Lewis County Sirens.com

Updated at 1:08 p.m.

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – A Cinebar area man has been arrested after being identified as the person who allegedly left five dogs chained to trees out in the woods outside Morton without food or water.

Richard D. Carlile, 29, is tentatively scheduled to go before a judge this afternoon in Lewis County Superior Court. He was booked into the Lewis County Jail on Friday for first-degree animal cruelty.

The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office said this morning they began investigating a week ago, after getting a call from someone who discovered a dog chained to a tree in the forest. The pitbull was non-ambulatory, could not lift its head and could not eat, Chief Deputy Dusty Breen said.

That was on Saturday evening, Sept. 24, according to Breen.

The caller said she thought she heard other dogs out there, but left, fearing for her safety, Breen said.

The following day, the woman led deputies to the area of Forest Service Road 73 – about six miles from state Route 508 –  where they located four other pitbulls tied up to to trees, with no food or water, Breen said. They appeared to be malnourished and dehydrated, Breen said.

They also found an abandoned campsite, which contained no personal belongings or any kind of food, according to Breen.

The deputy brought two of the dogs out, and upon return, the remaining two canines were nowhere to be found, Breen said.

On Friday, when Carlile contacted the Lewis County Animal Shelter to claim his two impounded dogs, he was arrested.

Breen said Carlile is transient and told deputies he’d only left his pets there for a short time on the day deputies went there.

Carlile’s hearing will be at 4 p.m. today.

Responders bring patient to be airlifted near Delaware Avenue in Centralia / Courtesy photo by Riverside Fire Authority

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Centralia police are working with BNSF to figure what sort of train struck a 21-year-old woman earlier today and how it happened.

The Centralia woman lived, but was in no shape to be interviewed before being whisked away by a helicopter to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, according to police.

Nearby citizens heard her calls for help and came out to investigate, Centralia Police Department Sgt. Dave Clary said. The train was already gone, and it’s likely the crew didn’t know what had occurred, he said.

Police and firefighters were called about 12:30 p.m. to the area about 300 yards north of the Sixth Street viaduct near Delaware Avenue, which runs adjacent to the tracks, according to authorities.

Clary said she was hit while crossing the tracks and her only injury was to her foot, although it was significant.

“How her foot was injured and not the rest of her seems to be like a Christmas miracle,” Clary said.

Medics with Riverside Fire Authority responded and summoned an Airlift Northwest helicopter to pick her up at the scene, according to Fire Capt. Scott Weinert.

The fire department described her injuries as traumatic, but she was conscious and alert when she departed, they said.

Clary said the public needs to heed their warnings, and sometimes tickets, about walking over railroad tracks in areas where there is no designated crossing.

“People need to take these trains extremely seriously, and know they will not win with a train,” he said. “This young woman’s foot, I can tell you, is never going to be the same.

“It was not worth not going up and around the Sixth Street viaduct.”

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS –  The state Department of Corrections is investigating the death of a former Morton man, an inmate found unresponsive yesterday morning at the Monroe Correctional Complex.

Thirty-year-old Michael D Bryant was discovered about 7 a.m. unconscious and not breathing, and prison staff began providing lifesaving measures, including a call to 911, according to authorities. Local paramedics pronounced him dead at 7:29 am., DOC spokesperson Jeremy Barclay stated.

Bryant was being held in Monroe’s Special Offender Unit, a part of the facility opened in 1981 to treat and house seriously mentally ill offenders.

He was convicted in Lewis County Superior Court in early 2008 after repeatedly stabbing a woman he’d met at Cascade Mental Health in Chehalis, for no apparent reason. Bryant was about halfway through his 18-year-sentence.

Monroe’s Special Offender Unit is the same place where last year, a Lewis County man at the beginning of a five-year sentence died after an assault for which a fellow inmate was investigated. Gordon C. Powell Jr., 45, passed away May 18, 2015.

DOC spokesperson Barclay wrote in a news release yesterday that initial response indicates Bryant’s death was a result of an apparent suicide and a full review will be completed of the circumstances/incident.

DOC officials contacted local law enforcement and the county coroner’s office. Monroe Correctional Complex’s Intelligence and Investigations unit, along with local law enforcement, are investigating the matter, according to Barclay.

The prison located in Monroe, in Snohomish County, houses approximately 2,400 male inmates.

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The Lewis County Coroner’s Office has positively identified the victim of Tuesday’s early morning wreck of a pickup truck in Glenoma.

He is 27-year-old Richard G. Green, a Glenoma resident, according to Coroner Warren McLeod.

Passersby came upon the burning wreckage on the Champion 200 Line. Investigators estimated the 1996 Ford F150 had been traveling as fast as 70 mph on a long straight stretch before striking a tree and catching fire.

The collision wasn’t witnessed, but the sheriff’s office believes it occurred  sometime around 5:30 a.m. or 6 o’clock.

McLeod won’t make a final determination on the cause and manner of death until after he gets the results of toxicology tests and further studies.
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For background, read “News brief: Details on Glenoma crash, fatality still under investigation” from Thursday September 29, 2016, here