clock the following morning, Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown reported.

CRASHES

• Aid was called about 10:30 a.m. on Sunday to a single-vehicle rollover accident on Highway 603 near Peterson Road outside Chehalis. The three occupants were all apparently uninjured, according to Lewis County Fire District 6.

• A motorist was hospitalized after her car struck a golf cart on Interstate 5 in Chehalis on Saturday. Aid was called about 7:15 a.m. to the southbound lanes south of the Main Street interchange. The 58-year-old Federal Way woman’s 2001 Saturn sustained front end damage, according to the Washington State Patrol. The driver, Vanessa Hardin, was transported to Providence Centralia Hospital with head, neck and wrist pain, according to responders.

• A Toledo man was arrested for driving under the influence after a rollover collision late on Friday night on the 800 block of Spencer Road outside Toledo. George M. Catlin, 53, was booked into the Lewis County Jail, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.

WATCH OUT FOR THOSE TREES

• Motorists are being advised one lane of southbound Interstate 5 near the Tootle River Rest Area will be closed parts of this week while workers cut down large fir trees on the west side of the freeway. Heavy rain followed by strong winds last Monday night caused several trees to fall onto the roadway in that area, near milepost 55 just south of the Lewis-Cowlitz county line. Crews will be removing at-risk trees there on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. this week, according to the state Department of Transportation.

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Survivors of mass alpaca attack “scared, ugly and sad”

Sunday, December 19th, 2010
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Four of the Welsh's five remaining alpacas stick close together in their pen at their Centralia farm on Friday.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CENTRALIA – One of their five remaining alpacas is limping and another is missing an ear.

Greg Welsh describes what remains of his small herd after an attack that left six of his animals dead as scared, ugly and sad.

“They’re traumatized completely,” Welsh said. “They’re skittish around me and they never used to be.”

Greg and Judy Welsh have been raising alpacas at their South Schueber Road home in Centralia about 10 or 11 years. She sells their fiber after they shear the animals once a year.

He says they’re a good tax write off. The couple has an antique store in downtown Centralia so the alpacas are a side business.

The Welsh’s suspect it was dogs that maimed their animals. The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office says it doesn’t know if it was coyotes or domestic dogs.

Lewis County Sheriff’s Office Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown said she’s never heard of a livestock attack on this scale in her 15 years on the job.

It was about 5:30 on Tuesday morning, when Greg Welsh woke up to barking and went outside with a flashlight to find his alpacas standing chest deep in a newly rain-made pond. Two dogs at the edge of the water ran off, he said.

Some of the alpacas came out of the pond and just laid down on the ground, he said. As he checked around his farm, he found four others bloodied and dead. He described the scene as total carnage.

“When I looked in the field, there were ears all over, it was disgusting,” he said.

The veterinarian who came out that morning found bites on their noses, heads, flanks and genitalia. The vet, Dr. Robert Remund of Ford Prairie Animal Clinic, euthanized two of them.

He was preparing to put a third alpaca down – the needle was already in its neck – when it stood up, so it got a reprieve.

Remund gave the living animals antibiotics and anti-inflammatory medicine. He said Friday he thinks they’ll survive.

“They should, it all depends on the animal,” Remund said.

Chief Brown said on Friday a Rottweiler that lives nearby was impounded and put in quarantine for 10 days at the animal shelter, but not in connection with the alpaca attack.

It bit Greg Welsh on Wednesday as he was walking by its house, according to Brown.

The Welsh’s suspect the Rottweiler and another dog who lives with it are what ravaged their herd. Judy Welsh said she spotted the pair in their driveway on Wednesday and her husband said he recognized its bark. Brown said there is no proof the neighbor dogs killed the alpacas.

The Rottweiler however, could end up being designated as a dangerous dog, according to Brown.

The Welsh’s are locking their herd in the barn at night now.

They estimate the loss, which included some of their best breeders, at $45,000. Greg Welsh buried them on Thursday.

On Friday, one whitish alpaca – either Abbie or Angel, they still aren’t sure – with matted hair still stained pink on its neck, was on her feet with the others. She’s the one that nearly got put down, the Welsh’s said.

Remund, who’s been treating animals for some 30 years, said encounters like Tuesday’s aren’t entirely unheard of.

“One dog’s not bad, but when you get ’em in a a pack, and alpacas, or llamas or sheep start running around, it becomes sport; it’s not unusual,” Remund said.

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A female alpaca - Abbie or Angel - lost one ear.

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The Schueber Road alpacas stay in their pen during the day but have to be locked up in their barn at night now.

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Mossyrock home burns three times in less than a day

Saturday, December 18th, 2010
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A two-bedroom house on Young Road in Mossyrock burns tonight. / Courtesy photo by Firefighter Taryn Houghtelling

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

Firefighters are at a Mossyrock house this evening mopping up after a blaze last night that rekindled twice.

Nobody was home when fire broke out about 11:20 p.m. last night at the residence on the 500 block of Young Road, according to Lewis County Fire District 3 Chief Matt Hadaller.

About 17 personnel, including four from neighboring District 8, battled the fire until about 2:30 a.m., Hadaller said.

It was extremely windy and they had to keep an eye on sparks headed toward a barn and watch an outbuilding to make sure it didn’t catch, according to Hadaller.

“We put a good stop on it, we thought we had everything out,” he said.

But, they were called back about 7:30 this morning when something in the two-bedroom home ignited again. It was fully involved, again, and they fought it for  couple hours, he said

It still wasn’t all the way out. Hadaller spoke this evening from his third visit to the scene.

He said they had pulled out all the “hot” items and even walked through with a thermal imaging camera.

“It had cedar shakes with a metal roof over it,” he said. “That’s a firefighter’s nightmare, is a metal roof.”

Firefighters were not trying to extinguish it this evening; the son of the man who owns it told them to let it burn, according to Hadaller.

They had already salvaged what they could, including a “grandma’s cedar chest” which contained what he described as sentimental items.

“It was there through the whole two fires,” he said. “We pulled it out and everything inside was still okay.”

The owner is convalescing elsewhere after a tractor accident about two months ago that left him with a broken hip, the chief said. His family was breaking the news to him tonight.

Hadaller said he didn’t yet have any ideas about what caused the fire.

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Home on Young Road in Mossyrock continues to burns tonight. / Courtesy photo by Firefighter Taryn Houghtelling

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Unemployed Chehalis couple repeatedly dealt heroin to police informant, authorities allege

Saturday, December 18th, 2010
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Kristi R. Henderson and Zachary W. Gallagher await their turn before a Lewis County Superior Court judge.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Four times in the week before the raid, detectives conducted surveillance as they sent a confidential informant to the South Market Boulevard house to purchase an eighth ounce of heroin.

Each time, the unmarried couple in their 20s who live behind a small taqueria at Fairview Avenue took $100 in exchange for the dark brown substance, according to charging documents.

Kristi R. Henderson, 28, and Zachary W. Gallagher, 25, were arrested Thursday night and three young children removed from the home. When police searched the residence, an unspecified quantity of suspected heroin was discovered on a plate in the living room and a .22 caliber pistol was found in a nightstand next to their bed, according to charging documents.

She admitted she used heroin and he told a detective  they both used and sold it on a daily basis, charging documents allege.

Henderson and Gallagher appeared before a Lewis County Superior Court judge yesterday afternoon who ordered them held on $50,000 bail.

Defense attorney Bob Schroeter told the judge Gallagher had no current income and Henderson received about $1,000 a month, mostly from child support. Both qualified for court-appointed attorneys.

Charging documents allege some of the following details about the investigation:

The confidential informant told a Lewis County Sheriff’s Office detective the couple had been known to deal heroin for “some time.”  The unnamed individual also said they have been inside the home when Henderson’s children played on the floor amidst a cloud of her heroin smoke.

The first controlled buy on Dec. 9 lasted only four minutes during which the informant was invited into a bedroom where Henderson broke off a chunk of heroin from a larger block and weighed it on a digital scale. The informant said they saw several people inside the house.

On Tuesday, the informant got an eighth ounce from Gallagher as Gallagher was taking out the trash. The informant returned Wednesday and again on Thursday after the detective listened in on a cell phone conversation arranging the final purchase.

Lewis County prosecutors note Henderson has a conviction for drug possession from 2005. Gallagher has 2003 convictions for second-degree burglary, theft and trafficking in stolen property, according to Deputy Prosecutor Kjell Warner.

Yesterday, she was charged with two counts of delivery of a controlled substance, a felony with a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

He was charged with three counts of the same, as well as first-degree unlawful possession of a firearm.

The children, a 4-year-old boy and two girls, ages 6 and 11, were turned over to Child Protective Services during Thursday night’s police raid.

Chehalis Police Chief Glenn Schaffer said yesterday the arrests followed a three-week investigation.

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Sharyn’s Sirens: Daily police and fire roundup

Friday, December 17th, 2010

VEHICLE STRIKES FENCE, SMASHES SHED

• Police and aid were called about 8 p.m. last night after an SUV ran a stop sign at Airport Road in Centralia and ran into a fence destroying a small storage shed on the other side at the city’s former  sewage treatment plant on Mellen Street. The driver was reportedly uninjured.

STOLEN STUFF

• Chehalis police were called about 3:45 p.m. yesterday to an apartment on the 600 block of Northwest West Street where a stereo was reported stolen.

• A 22-year-old Kelso woman, Amy D. Ingram, was arrested  for vehicle prowl after being caught inside a vehicle on the 400 block of North Tower Avenue in Centralia about 8:45 a.m. yesterday, according to Centralia police.

• Police were called about 2:20 p.m. yesterday to the 700 block of E Street in Centralia for a car prowl. A battery and other items were missing, according to the Centralia Police Department.

• Chehalis police called to a shoplifting incident at Wal-Mart yesterday evening arrested a 32-year-old Centralia man for taking a cell phone and video games and for possession of drugs without a prescription. Police Chief Glenn Schaffer said eight hydrocodone pills were found on Tyler J. David. He was booked into the Lewis County Jail.

MORE DRUGS

• Johnny C. Allen, 40, of Silver Creek, was arrested yesterday afternoon following a traffic stop on the 100 block of Avery Road West when a deputy found a small plastic baggie with white residue that field tested positive for methamphetamine, according to the  Lewis County Sheriff’s Office

• The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office reported yesterday a 51-year-old Randle man was arrested for possession of methamphetamine following a traffic stop about 11:50 a.m. on Wednesday on the 7500 block of Glenoma Road. Delbert E. Goble was booked into the Lewis County Jail also for third-degree driving with a suspended license after a  deputy found a glass pipe and a small plastic bag with suspected methamphetamine, according to the sheriff’s office.

VANDALISM

• Three males were seen running away from the railroad station in Centralia about 12:20 a.m. today after a rock was thrown through a window, according to the Centralia Police Department.

• Centralia police took a report yesterday of vehicle tires being slashed on the 300 block of North Pearl Street.

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News brief: Mossyrock driver hurt in morning wreck

Friday, December 17th, 2010

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

A 39-year-old woman was hospitalized this morning after she lost control of her pickup truck on ice and and slid down an embankment near Mossyrock.

A trooper was called about 6:50 a.m. to the scene on state Route 122 just east of Birley Road.

Samantha H. Kennedy, of Mossyrock, had been traveling eastbound before her Dodge Ram left the road and came to rest against a tree, according to the Washington State Patrol. The vehicle was described as totaled.

Kennedy suffered scrapes to her shoulder and chest and was taken to Morton General Hospital, according to the investigating trooper.

She was to be cited for speeding, the state patrol reported.

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News brief: Heroin sales investigation leads to raid of Chehalis home

Friday, December 17th, 2010

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Police arrested a Chehalis couple and turned three children over to CPS after a raid last night at a Chehalis house where detectives believe as many as eight drug sales per night were being conducted.

Some 18 officers from the Chehalis Police Department and the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office served a search warrant at 9:30 p.m. at the home on the 1900 block of South Market Boulevard, according to Chehalis Police Chief Glenn Schaffer.

The arrests followed a three-week investigation into suspected heroin sales from the home, according to Schaffer.

Small amounts of heroin and methamphetamine were found, as well as drug paraphernalia and a firearm, according to police.

Arrested were Kristi Henderson, 28, and Zachary Gallagher, 25.

Henderson was booked into the Lewis County Jail for three counts of possession and delivery of narcotics. Gallagher was booked for the same, as well as first-degree possession of a firearm, according to police.

The children who were in the home at the time, ages 11, 6 and 4, were turned over to Child Protective Services who will work to work to determine the children’s health and future placement, according to a news release.

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