Lewis County Sirens.com

Courtesy photo by Dustin Lampien

Updated

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

Authorities have asked at least two households to evacuate as firefighters battle a blaze including one home and a building that formerly housed a youth center in Vader.

Twenty-three-year-old Dustin Lampien said his house across the street is infiltrated with smoke.

“I’m actually getting all the kids clothes and getting out,” Lampien said in a brief phone conversation at about noon. “We’re getting evacuated, as are the neighbors, who have six kids.”

His wife has already taken their four children, ages five and younger, to his mother’s home, he said.

Lampien said it was around 9 a.m. or even 8:30 a.m. when he noticed the house across the street was on fire.

“I heard an explosion, like something blew up, and smoke started billowing out the front and left side of the house,” he said.

He said his understanding was the owner was away, but the owner’s son and two others are staying there. They’re all accounted for, Lampien said.

Lampien lives on A Street near Ninth Street in the tiny South Lewis County town.

He said 40 to 60 foot flames were still rising from the former youth center and fire crews were actively battling that fire.

“The roof just collapsed about five minutes ago,” Lampien said.

He described it as a very large building, with a metal roof, currently being used as storage of “a lot of antiques.”

Cowlitz-Lewis Fire District 20 Chief Richard Underdahl said the quonset hut type structure had no windows and crews tried to fight the fire from inside but finally backed out.

His department was joined by personnel from fire departments from Castle Rock, Toledo, Winlock and Napavine.

The Masonic Hall building on the south side of the house sustained exterior fire damage as well, he said.

Courtesy photo by Dustin Lampien

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Charging documents in the homicide case of 3-year-old Jasper Henderling-Warner describe a variety of week’s old injuries and conflicting statements from the married couple who were caring for him about his final day or days on this earth.

The Vader pair were arrested today and are being held in the Lewis County Jail on $500,000 bail.

Jasper Henderling-Warner

Brenda A. Wing, 27, and Danny A. Wing, 26, are each charged as either the principal or accomplice in the Oct. 5 death.

No details are offered of exactly what happened, but the results are described in court papers as numerous abrasions including on the back of his head, trauma to his face and multiple bruises to his arms and legs.

X-rays revealed healing fractures, and Jasper was missing his two lower front teeth, according to the court documents.

The cause is labeled by the coroner as chronic battered child syndrome, meaning ongoing physical abuse, according to authorities.

“Basically, it gets to the point where the body just says, ‘I’ve had enough’,” Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer said.

The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office began investigating when it received a Sunday evening 911 call from Brenda Wing that the boy was unconscious and he was rushed to Providence Centralia Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Brenda Wing said they’d just picked the boy up from his mother in Woodland the night before. Danny Wing told detectives it was two nights before.

Eighteen-year-old Zachary Kidder who resided with the couple at their home on the 400 block of Main Street in Vader said the child had been there for the entire week to week and half he’d been staying there.

The mother, un-named in court documents, told detectives she and the couple agreed they would be his guardians for a year, beginning on July 31, court documents state.

The mother explained she was homeless and could not care for her son and described trips to both Chico, Calif. and Oregon City to look for work. She lives in the Vancouver, Wash. area.

The sheriff’s office has said the parties were distantly related.

Prosecutor Meyer’s documents say they met in July and had several play dates with the boy and the Wing’s children.

Meyer charged the Wings today with homicide by abuse, causing the death by engaging in a pattern or practice of assault or torture; or, in the alternative, first-degree manslaughter, recklessly causing the death.

“They’re both plausible charges, based upon the facts that we’ve got,” Meyer said late this afternoon.

He said he believes both Wings had a role in the death. Meyer alleges further they used a position of trust on a particularly vulnerable victim.

The little boy was suffering from skin infections that were secondary to his cause of death, according to the court documents.

Lewis County Coroner Warren McLeod said the doctor who performed the autopsy is not finished with all the forensic studies and could add more contributing factors to the death certificate.

Detectives were told by Kidder that the boy would simply fall over, stiffen and writhe in pain for up to 30 minute several times each day, charging documents state. He also told the detectives at first the Wings picked the boy up two days earlier, but then admitted he was instructed by Danny Wing to say that.

Charging documents offer the following from Brenda and Danny Wing about his condition that weekend:

Brenda Wing said the child was sleeping when they picked him up and when they got home, she put him to bed on the couch in the living room, where her own infant slept in a bassinet.

The following morning she awoke to him moaning, repeating “hungry” while turning his head back and forth with his eyes closed. He had a small bit of toast and Gatorade and she went back to sleep until about noon, and then went to the store.

When she tried to wake him around 4 p.m, he was totally limp so she gave him a bath to revive him and noticed a lot of bruises all over him, she said.

“Brenda initially told detectives once she put the cold water on the child, he stopped breathing,” charging documents state. “She and her husband Danny called 911 and began CPR on the child.”

Danny Wing’s statement was they had brought the boy back to their home on Friday night Oct. 3, not Saturday as his wife had said. On Saturday, the child was coherent, walking around and seemed okay, he said.

That was the day he and his wife noticed the bruises, not right before they called 911, according to Danny Wing.

Brenda Wing told detectives the boy’s mother was a drug user and she believed he had been abused while in the mother’s care.

The mother told detectives after she returned from Oregon City, the Wings brought Jasper to her for a visit in mid-September.

“The mother indicated that she made several attempts to reach the Wing family via cell phone, but they would not take her calls,” Meyer wrote. “When they did, they would make excuses not to meet with her for visitations.”

She provided a note signed by her, Danny and Brenda Wing, making them the guardians from July 31, 2014 until July 31, 2015.

Detectives found a Facebook posting they believe the mother made in September, indicating the Wings had temporary custody of her son, and that she missed him.

Meyer said the evidence they have does not point to the mother being involved.

While the final report has not been issued from the autopsy, the injuries discovered were “weeks, not months” old, during the time the boy was in the care of the Wings, according to the doctor, charging documents state.

The couple is expected to go before a judge on Monday afternoon in Lewis County Superior Court.
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For background, read “Two arrested in death of toddler from Vader residence” from Friday November 7, 2014 at 1:07 p.m., here

Jasper Henderling-Warner / Courtesy photo by Lewis County Sheriff’s Office

Updated at 1:32 p.m.

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The Vader couple taking care of the 3-year-old boy who died under suspicious circumstances early last month have been arrested for homicide by abuse.

Brenda Wing, 27, and Danny Wing, 26, were taken into custody just before 11 a.m. today at the Child Protective Services office in Centralia.

Firefighters and deputies responded the evening of Oct. 5 to a 911 call  from the Wing’s home, in which Brenda Wing said the boy was unconscious and not breathing. Responders continued CPR and conducted other life-saving measures but the toddler was pronounced dead at Providence Centralia Hospital.

The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office at the time said only that it was suspicious, but now reveals the child had severe and obvious bruises and injuries to his entire body.

“The Wing’s explanation for the injuries were inconsistent with the investigation and autopsy findings,” Chief Civil Deputy Brown  states in a news release. “The Wing’s stories have varied from each other as well.”

Jasper Henderling-Warner’s cause of death is labeled by the coroner as chronic battered child syndrome.

Brown indicated the boy’s mother had allowed the Wings to care for her child for several months. The mother resides in Vancouver, Wash.

Brown said the Wings are family of the mother, although it isn’t clear exactly how they are related.

A detective told the mother today by phone of the arrest, Brown said.

“She’s obviously very upset with it,” Brown said. “She’s angry and she’s sad.”

The child’s father was notified as well, according to Brown.

Lewis County Sheriff Steve Mansfield states that Jasper died from severe abuse and neglect, calling his treatment appalling.

“To think this poor little boy went through months of pain and suffering is heart wrenching,” Mansfield said in a prepared statement. “This case is a solemn reminder of the sickening and tragic consequences surrounding a life of drugs, alcohol, and abuse.”

The Wing’s have been charged with homicide by abuse, and should be held accountable for their role in the boy’s death, Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer said in the news release.

“No child should be forced to endure the pain and agony that Jasper suffered,” Meyer stated.

Brown said she wasn’t prepared to go into detail about why the mother put her son into the care of relatives.

Brenda and Danny Wing have three children  of their own, between infancy and age 6, who are all currently in custody with CPS, according to Brown.

The sheriff’s office asks for anyone with any information on this incident to call Detective Engelbertson at (360) 748-9286 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-748-6422 to earn a reward or remain anonymous.

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For background, read “Law investigating death of toddler from Vader residence” from Monday October 6, 2014, here