By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – The body of a woman was found in the Cowlitz River today, about two miles downriver from where a missing Centralia mother of three was last seen.
Elizabeth A. Pham
Clothing on the body matches clothing Elizabeth A. Pham, 33, was wearing when she was last seen on Oct. 10, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.
A pair of fisherman who called 911 about 10 o’clock this morning said they were turning their boat around when they spotted the body, approximately one-eighth of a mile southwest of where Lacamas Creek flows into the Cowlitz, according to the sheriff’s office.
Since her disappearance, detectives have actively investigated the case, following up on numerous leads from Clark to Whatcom Counties, Chief Deputy Stacy Brown indicated this afternoon.
“This is a sad day. I think everyone was hopeful Elizabeth would eventually be located alive,” Sheriff Robert Snaza stated. “Our thoughts are with Elizabeth’s family and friends.”
The sheriff’s office has said Pham may have been suffering from from postpartum depression. They also wondered if she may have hitched a ride with someone as her car was found along the freeway, unoccupied.
Detectives continue to investigate the death, according to Brown.
An autopsy is scheduled for tomorrow.
•••
For background, read “News brief: No evidence found of missing mom in Cowlitz River” from Thursday October 15, 2015, here
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
Thoughts and prayers to the Pham family and friends; I do not know you but, I am so very sorry for your loss. May peace be with you. 🙂
Yeah Censorship
@Gunnar: Just commenting on the facts as presented. Fact: Mrs. Pham was acting very bizarrely on her last day. If this wasn’t an upstanding responsible middle class lady that could never have a problem with alcohol or drugs, I would say that she was definitely under the influence, was operating in a blackout, and wasn’t even aware of where she was or what she was doing.
Fact: The police stated that Mrs. Pham was suffering from Post Partum Depression. I would say that, if she was diagnosed by a doctor with PPD that she was prescribed some medications for that – standard practice. I would also bet that if you looked in her medicine cabinet that there would be a drug in there with a black box warning that it may cause feelings of suicide. I would think there is another warning that says don’t drink alcohol when taking this drug. Drinking alcohol with a drug like that could lead to very bizarre behavior and suicidal impulses.
Fact: Mrs. Pham has had many appointments with the municipal and district courts over the last couple of years. Why? Alcohol? Drugs? I don’t know but it definitely indicates a person with problems.
This is definitely a tragedy and the fact that Mrs. Pham was sitting under a bridge staring at the Cowlitz river in her bare feet and pajamas may be the ultimate result of someone providing her with a drug with suicidal risk and not closely monitoring her coupled with some type of substance abuse problem.
I do know things like this don’t just happen out of the blue. The root causes of this tragedy are probably easily explainable and her death was avoidable. I think there are culpable people in her death but perhaps not criminally culpable.
@ crazyoldman, I am not a guardian of righteousness. I just find it unnecessary that her past be brought up at a time like this. For goodness sake’s grow up a bit, and realize that you don’t need to drag a deceased woman’s name thru the mud, let her rest in peace and the family mourn without you casting doubt on something you possibly know nothing about. Put yourself in her families place for a moment would you want that said about your daughter?
I apologize as it is showing now. It was just saying “your comment is awaiting moderation”.
As for the spelling and grammar police, there is no edit function for posts. If you push that “Submit” and you have fat fingered your phone like I just did or your auto correct put something in you didn’t intend, there it is.
I was pretty good at math in school but not much in English comp or punctuation.
@XD: that last post to LC was meant for you. I’m what you mean by censorship. In my experience Sharyn is pretty loose on censoring posts. Normally only if the are libelous and she will notify you if it’s not posted for reason. I suppose maybe also if it’s a threat to another posters personal safety.
@LC: it’s just the guardians of righteous slamming anyone who isn’t politically or socially correct or they deem insensitive. Unfortunately we only get a small amount of info in a news story and don’t know the people, background, or circumstances. So perhaps wild speculation based on a small amount of information is irresponsible. From my experience things are rarely as we are indoctrinated to believe.
Girl with the yellow umbrella:
I did google SW serial killer like you aid. It read that the killer uses a single shot to the head or strangles with a sock if I read right. That would certainly show up at autopsy.
Censorship XD? Your posts are visible to us. How are you being censored?
censorship? what am i missing XDs?
Censorship is alive here at Lc sirens!
An ending still sad, though, unfortunately, not too surprising.
Not familiar with that stretch of the Cowlitz. The swift water dive team did an reported extensive search, upward of two miles down stream from where she was last seen. Given the dry weather, I’d imagine the river was flowing at it’s lowest levels at the time.
How deep is the water in that stretch?
The medical examiner will be able to determine, I imagine, if she was breathing when she succumbed, by the presence of any river water in her lungs.
If it’s suicide, some of the low-life curs that post their rot in the wee hours here, certainly illustrate, why the alternate to life might seem more attractive, than having to exist amongst these type of slimy amoeba’s in our midst.
I am so sorry for the Pham family.
Anyone interested in real information about suicide, this book is written by a Western Washington author and is easy to read. It may surprise you about what an expert says about the reason for suicidal thinking, and real interventions that work…
http://www.amazon.com/Because-Youre-Suicidal-Doesnt-Crazy-ebook/dp/B00BRYDQFO
This tragedy is a reminder that mothers still go down into the valley of death when giving birth. PPD is a physical illness. I had a serious case with my second son and am surprised that, 40 years later, OBs aren’t better at predicting, detecting, and managing it. When you add the stress of 3 children (which isn’t 1×3 but more like 1×6) + a fulltime career + whatever random other troubles life likes to throw at us, mothers with PPD may be at greater risk than ever. So could we please not indulge in wild speculations and judgments? Couple of years ago ladies got on here and in 40 mins turned a report of a cop-stop at the Salkum Library into 1) assault, 2) rape, 3) murder, 4) murder-suicide. Turned out to be a couple availing themselves of the free wifi.
So everyone seriously is okay with just chalking this up to another mysterious overdose or suicide where their found in a local river. Has no one google the southwest washington serial killer? Do people seriously choose to ignore all the signs the clues the coincidence of this whole scenario. I may end up fucking murdered for throwing it out there next but can we all just open our eyes to the fact that this is not suicide. None of these locals are. What the fuck is wrong wi th everyone that no one cares enough to ask or push this issue? One day it could be your daughter. Your wife. Your sister. Your friend. All so some hillbilly sick fuck can get their rocks off hunting women. Come on lewis county.
Crazy Old man is right,
When someone kills themselves or gets killed they are instantly angels to everyone.
Suicide is the most selfish and cruel thing to do to your children not to mention how everyone is labeling it due to Postpartum depression.
That should really make her children feel great about themselves when they read the news reports about their mothers death.
Way to go Mrs.Pham & news speculators, you just screwed up three more children.
My sincere condolences to the Pham family.
It’s just to bad this poor woman wasn’t a illegal she would have gotten everything she needed ..on the tax payers of course!! It’s a shame to see someone that beautiful with little ones have this happen. I guess the Welfare pig to normal people percentage just changed! One less person to pay for illegal trash .. R.I.P.
@Gunnar: Now that the lady is dead everyone wants to tell a nice story, but there was probably some culpability on the part of others why this lady ended up in such a life crises. I have a huge amount of suspicion on how this came to be that I won’t express here because of the outrage of the guardians of righteousness like yourself.
I have a hugely suspicious mind when it comes to human nature.
So very sorry to hear this. My thoughts and prayers are with her family and friends.
Depression is a real serious issue. If you have not ever been around it or have had depression then it is hard to truly understand the disease!
Rest In paradise!
Crazyoldman is it really necessary to add to the families grief by discussing her past history. You must really be a donkeys butt!
Very sad ending.
So sad, Lewis countys waiting list is about two months to be seen by a real doctor for help. If you go to Valley View Health care center you get a refferal that can take a couple of weeks for an intake meeting. Or you have the option for walk in appointment but they only take the first five people who walk through the door and then your have to come back later in the day and the overload of people are turned away and given appointments that are over a month out. Then people who need medicine like ativan are cut off by the doctors at valley view because they claim its addicting and you need to see a mental health proffesional now to get these same meds that the doctors at valley view once gave out. How do I know all of this I have a family member that has gone through the same process here in Lewis County. This is what Medicaid and Medicare benifits provide nothing but a run around for the patient in need of help right now. Doctors are to worried about addiction rather the the patients need for certain types of calming medicines that can help right away. The head Doctor at Valley cut my family member off her medicine that she had been taking for years. This medicine was vital to her survival. She was cut off because she asked for Ativan by name. Its clear that our health care system is broken. These same doctors also do this to pain patients claiming that you will become addicted to the medicine. In the process medicare denies MRI’s and life saving scans that can see what is truley wrong with a Patient suffering from chronic pain. Then people whom could benefit from surgerys are denied and are then left suffering in pain without surgery nor pain medicine to manage their pain and some how function in life. This right here is the reason pain medicines are being bought and sold on the streets of Centralia. People in pain will do anything to feel better so if that means robbing and stealing or prostitution then its going to happen to obtain pain medicine for their medical needs that are being denied at the doctors office. Alcohol kills more people everyday than pain meds yet you can buy it at almost any store day or night. But trying to obtain mental health pills or pain medicine through a doctor is a struggle for those in need. Its only human to want to feel better if that feeling comes in a pill form why must Doctors deny the basic human right to feel better from the science of medicine. Such a sad day for the Pham family and the community as a whole, incidents like this can a should be prevented yet Doctors on power trips deny many members of our community acess to life saving medicin. Who is any person to judge what a person should take as medicine if the medicine elevates a persons quality of life. Human rights are what we all need and acess to the best medical care should be the number one priority here in America, not paying millions of dollars each year to fund wars. This is such a sad case ny heart goes out to the Pham family. Im sorry the Health care system failed your family. I know it has failed mine. Prayers…….i
Sad.
I’m sorry to hear that Mrs. Pham was found dead – was afraid of that. From her minor scrapes with the law over the last year and her PPD and perhaps the side effects of drugs prescribed for her, she was obviously in a serious life crises.
Sometimes people that you think have it all together are secretly suffering tremendously. I suspect in this case having three children and working and trying to live the perfect middleclass life might have just been just too much.
It’s too bad that there wasn’t a person there to intervene and help in her time of need. It could have turned out differently. Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem.