Lewis County Sirens.com

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Susan Patterson’s son called her the other day, laughing so hard he could hardly talk.

“He said, ‘It’s back’,” Patterson said.

“I said, ‘What? What’s back?” she said.

“The casket,’ he said.

And she laughed too. She’s still laughing.

“That thing is just going to haunt me forever,” Patterson said.

It’s a long story.

The Patterson family at one time owned a steel, never-before-used casket. The slightly damaged container meant for the dead had been languishing in the Fife warehouse of a shipping company where her son worked.

The Onalaska woman jumped at the chance to take possession of it.

It was the perfect enhancement to a spot on their property they called Pirate Cove. A place with a fire pit where her husband Pat and his SeaFair pirate friends would hang out and smoke cigars, she said.

The now-retired couple moved from West Seattle, home of the infamous group, to Onalaska years ago. Pat Patterson, now 72, has been a pirate for 38 years.

She replaced its lining with a skull and cross bones print fabric and they transformed the casket into a bar. It sat on a couple of logs. Beneath one end of the “split top” was storage for liquor bottles and the other half held a cooler, she said.

They only had it a year, maybe two, she said.

It disappeared during one of the floods, she couldn’t remember for sure which one, she said.

But it’s reappeared twice, and she feels almost certain the one that turned up over the weekend in a creek off the Newaukum River belongs to her family.

“That thing just keeps coming back, every time I think it’s gone, it comes back,” she said.

Patterson said she spoke to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office and the coroner earlier this week.

Lewis County Coroner Warren McLeod learned of the find on Sunday. He and members of Lewis County Search and Rescue plan to attempt to recover it on Saturday morning. It’s on private property, a hike through fairly rough terrain, he said.

McLeod described the found coffin as steel gray, partially submerged, the foot end driven into the creek bottom, almost as if deposited there by raging floodwaters.

He said he couldn’t tell if it was occupied or not.

Patterson recalled theirs as maybe bluish-gray.

The first time the Patterson’s casket-turned bar disappeared might have been around 2006 during a flood. She recalled telling her husband over a cup of coffee that if anyone found it, it could be disturbing, so they placed a note on a community bulletin board in town: If anyone finds a casket, contact the Pattersons.”

“The boys searched and searched for months,” Patterson said. “Nick, my grandson found it out in the woods, standing straight up, but buried in the mud.”

They couldn’t dislodge it, so they left it where it stood.

The following year, they were flooded again and while they were cleaning up, they got a knock and their door. It was a sheriff’s deputy, she said. Asking about a casket.

“He said, ‘Yeah, I guess that last one knocked it loose, it’s now lodged downstream at the neighbor’s’,” she said.

Her recollection was it was stuck and never recovered.

Another flood hit in January 2009, and this time they lost everything. Their home was condemned. The couple moved to the other end of Onalaska.

“I never really thought about that casket after that,” she said.

She told her husband earlier this week the casket has risen again. She almost 100 percent sure it’s theirs, she said.

She told the coroner they don’t want it back.
•••

For background, read “Coffin discovered in Lewis County creek” from Tuesday February 17, 2015, here

Dustin Palermo’s security video captured images of three individuals heading for his front door.

Updated at 8:56 p.m.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CENTRALIA – Police are looking for three males who barged into a Centralia home last night, demanded money and shot a dog.

Centralia police say one of the subjects fired a number of times at the pet, killing it but none of the residents were injured.

The suspects then fled and are still at large, according to the Centralia Police Department.

It happened about 10:35 p.m. on the 1200 block of Marion Street, at the north end of town, according to police.

Misty, the golden colored dog on the right, in a snapshot with Bruno.

Dustin Palermo said he and his girlfriend had just settled into bed to watch a movie, when he heard a thump on the door.

“My door’s flying open, these black men rush in, shooting guns, screaming,” he said. “They shot up my room and killed my dog.”

The 35-year-old Centralia native said they were shouting about money and weed and rummaging through things. He shoved his girlfriend into a corner and told her not to move, then pushed a jar of cannabis on the floor toward the intruders, he said.

They were in and out in about 30 seconds, but it seemed much longer, he said.

The firearm was described as a handgun.

Palermo said his two pit bulls were inside with him and his 25-year-old girlfriend. Misty was just protecting her family he said.

“The male, Bruno, he’s taking it pretty hard,” he said.

Detectives are working on the case.

Detective Patty Finch said they have no idea of the motive at this point.

“The victims don’t claim to know the suspects, there’s not a clear picture as to why they were targeted,” Finch said this afternoon.

They processed the scene, interviewed witnesses and recovered some shell casings. They’re not sure yet how many shots were fired, she said.

Palermo’s mother lives in the main house on the property, with his four children and three other of her grandchildren.

Pam Vasquez said she was out with a girlfriend, but the youngsters, ages 10 to 18, were upstairs in bed when it happened. She rushed home after getting a phone call and found several police cars there, their dog dead on the front porch.

“It was just crazy,” she said. “I never would have expected this, in Centralia.”

Palermo said he thinks one of the males was probably in his mid-20s, but has no idea who they were or why they came to his house.

The large extended family has lived on the property where Marion Street turns to Little Hanaford Road for about four years. His “house” is actually a roughly 300-square-foot shack Vasquez says was the original homestead. Palermo created a bedroom on one side.

On the other side, he has a small amount of medical marijuana growing, for himself and another patient, he said. The former Navy corpsman said he uses it for anxiety and chronic back pain. He came home from Iraq in 2003, he said.

But he didn’t feel like that’s why they were there, he said.

“I don’t know if it’s because we went to the casino the night before and won some money, I don’t know if it was random,” he said.

The family showed police their security video. Palermo looked at it again this morning.

It shows the men drive off in a small two-door car, almost like a Honda Accord or a Saturn, with a spoiler on the back, he said. Finch said the car was said to have a loud muffler.
•••

CORRECTION: This has been updated to reflect the correct time police were called.

Five friends work at installing a new front door late this afternoon.

The car seen leaving is described as a dark-colored passenger car with a loud exhaust.

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – While a judge last month authorized the release of the body of a 3-year-old boy whose October death has been ruled a homicide, it remains at the Lewis County Coroner’s Office because the parents don’t agree on which funeral home to use.

Coroner Warren McLeod is asking a judge to intervene.

Jasper Henderling-Warner

“This is something we’ve never come across,” McLeod said. “All I want is for Jasper to be released so he can be at rest.”

Jasper Henderling-Warner died from what the coroner called chronic battered child syndrome. The Vader couple who were caring for him, Danny and Brenda Wing, remain jailed pending a trial.

McLeod said his office has been in contact with the child’s mother, Nikki Warner who lives in the Vancouver area and his father, Casey Henderling who resides in Kelso. They are not married. The two agree Jasper should be cremated and his ashes split between them, McLeod said.

She wants to use a mortuary in Battle Ground, he’s picked out one in Longview, he said.

McLeod said state law allows him to release a decedent to the surviving parents, but doesn’t specify anything further such as the parent who has custody. He’s holding on to the body until he knows which funeral home to turn it over to, he said.

Last week, McLeod filed a civil action in Lewis County Superior Court. McLeod on Tuesday said he understands the papers would be served upon each parent this week. Then they have 20 days to respond.

The mother told detectives she and the Wings agreed they would be his guardians for a year beginning at the end of July, that she was homeless and traveling out of state to look for work.

Jasper died Oct. 5; the Wings were arrested Nov. 7 and charged with homicide by abuse; or, in the alternative, first-degree manslaughter.

The coroner said his office kept the boy’s body following the autopsy, in case defense attorneys wanted to conduct a second examination, which sometimes happens. On Jan. 28, McLeod was notified he no longer had to hold Jasper for the criminal case.

He said his office has been in contact with Jasper’s parents by phone, by email and even tried to get them in a room together to settle their disagreement.

“We’ve gone as far as we can go, we’re at an impasse,” he said.

Centralia City Manager Rob Hill, wearing cap, huddles with the five finalists for police chief after a public gathering at the train depot.

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CENTRALIA – In suits, ties and shiny shoes, they chatted, shook hands and answered questions from a small number of people who came out to meet them last night; the five men hoping to become Centralia’s next chief of police.

The short meet and greet in a conference room at the Centralia train depot followed a day of interviews from one panel of department heads and another comprised of select members of the community.

Newly elected Lewis County Sheriff Rob Snaza said he was kind of excited to see who would end up getting the job.

“We’re fortunate to have this caliber of candidates,” Snaza said. “We’re all about us working together.”

Snaza was one of five who had spoken to the finalists earlier in the day. Joining him in the interviews were Jenny Collins, executive director of the Visiting Nurses Foundation; Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer; Lacey Police Department Chief Dusty Pierpont; and Centralia College Athletic Director Bob Peters.

Centralia City Manager Rob Hill likewise seemed enthusiastic about the quality of the individuals he has to choose from.

“I’m pretty confident our next chief will come out of this group,” Hill said.

Centralia Police Department Chief Bob Berg is retiring in May, after 11 years in the job. With assistance from the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs, the city began a nationwide search in December, and screened applications from 20 individuals.

The pay for the head of the department with 31 commissioned officers in Lewis County’s most populated city was advertised as between about $100,000 and $122,000.

Two of the group come from the banks of Lake Michigan.

James Held has been chief of the Lake Forest (Illinois) Police Department for almost three years, an organization with 40 sworn officers.

Thirty miles to the south, Lt. Maury Richards has been with the Chicago Police Department for 23 years.

Carl Nielsen is a captain, and second in command at the Turlock Police Department in California’s central valley.

Closer to home, Rod Baker comes from the Pierce Transit Police Department, which he created. Baker is on a yearlong sabbatical to get his degree in criminal justice administration

And from inside the Centralia Police Department, Cmdr. James Rich is hoping to become its next chief.

Rich, with 33 years of law enforcement experience, said the agency has made huge strides in the past 10 to 15 years. He wants to help see it continue down that path, he said.

Hill planned to conduct his interviews today, and expects to do his background checking in person, on one or more of his final choices, he said.

He has no set date for when he will make his decision, he said.