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
WOMAN STABS BOYFRIEND IN CENTRALIA, POLICE SAY
• An 18-year-old Centralia woman was arrested yesterday evening in Centralia after she allegedly stabbed her boyfriend in the rib cage with a pocket knife. Police, called about 6:20 p.m. about a dispute between a young couple, found them on foot near West Cherry and Yew streets. Bridget J. Parker, 18, was arrested and booked into the Lewis County Jail for first-degree assault, according to the Centralia Police Department. Her boyfriend, T.J. Reynolds, 19, of Centralia, initially tried to flee but was detained and taken to Providence Centralia Hospital with what was described as a minor cut. Reynolds was arrested for misdemeanor assault, for allegedly pushing his girlfriend to the ground. He was subsequently released from the hospital not booked into jail, according to police. Update at 6:50 p.m.: The Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office declined to charge Parker, as she was reportedly attacked first and repeatedly. She was released from jail today.
DRIVE-BY SHOOTING COMPLAINT
• Deputies were called yesterday when a man walking along the 900 block of Burnt Ridge Road near Onalaska said somebody passing by in pickup truck pointed a gun out the window and fired it. Lewis County sheriff’s Cmdr. Steve Aust said they think it was a shotgun, fired into the air and perhaps meant to scare the individual, not hit him. No suspect was found, according to Aust.
FIGHT OUTSIDE BAR
• Police and deputies responded about 2 a.m. on Saturday to a report of a large number of people fighting behind a bar in Chehalis. The individuals involved had left before officers arrived in the area of Northwest Pacific Avenue, according to the Chehalis Police Department.
ONLINE THREATS LEAD TO ARREST OF TEEN
• A 16-year-old Chehalis boy was arrested for harassment on Friday on Southwest 17th Street near W.F. West High School for allegedly making threat on Facebook toward another 16-year-old boy, according to the Chehalis Police Department.
VANDALISM
• Police were called Saturday morning to the Lewis County Mall on Northeast Hampe Way in Chehalis where windows were broken out of five different vehicles belonging to mall tenants, including three belonging to the state Department of Corrections.
• Chehalis police were called Friday night to a report of slashed tires on Washington Avenue.
THEFT
• Police were called this morning to the 1100 block of South Pearl Street in Centralia where somebody had stolen the tires and rims from a parked car.
• Centralia police were called Saturday morning about a burglary to a residence on the 1500 block of Delaware Avenue. Somebody forced their way inside and stole cash, according to police.
NO THEFT
• Centralia police are looking for an individual they say falsely reported a robbery in progress to a business on the 500 block of South Tower Avenue in Centralia just after 6 p.m. on Saturday.
DRUGS
• A 31-year-old man was arrested yesterday afternoon for allegedly trying to fill a forged prescription for Oxycodone at the Wal-Mart pharmacy in Chehalis. Wayne M. Jahner, of Spanaway, was booked into the Lewis County Jail for illegal possession of prescription drugs, according to Chehalis police.
FIRE CALL TO RETIREMENT COMPLEX
• Chehalis firefighters were called about 10:30 p.m. last night to the Vintage Apartments on the 1500 block of North National Avenue to a report of smoke on the third floor. They found a coffee pot had melted in one of the apartments. The resident woke up to a smoke alarm and was unharmed, according to the Chehalis Fire Department.
Firefighters stand by on their ladder truck as the former Evergreen Centralia Health and Rehabilitation Center is intentionally destroyed by fire during a practice day
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CENTRALIA – Almost 30 firefighters spent Saturday practicing at a former nursing home in Centralia, eventually allowing flames and an excavator to reduce the building to rubble.
Riverside Fire Authority conducted live fire training exercises on the 1000 block of Long Road, at the former home of Evergreen Centralia Health and Rehabilitation Center.
The building was vacated during the December 2007 flood and then donated to the city.
Fire Capt. Erik Olson said they have been able to train inside the structure during the past two years.
One of the things they practiced yesterday was “hose evolutions”, hooking up various sizes and great lengths of fire hose to extinguish burning pallets and hay inside the rambling commercial structure.
Members of Riverside Fire Authority watch one end of the former nursing home burn while an excavator tears apart the other end.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
The Thurston County Sheriff’s Office says it thwarted a plot to murder one of their own detectives with an arrest this afternoon.
Royce Lynn Baxter, 59, of Long Beach, Wash., was already in the Thurston County Jail for burglary and stalking, and was planning to kill or have killed the detective who put him there, according to the sheriff’s office.
Royce Lynn Baxter
Baxter had been arrested in December for first-degree burglary and stalking in connection with a woman who lives outside Tumwater, a woman he’d been infatuated with some dozen years, according to Lt. Greg Elwin.
The detective was tipped on Wednesday about Baxter’s plan, Elwin said.
“From jail, he was trying to, first of all, put in motion a plan from jail so once he made bail, to kill one witness and the detective in the case,” Elwin said.
Elwin said Baxter made arrangements to get an untraceable cell phone, a car not registered to him and to get guns to Olympia.
An undercover sheriff’s deputy acted as the potential hired killer during the investigation, Elwin said.
Elwin said the investigation showed at first Baxter wanted to do it himself, targeting detective Dave Haller and the husband of his stalking victim.
“But he didn’t have enough money to pay for both, so he called off the hit on the husband and put all his resources on Haller,” Elwin said.
Elwin said the investigation revealed Baxter had taken significant steps to include other people in his plan.
Baxter relayed a request to the person he thought he was hiring – which was actually an undercover deputy – to retrieve three guns from his home in Long Beach and put them in a car he could use to flee the area, according to Elwin. The firearms were seized.
Baxter was arrested about 4 p.m. today for conspiracy to commit first-degree murder.
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.
•••
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.
REPORTED ROBBERY
• Police were called to 1100 block of West Chestnut Street in Centralia about 6:40 p.m. yesterday to a report by an individual they were robbed at knifepoint by a former roommate. Police, noting numerous inconsistencies in the allegations, have not yet contacted the suspect but are investigating the claim.
THEFT
• Centralia police were called about 1:45 p.m. yesterday to the 1000 block of Eckerson Road to take a report of stolen pain medication.
• Chehalis police were called late yesterday afternoon about the theft of prescription medication from a vehicle. The victim, however, wasn’t sure exactly where or when it occurred, according to the Chehalis Police Department.
• Centralia police were called just before 5 p.m. yesterday about a vehicle prowl on the 200 block of South Berry Street.
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