Lewis County Sirens.com

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The Lewis County coroner’s year-end tally shows a drop in accidental deaths during 2012 but several more suicides.

Last year, 21 people died in Lewis County from accidental causes, compared with 29 the year before, according to Coroner Warren McLeod’s numbers.

Most the those are due to overdoses, both from legally prescribed and illicit drugs, according to McLeod.

The number of deaths attributed to suicide however jumped from nine two years ago to 14 last year.

The coroner’s office tracks all deaths that occur in the county and is responsible for determining their cause and manner.

McLeod gave a brief report yesterday to the Lewis County Board of Commissioners, but did not expand upon any ideas about the changes. He has not yet compiled his official year-end report.

Last year, the coroner counted 822 deaths. The vast majority of cases overall are ascribed to natural disease processes.

When it comes to people taking their own lives, one of the most used methods is with firearms, according to the coroner. Hanging is second, he said.

“That’s the same as when I worked in Vegas,” McLeod said.

Lewis County saw four homicides last year, the same number as the year before.

Terry Vance, 58, of Onalaska, was stabbed to death in his bed last March by his adult son who is now serving a 30-year prison sentence.

David W. Carson, 43, Centralia, died the following week of two gunshots to his chest area in the home of a friend who is in jail awaiting a trial next month.

Two-year-old Koralynn Fister, of Centralia, died in May from head trauma and drowning while in the care of her mother’s live-in boyfriend. James Reeder, 26, pleaded guilty last week to homicide by abuse and other charges and faces possibly spending the rest of his life incarcerated.

Gregory S. Kaufman, 64, of Napavine, died in November from gunshots when he advanced upon a sheriff’s deputy with a knife in his hand along state Route 6 near Boistfort. The shooting was ruled as justified.

Two of last year’s deaths in Lewis County remain undetermined, although not suspicious, McLeod said.

Already during the first two weeks of 2013, he said, his office has responded to one suicide and one accidental death as well as two cases in which the manner is not yet known.

Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter

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