Lewis County Sirens.com

Flames rise from Valley View Health Center in Winlock / Courtesy image from Zachary Wichert

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – A fire investigator is expected this morning to start looking through the remains of a Winlock medical clinic to find what sparked an overnight fire.

It was called in by a passerby about 2 a.m. today, according to Lewis County Fire District 15.

A crew arriving four minutes later to the 600 block of Cemetery Road found the the single-story building well-involved with flames, Firefighter Patrick Jacobson said.

“We just began extinguishing the fire, a defensive position, because of the amount of fire and the roof was collapsing” Jacobson said.

They were joined by personnel from fire departments in Napavine, Toledo and Vader, he said, and got it under control within about 40 minutes.

Valley View Health Center won’t be re-opening anytime soon.

“It’s definitely a total loss,” Jacobson said. “We were able to save like the waiting room area and reception area, but it’s not going to be salvageable.”

Jacobson said nobody was injured.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The Thurston County Sheriff’s Office announced yesterday that tips from the public led to the identification of two primary suspects in the death of the teenager whose body was found last week northwest of Littlerock in Capitol Forest.

Department spokesperson Sgt. Carla Carter indicates they are Vince Garlock, 29, and Jonathan Bartosek, 31.

Dakota Tyree Walker, 18, was found dead of multiple gunshot wounds in the brush off Waddell Creek Road Southwest near the entrance to Margaret McKenny Campground, on Oct. 20.

The two men are being held in the Thurston County Jail without bail on charges of first-degree aggravated murder. They were arrested on Wednesday.

The investigation revealed the suspects and the victim arrived in Thurston County in August where they engaged in criminal activity, according to the sheriff’s office.

Bartosek was in a domestic relationship with the victim, according to Carter. The culmination of the criminal activity and the domestic relationship ultimately led to Dakota’s murder, Carter wrote in a news release.

The Thurston County coroner indicated earlier this week Walker is from Los Angeles, but Carter said he is from Ohio.

Carter said the suspects are from Pennsylvania. Bartosek has various aliases including Jonathan Ackerman, David Capron and is known locally as Joey Caprone, she wrote. The jail roster shows Capron is also being by the U.S. Marshal Service for escape.

The investigation is ongoing and anyone with further information is asked to contact the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office.
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For background, read “News brief: Body found in Capitol Forest is California teenager” from Wednesday October 26, 2016, here

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – A Cinebar family is displaced after a fire raced through a carport, a garage and into their home yesterday while they were away.

The first firefighter responding to the approximately 2:25 p.m. call to the 200 block of Calvin Road found the carport containing a camper trailer “pretty much fully involved” in flames, according to Lewis County Fire District 8. That firefighter lives just down the road, according to  Chief Duran McDaniel.

McDaniel said by the time he arrived on the engine, the blaze had swept through a double garage and was beginning to burn the west wall of the modular home.

“We concentrated on saving the home,” he said. “I would say the house is a loss, we probably saved two-thirds of the contents.”

Nobody was hurt, he said.

A fire investigator and the sheriff’s office are looking into the cause.

Although the blaze was knocked down within about 15 minutes, a crew was on the scene until after 6 p.m. doing overhaul, McDaniel said.

“A big thanks to District 1 and District 3 for their backup,” he said. “It was a full central county response.”

McDaniel said he was grateful for a quick response from PUD as well. He needed the power shut off, but the meter bases were in the middle of the fire, he said.

McDaniel said the fire damage in the home was the worst in its laundry room and kitchen.

Lewis County Sheriff’s Office deputies recovered some guns in a building off Steam Boat Island Road NW / Courtesy photo Lewis County Sheriff’s Office

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – One of three suspects in a June residential burglary in rural Chehalis is now locked up in the Lewis County Jail.

Eleven guns and some sports memorabilia were among the valuables stolen from the 400 block of Coal Creek Road back on June 15.

Thirty-one-year-old Chase L. Flores, from Shelton, was arrested on Monday. He is charged in Lewis County Superior Court with residential burglary, theft of a firearm and second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm. His arraignment was scheduled for today.

According to charging documents in the case, one of the other two suspects last year lived with his then girlfriend and her family at the Coal Creek Road home. When interviewed at the Thurston County Jail, that suspect said he and some buddies got high in Olympia and then drove to the Chehalis home on June 15.

He said he used bath salts for the first time that day, which he thought was meth, according to the documents.

The victim got a tip from a sports card shop in Tumwater that purchased one of the stolen cards, after posting his stolen property on Facebook, according to court documents.

Lewis County sheriff’s deputies recovered several of the stolen guns and other items when they served a search warrant on June 22 off Steam Boat Island Road NW northwest of Olympia.

Court documents relate detectives were told a .38 revolver was sold, a shotgun was spray painted black and traded for heroin and meth and a 22 caliber revolver was buried in the ground near Mudd Bay.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – A 37-year-old Vader woman has been charged with enrolling the father of her children as her “husband” under her employer’s health insurance plan without actually being married to him.

The postal carrier allegedly signed him up when she was hired in August 2004 by the U.S. Postal Service and a tip 10 years later led to an investigation.

Juelene L. Perez Owens was charged with first-degree theft in Lewis County Superior Court and summonsed to appear before a judge yesterday.

Records show medical and prescription claims in excess of $350,000 have been paid out for the “husband”, according to court documents.

Owens was accompanied yesterday afternoon by her attorney Dana Williams. She told the judge her proper name is Juelene L. Perez-Lopez.

She pleaded not guilty.

Her conditions of release pending trial included a $5,000 signature bond.

Charging documents in the case indicate Perez-Lopez when questioned by a human resources employee in 2014 said they were not married but planned to be soon.

When interviewed by a U.S. Postal Service Inspector’s special agent, she told him she and her “spouse” met in high school in 1997, he was the father of their four children and she thought they were “common law,” according to the court documents.

The investigation was taken over by the Washington State Insurance Commissioner’s Office and a detective there found she had filed a bankruptcy petition in November 2004, claiming to be single with three children, the documents relate.

Perez-Lopez is scheduled to return to Lewis County Superior Court on Nov. 3 so a trial date can be set.