By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
The cause of the automobile accident and death almost two weeks ago of a witness in a recently filed Randle murder case continues to puzzle state troopers even after an autopsy was conducted.
Donald G. Diemert
Donald G. Diemert, 62, of Randle, was dead at the scene of a wreck in which his Pontiac Grand Am struck a guard rail, crossed the highway and then ran into a rock wall on U.S. Highway 12 east of Packwood the night of Feb. 19.
State Patrol Sgt. Jason Ashley said it was a slow speed crash, not serious enough it should have killed him.
The state patrol ruled out any mechanical failure and leaned towards some kind of medical issue or something like falling asleep at the wheel, according to Ashley.
An autopsy however, turned up no evidence of a medical event, the Lewis County Coroner’s Office said this week.
Diemert died from a broken neck, according to Chief Deputy Coroner Dawn Harris.
“Basically when his air bag deployed, because he wasn’t wearing a seatbelt, it broke his neck,” Harris said.
Trooper Jason Hicks, the technical investigator for the collision, said today he found that odd.
Hicks said he has never in almost 12 years as a trooper seen a case or heard of a case in which an airbag deployment broke a person’s neck.
The windshield was cracked and Diemert was tossed to the right, with his head landing on the passenger seat, Hicks said.
“I highly doubt the airbag broke his neck,” Hicks said. “The evidence showed he was thrown low to the passenger side corner.”
Diemert was a witness in the case against Randle taxidermist Erik Massa. The 43-year-old was charged Feb. 7 with second-degree murder for the March 14 death of a 58-year-old welder from Federal Way.
Guy W. LaFontaine died from blunt force injuries to his head, torso and extremities after, investigators allege, he was at Massa’s home in Randle.
Massa, who is related to LaFontaine by marriage, has pleaded not guilty and is free on $25,000 bail.
Diemert was a retired Boeing worker who moved to the Randle-Packwood area in 1996.
Part of what was odd, was Diemert did have a laceration on his head, but it hardly bled at all, Hicks said.
“It’s just one of those things that didn’t make sense,” Hicks said.
Hicks said the state patrol is still waiting for a report from the coroner, and will look to the toxicology results to find if Diemert had any alcohol, drugs or medications in his system.
The only indication troopers had Diemert might have been impaired was an unopened can of beer in the cup holder in the car, Hicks said.
Harris said Tuesday she expected those tests to come back in eight or nine weeks.
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Read more about Don Diemert here
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
Sharyn thanks for keeping track of this. I think that the new coroner has got this one right. Don had several fused vertebrae in his neck from his fall a couple of years ago. The airbag probably wouldn’t kill most people, and Don was a tough guy, but he was probably vulnerable because of his prior injury. The newer cars have smarter airbags, but his was a mid 90’s. That’s a freaky thing that he survived a fall that would have killed most people, fought his way back from paraplegia only to be killed by an airbag.