By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – The autopsy results show 40-year-old Tina Thode died from exposure, even though it was a warm summer night when she called for help getting off the banks of the Skookumchuck River in late July.
The body of the Chehalis native who lived nearby in Centralia at the time was discovered partially in the water two days later by kids floating down the river.
Tina A. Thode
“The findings don’t really surprise me, it was dark, she was in the water and she was comfortable in the water,” her father Roger Thode said.
Tina Thode had phoned 911 about 10:30 p.m. on July 27 saying she was lost near the river and couldn’t get out because it was dark. At one point as she talked on her cell phone to the 911 operator, she said she was sitting with her legs in the water.
An intense but unsuccessful search was abandoned after more than three hours, with responders figuring once it got light she could see her way out.
Roger Thode said he got the word from the coroner yesterday or the day before who explained she may have fallen asleep as her body temperature dropped, and that having methamphetamine in her system would have compounded the lowering of her body temperature.
He said he suspects it happened that night, even though the coroner can’t tell him the hour or even the day his daughter passed away.
“We don’t know, I’ve been asked that and I always give the same answer,” Lewis County Coroner Warren McLeod said this afternoon. “People need to stop watching CSI, there’s no way to pinpoint the time of death.”
There are just too many variables, according to McLeod. The death certificate will reflect the time and day her body was discovered, he said.
McLeod said the forensic pathologist noted that being under the influence of methamphetamine was a contributing factor as Tina Thode became unable to – in the words of the pathologist – find shelter from a cold, watery environment.
Tina Thode lived alone about a quarter mile from the tree-lined river and was active in a court-related drug and alcohol treatment program, but had recently relapsed.
Her father said he knows that in hindsight, police and fire personnel wish they’d have looked for his daughter longer that night or returned the next day to resume their search.
“It’s such a waste, it is what it is,” Roger Thode said. “You can’t go back and change it.”
“She made a lot of bone-headed decisions, and this one bit her,” he said.
•••
For background, read “What happened to Tina Thode?” from Tuesday September 3, 2013, here
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
shit just don’t add up you people need to wake up open your eyes and pay attention to whatas really going on in this fucked up evil town
Mr. Thode,
I hope you are able to find some peace and comfort in the coming days. Please know that for every person offering loud judgement, there are many more in quiet support, who are all-too familiar with the hell addiction can wreak on loved ones. You don’t need to explain yourself to anyone.
I am very sorry for your loss.
Unless you have been a parent who has followed your child through the hell of addiction – you don’t get to judge! It is obvious Mr. Thode loved his daughter, and she loved him! Addiction hurts everything it touches, I am grateful Tina is out of her pain. My prayers for the family continue -please know there are many of us who do NOT blame you or Tina for this outcome.
Get this straight, I loved my daughter. She tried so hard to get free of the drug problem she had. We never gave up on her. When she tried to kill herself by sticking a knife deep into her belly I sat for days with her in the hospital. We always picked her up when she fell. Sometimes we didn’t hear from her for months at a time but would come running to give her a hand when we could. We have to face the fact that she made some bad decisions. She loved the water from the time she was a baby, spent summer days walking in what ever river she was near. She was comfortable in the water. The night she called 911 she got caught by darkness in the river, I have no idea why. But jf she couldn’t find her way out I can see her staying in the water. She heard noises on the bank but no one would respond, that spooked her a little, she had a tiny pen light. Not enough to see what was making the noise or to find her way out of the river. They searched for her where she said she was, down stream from B street park, she was up stream when found. I know those that looked for her feel terrible that they didn’t find her. She had planned on getting some minutes on her phone that Saturday, if she had she could have called someone besides 911 too. Maybe she would have called me? Did her battery run out, did she drop the phone in the water? We don’t know but the call or calls to 911 ended. If she had went up the slopping bank she was near there was a opening in the black berry bushes, she could have walked a short distance across a field to a street. So many things that could have been slightly different that would have changed the outcome that night. We have her pictures up in our home, our hearts are broken. Tears come easily. Tina loved God. We pray that she is with Him now and someday we can be with her again. Maybe when I say “she made some bone headed decisions” I am a little upset with her for not getting out of the water. She maybe would have been a little cold sitting out of the water but the night was not that cold, she would still be with us. Love You Princess!
It’s a very sad end to a life that sounds like it was full of battles for her and her loved ones. I would guess that her father suffered a lot through her choices, and I would hope people wouldn’t judge him by what he says when this tragedy is so fresh, as I certainly wouldn’t want to be judged.
I read his comments a bit differently, it sounded like he was doing his best to not place blame or make the first responders feel bad for not finding his daughter, as it was her decisions that led her there. Maybe it was his way to find peace and forgiveness. What’s that you religious folks say? Don’t judge lest ye be judged?
I can’t imagine the pain that that father is going through. I would not want my comments printed on a good day, much less after losing my child.
“We don’t know, I’ve been asked that and I always give the same answer,” Lewis County Coroner Warren McLeod said this afternoon. “People need to stop watching CSI, there’s no way to pinpoint the time of death.”
Coroners and Medical Examiners have been determining a corpse’s time of death long before CSI ever aired. It’s part of the job.
Let’s look beyond what is said by who,etc. Tina died alone,cold and wet. That is not the way anyone should die. I know her place now is betetr than it was here. Rest in Peace Tina.
His daughter doing whatever she did, over and over again, justifies such sad and evil reading comments? Reading his comments it is as if his daughter’s sole existence in life was to be without all the fears, sadness, tears and heartache that all parents experience throughout life with their children, some occasionally, some often, and some from the moment their child is born. For whatever reason, we experience the good, the wonderful, we experience the bad, the absolutely horrible. That’s what life is and we don’t always have a choice, if we’re lucky we have a choice. All of that I understand, been there, had children who were there, been out of it for a long, long time. Many, many downs, but many, many more ups. Her life was not always how her life had become in the end, and that’s what I’m talking about. That does not define who she was, but that’s what I get from reading her father’s remarks, and that is so very sad. Why still include such negative remarks unless that’s how he wants her portrayed by those who didn’t know her?? Again, I say:
Tina, I believe you are in a much better place than your father’s world. Much peace to you lady.
Ruforreal, maybe the father had had enough of bailing her out time after time, giving her money for laundry when she really used it for smokes or dope. Giving her rent money, then her using it for dope. Maybe letting her live with him to help her get clean, only to have her sneak out and returned messed up. Maybe he had given her the benefit of the doubt over and over and was tired of being made a fool if, trusting her to do what was right and her continually failing. Maybe he was tired of getting his hopes up only to be saddened. I think this, not because I was like this father; I was like the daughter. Thank God I was able to turn it around.
Never in the worst of days could I envision a father with such lacking of love. I came from a very physical and emotinally abused home, abusive marriage, all of the syndrome, but you truly shock me with your words. Not ever having met you or your daughter it leaves me pondering this: Did you have a part in your daughter’s demise? This I ponder because you accept what anyone tells you about your daughter’s death as true and accurate, and are the first to spew negatives about the downfalls of her life. The fact her life was troubled, maybe self induced, maybe unknowingly, whatever the reasons, why do you not even care? Why does she not deserve even that? I thought I grew up in an unloving home; it’s VERY apparent Tina was not loved by you. My parents claimed to hate kids, but they would never have accepted a three hour search, then say I “loved the water” to justify this hypothermic death?? You have to live with what you did not do, and the many, many questions people ask behind your back. Those whispers won’t stop no matter how much you bash your dead daughter — they merely increase with your hateful spewings. Always, always the whispers will be there, even after your demise..only stopping once your whole family has been forgotten. Wow, what a legacy you are leaving your family. I can only assume this gives you a feeling of satisfaction, so I end this now.
Tina, I believe you are in a much better place than your father’s world. Much peace to you lady.