Lewis County Sirens.com

Brian L. Creed waits to be escorted back to the jail after his bail is set in Lewis County Superior Court.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The accused intruder didn’t look like a man who had been shot in the stomach less than two weeks ago when he appeared in Lewis County Superior Court this afternoon.

Fifty-one-year-old Brian L. Creed, handcuffed and clothed in orange jail garb, projected a voice that was strong and clear when asked by a judge if that was his correct name. He was just released from the hospital yesterday.

Creed is charged with first-degree burglary and second-degree criminal trespass for events that occurred near where he was either visiting, staying or living on Nix Road on February 10.

Deputies called about 4:45 a.m. that morning to the 400 block of Highway 603 west of Chehalis were told by the 24-year-old resident he awakened and found a stranger inside his home who charged him even after being told at gunpoint to get out.

The young man wrestled away from Creed and held him at gunpoint until law officers arrived, according to charging documents.

Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Shane O’Rourke today asked the judge to hold Creed on $25,000 bail.

“He doesn’t have an extensive (criminal) history, but we have to acknowledge the seriousness of the charge,” O’Rourke said.

Judge James Lawler set bail at $50,000 instead, noting the defendant is a violent threat because of the entry into someone else’s house.

Authorities admit they don’t know what Creed’s intentions were; he’s not accused of burglary in the sense of stealing, but of unlawfully entering a residence and once inside assaulting the resident. Sheriff Steve Mansfield has said Creed was high on methamphetamine.

He apparently came through an unlocked door.

Defense attorney Bob Schroeter told the judge his client was the unlucky one and asked for more reasonable bail of $10,000.

Creed qualified for a court appointed attorney, as his only income is $197 per month general assistance and food stamps, Schroeter told the judge.

Prosecutors initially charged Creed with first-degree burglary and fourth-degree assault, but changed the charges.

O’Rourke said the assault is an element of the burglary charge already.

He added a charge of second-degree trespass telling the court the state learned that about an hour and a half before the incident on Highway 603, Creed was seen rooting around on someone else’s property nearby, on the 100 block of Nix Road.

O’Rourke wrote in court documents he believes Creed was trolling the neighborhood to steal property and commit other criminal acts that night.

Creed’s arraignment was put on the calendar for Feb. 28.

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For background, read: “Wounded home intruder’s condition deteriorating, deputies relieved of guard duty to cut costs” from Friday February 15, 2013, here

Bret Bryan carries Steeler out from the briars where he was found this afternoon. / Courtesy photo by Harry Oakes

Updated at 7:08 p.m.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Steeler, the champion show dog who escaped his owners when their motor home crashed yesterday on the freeway through Chehalis, has been found.

“He was nervous, I think kind of like, what’s gonna happen now, but not frightened,” said Cathy Spears who slipped a collar around his neck this afternoon.

The whippet was tracked down in the brush behind Darigold off Main Street in Chehalis about 2 p.m.

The canine was located by search dogs.

Yesterday morning, Steeler was riding up front with Donald and Patricia Rodgers, of Shelton, as they returned home from a series of dog shows in California, according to Spears.

Donald Rodgers is a professional handler; the couple and their young assistant had as many as nine show dogs belonging to others crated up in the rear of their 1999 Freightliner motor home, she said.

But Steeler, a retired show dog, is their personal pet, she said.

It was just before 11 a.m. when their vehicle collided with the rear of semi truck on northbound Interstate 5 near milepost 78, leaving their cab crushed and all three injured. It was one of several wrecks in the same stretch that slowed freeway traffic for hours.

Steeler fled onto the freeway and vanished.

Spears, a Centralia woman, has known the Rodgers’ some 20 years, she said. She met up with fellow show dog handlers at the Chehalis Starbuck’s this morning to organize a search. They hired professional searcher Harry Oakes from Longview.

Oakes said it took only about 30 minutes, once they figured out where to start looking.

They learned one of the Chehalis firefighters had seen the dog running near Main Street when crews responded to the accident, Oakes said.

They used a blanket Steeler had slept on to give Oakes’ two Border Collies a scent to work with, he said. They found some tracks. A local man and his yellow lab helped lure Steeler out, according to Spears.

Bret Bryan works for the steam train and his dog is just a pet dog, not trained for such work, she said.

Oakes said he and Bryan spotted the whippet cowering in a briar patch about a half mile off Main Street.

“It took some time to calm him down and get him to come to us,” Oakes said.

The dog appeared to have just superficial cuts and minor bruising, Spears said.

Spears took him to her veterinarian, where he is expected to stay overnight for observation.

The other dogs traveling with the couple were uninjured, she said.

Donald Rodgers and 18-year-old Debra A. Carter of Lacey have been released from the hospital, according to Spears. Patricia J. Rodgers remains at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle with a crushed hip and knee, she said.

Ironically, Spears endured a similar experience herself about 20 years ago.

She was part of a 16-car pileup on Interstate 5 near Mellon Street in Centralia in which a 16-year-old boy died, she said. She was traveling with three show dogs and two of them ran off, she said.

“We found one the next morning and the other two days later,” she said.

But that’s not what motivated her, Penny King of Vader and Rachel Morris of Adna, to look for the Rodgers’ pet, she said.

“That’s what kept us going, but these are friends of ours,” Spears said.

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For background, read: “Multiple wrecks on I-5 tangle traffic around Chehalis, Centralia, show dog escapes onto freeway” from Tuesday February 19, 2013, here

Steeler is crated up for a ride to the veterinarian after being rescued. / Courtesy photo by Harry Oakes

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The Rodgers’ 1999 Freightliner motor home after Tuesday’s collision on Interstate 5. / Courtesy photo by Nathan Hays

KOMOnews.com caught video of when Steeler was located, see it here

Grants Towing prepares to disengage one of four vehicles mashed when a motorist cut off other cars to pull over for a trooper stopping her for speeding. / Courtesy photo by Laurie Thorson

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – A 71-year-old Shelton woman was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle and two other occupants of the motor home she was traveling in were taken to Providence Centralia Hospital after a wreck on Interstate 5 in Chehalis today, one of four collisions in the same stretch all during about a 30-minute time frame, according to the Washington State Patrol.

Patricia J. Rodgers, 71, was a passenger in a northbound 1999 Freightliner motor home that struck the rear of a 2012 Kenworth semi near milepost 78, according to the state patrol. It happened just before 11 a.m. when the semi truck changed lanes, according to the patrol.

About 20 minutes earlier, and two miles to the north, a 49-year-old Camas woman caused a four-vehicle wreck when a trooper tried to pull her over and she crossed all lanes of traffic and stopped on the left shoulder, according to troopers. No injuries were reported there, but a Chevrolet Silverado and a Mercedes C350 were totaled, the investigating trooper reported.

The only Lewis County driver in that wreck was Kristen M. Klein, 53, of Chehalis, who reportedly escaped without damage to herself or her Audi.

Klein was among the three vehicles that stopped to avoid the Camas woman and then a semi truck coming up from behind struck them, according to the patrol.

Trooper Will Finn said as this was going on, a southbound vehicle at milepost 83 in Centralia ran into a construction barrel; and then a box van and a dump truck collided near Centralia’s Mellen Street interchange.

All lanes were opened by about 1:20 p.m., according to the state Department of Transportation.

The driver of the motor home, Donald E. Rodgers, 66, and a passenger, 18-year-old Debra A. Carter of Lacey, were transported to Providence Centralia Hospital with unspecified injuries.

The motor home was carrying about a half dozen show dogs, and a whippet that was not inside a kennel escaped onto the roadway and is missing, according to Finn.

The cause of that collision remains under investigation.

Steeler, the missing whippet. /  Courtesy photo