Family members head to retrieve some personal items this afternoon from the home on Pennel Avenue.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
ONALASKA – Sheriff’s detectives were joined by a team of crime scene specialists from the Washington State Patrol today as they gathered evidence of an apparent homicide in Onalaska, just south of Onalaska Elementary-Middle School.
The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office says 25-year-old Joshua Vance called 911 at 2:45 a.m. and said he’d just killed his father.
Terry Vance
The father, Terry Vance, 58, was found dead of apparent stab wounds in a bedroom, according to the sheriff’s office.
The sheriff’s office this morning had no explanation as to why.
The front of the beige mobile home on Pennel Avenue just south of Fifth Street was barely visible with both a travel trailer and a fifth wheel parked in front of it. It sits across from the school ball field.
Some neighbors were uneasy about the news, although not everyone was aware anything happened.
Raymond Palm walked over to the yellow police tape blocking at Fourth Street after getting a phone call from a friend this afternoon, he said.
It makes him afraid, a homicide happening so close to his home, Palm said. Onalaska is usually fairly quiet, according to Palm.
“Doesn’t happen very often, but when it does, it’s a big thing,” he said, recalling the triple murder 18 months ago off Gore Road,
Bruce Hood was preparing a planting bed for raspberries a couple of doors up behind the mobile home and wondered what was going on.
“I wondered why the sheriff’s office was there,” Hood said.
The sheriff’s office said deputies happened to be three blocks away when the younger Vance called. They think Joshua Vance attacked his father while he was asleep in bed.
Vance was taken into custody without incident, and taken to Providence Centralia Hospital with cuts to his hand, according to responders. He was transferred to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle where he was listed in satisfactory condition late this afternoon.
Vance’s grandmother and school-age nephew who live in the home were there but unharmed, according to Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown.
Brown said she didn’t know how Joshua Vance was injured. He will be booked into jail for homicide following his release from the hospital, the sheriff’s office said.
An autopsy is scheduled for tomorrow.
A nearby neighbor who didn’t share her name said she thought Terry Vance was a caregiver to his mother, who has lived there for many years.
Dick Zoda was outside finishing cutting down a tree at his home at the end of the block this afternoon. Zoda recalled often being asked to join the family for BBQ whenever he and his dog took walks.
“I was up a lot last night, but I didn’t hear anything,” Zoda said. “It’s hard to imagine what happened there. Can’t imagine.”
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
I know this is old but I was having some thoughts about what happened that morning and I never actually read what the news said about it so I figured I’d read it. All of you assholes talking about Uncle Josh like that need to reevaluate your knowledge of that situation. I witnessed what happened, it was horrifying. But that was not one bit Josh’s fault. He was mentally ill and the state stopped helping him. Again, I’ll never forget watching that happen, but I could never hate my uncle or say he deserves to be in prison. He deserves help if anything. Goodbye.
realize its been a cpl yrs …..but now its my turn…DAMN YOU ALL for your messed up comments about this situation…yes..he fucked up…but do any of you really know what happened that led up to this??No,,,,I don’t think so..affraid????? wow….where the hell were you ppl when he needed help? WHERE THE HELL WERE YOU ALL WHEN JOSH NEEDED HELP? O THATS RIGHT..YOU ALL WERE DOING YOUR THING…LIVING YOUR LIFE..WHO CARES THAT SOMEONE WAS SCREAMING FOR HELP..Watch the news ppl.. life is really getting scary (AS YOU PPL PUT IT) AND LORD HELP US ALL IF WE DONT HELP THOSE WHO NEED IT MOST. OMFG….PPL ARE GETTING GUNNED DOWN IN SCHOOLS, IN MALLS, IN PARKS…WAKE THE FUCK UP…..thIS HAPPENED TO JOSHUA BECAUSE STATE DID NOT HELP HIM WITH MEDICATION HE NEEDED…IM SORRY THIS HAPPENEDTO TERRY,,,BUT ID LIKE TO SEE JUST ONE OF YOU PPL WHO HAVE SO MUCH TO SAY ,…REALLY LOOK INTO WHY THIS HAPPENED…..DONT BE SCARED OF JOSHUA,,,BE SCARED OF YOUR FN GOVERNMENT!!!!! THIS WOULD NOT OF HAPPENED IF JOSHUA WOULD OF GOTTEN THE HELP HE NEEDED…..FROM ALL AROUND….NOW HE IS PAYING THE PRICE…HOW ARE YOU ALL DOING??? O…DOING FINE…JUST DONT GO TO A MALL, OR A SCHOOL, OR ANYWHERE THAT IS GOV…….THINK JOSH HAS PROBLEMS??? I THINK YOU ALL NEED TO LOOK AT THE WARNING SIGHNS AND BE SCARED OF WHAT IS REALLY GOING ON…….UNDTIL THEN…THANKS FOR ALL YOUR HELP….MOM
Washington Law states, a person regardless of influenced by drugs or alcohol will be held liable for their actions. I have a hard time beleiving this man did not know right from wrong after arming himself with two butcher knives and brutally murdering his father while he was sleeping. This is by all means, hands down, a pre-medated murder. I hope this guy never see’s the light of day again from his prison cell!!
I had the pleasure of growing up and having Terry umpire my baseball games and Ref my basketball games!! He was an amazing man with such a kind heart! Always had a smile on his face and had such a passion for sports that alot of people didnt!!! I always loved seeing Terry coming into the field with his gear on and I would be like alright we got Terry behind the plate boys its gonna be a good!! It just breaks my heart that his life was cut short! My prayers go out to his family and close friends!!!
Ted Bundy, David Burkowitz (aka son of sam), Ed Gein, Charles Manson, John Wayne Gacy, Aileen Wuornos ( a woman), Gary Ridgeway (the green river killer). All of these people are either in prison for life or deceased because of the death penalty. all of them had friends and/ or family that described them as “polite and/or a good person” at some point in their lives. And all of them ARE INSANE. The simple fact is, they took lives for their own selfish purposes and/or mental defects. Regardless of that my opinion is and will remain to be that anyone who willingly takes a life, sane or insane, is a COWARD. our society today is too quick to label someone insane because of their current and previous actions. i will not tolerate it. and “i say” if you think i’m narrow minded because of that, and because i come from and still live in a small town, and because you thought of Josh as a very “polite” person that lived a couple doors down from you, that doesn’t make you anything but naive to the fact that he killed his own father in his bed while he was sleeping. A killer is a killer. Case in point: John Booth was a friend of mine. That doesn’t change the fact that he murdered 3 people, including a 16 year old boy and sane or insane, he is still a coward in my eyes and always will be. please do me the courtesy of not insulting my intelligence for calling a spade a spade.
that being said, i do sincerely feel for the family of Terry Vance. No one deserves to have to live with and go through this kind of tragedy. My thoughts and prayers are with you and to everyone in our community that has been affected by this.
My heart goes out to the family and friends of Terry Vance. Didn’t know him very well but I did grow up some what with Josh and his older sister. I know that Josh has mental illnesses but I would have never thought that he would do something like this. I do know that Josh has had rough times through his life and I’m sure those struggles had added to the build up over the years. I don’t know exactly but what I do know is that Terry was a very good man, and he will be missed greatly. RIP Terry.
onyresident, and anyone else, please be careful and respectful when addressing this issue, as you do not know the whole story. It appears there were issues of mental illness with Joshua; though we don’t know what those issues are as a public, I would hope this would lead to an understanding that Joshua was not in a place that allowed him to behave in a “normal” and “healthy” manner, such as suggested (walking away, confronting in a civilized manner, contacting someone else for help, etc.). Remember that there is a family connected to Joshua and Terry who are struggling. They need your prayers, good thoughts and support, not your opinions or negative thoughts on what should happen to Joshua or how you think the incident should have gone down.
Terry co-coached my nine-and-ten-year-old little league team back in 1996. I barely knew him, but he was nice to me and my teammates, and I know that he was active in the local little-league scene for a long time.
This kind of violence is sad, but I’m not sure it’s anything to be scared of. This seems like it was probably a private affair–no indication of ill will against the community or of plans for further crimes. It’s not like this was a drive-by shooting or something. And the only suspect turned himself in.
I wish I understood this.
Terry was a very kind man and I remember him volunteering to umpire a lot of my baseball games when I was growing up. He would always bring a good attitude and excitement to the sport. He was a nice and humble man who was well known in Onalaska and he was always friendly to anyone who approached him.
It’s very sad to hear that this tragedy has happened; he will be dearly missed. My condolences to his friends and family.
I knew josh and went to school with him and hung out with him a lot when he was younger. Polite maybe, but he always had issues. Including drug issues. He was always hot headed and had a very short fuse. It was kind of expected something like this would happen with him, but not with his father. Terry was a great man and will be missed! Ill miss him as an umpire and a friend. Terry was always good to him. Josh deserves a nice long visit to prison.
I grew up with joshua i lived two doors down from him he was a nice kid and very polite growing up. i moved from ony after high school. last i heard he started down the wrong path. I feel for his family. I will say the only coward in this story is the one that pass’s judgement. Onyresident, u belong in a small town being as narrow minded.
this makes me afraid too because i live just a couple of blocks from where it happened and my children walk past that house everyday to and from school. to kill your own father in his bed is in no way “random” by my way of thinking. if you feel your own father was that horrible to you it is much easier to LEAVE, walk away, break contact. dont murder the man. if what, if anything, he did to you was that deplorable, CALL THE POLICE AND TURN HIM IN, OR CONFRONT HIM IN A CIVILIZED MANNER, OR LEAVE…. DONT STAB HIM TO DEATH IN HIS OWN BED LIKE A COWARD.
My children had to be escorted to school property by a sheriff’s deputy this morning because of this low life. If i had known this had happened just a couple blocks from my home, let alone along the path my children take to school, i would have driven them myself, which i will be doing from now. I think it’s extremely sad that my children can’t walk two blocks to and from school, in a town this small, because some coward can’t make the right choices and chooses to murder someone instead of doing the right thing.
“It makes him afraid, a homicide happening so close to his home, Palm said. Onalaska is usually fairly quiet, according to Palm.”
Sad that this happened, but would this be the same as a random violent act? I don’t know anyone involved, but it sounds like the kid had issues with his dad alone. Not an opportunistic crime.