Lewis County Sirens.com

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office confirmed the skeletal remains of a woman found near Morton last year were dumped there.

The remains were found on April 7, 2011 by a motorist who pulled off U.S. Highway 12 to take a break, about 100 yards up a logging road.

Unidentified female

Who she is and how she died remains a mystery.

But the sheriff’s office says they believe foul play was involved.

Lewis County Sheriff’s Office Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown said yesterday detectives are taking a further look at the case in light of the confessions early this month of self-professed serial killer Israel Keyes who claims he killed four people in Washington state.

“We’re definitely taking a look at all our cases to see if his M.O. matches any of ours,” Brown said.

The checking is not based in any specific request from the FBI, she said.

The sheriff’s office has been tight-lipped about details of the Morton case, in hopes that withholding information from the public will better help them solve it.

A forensic anthropologist at the King County Medical Examiner’s Office believes the remains belong to a woman who was 20 to 35 years old when she died, small in stature and possibly of mixed ethnicity.

A sketch made by studying the facial bones offers a clue to what she may have looked like. The artist’s rendering was released to the news media in October of last year, but it generated no leads on her identity, according to Lewis County Coroner Warren McLeod.

Dental records and DNA from the deceased have been entered into databases with no matches found.

Examination by the specialist failed to come up with the cause of death.

“Having only bones to examine, she’s exhausted, at this point, all means to figure out the cause and manner of death,” McLeod said yesterday.

McLeod, whose office has the responsibility – among others – of figuring out who she is, is hoping re-releasing the sketch will turn up someone who recognizes her.

“Not knowing who it is puts us at a real disadvantage,” he said.

Another aspect of the case still under wraps is how long the forensic anthropologist estimates the woman had been dead before her remains were found.

“We’re not releasing that yet because that’s something only the killer, or the person who dumped her, would know,” Chief Civil Deputy Brown said.

Anyone with any information about this female or the case is asked to call the coroner’s office at 360-740-1376, Lewis County sheriff’s detective Dan Riordan at 360-740-2765 or Lewis County Crime Stoppers – if the person wishes to remain anonymous –  at 1-800-748-6422.

Updated at 5:32 p.m.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Icy roads contributed to numerous collisions yesterday around Lewis County including two serious wrecks that sent local residents to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

A 16-year-old Chehalis boy was transported to the Seattle hospital after a vehicle in which he was a passenger ran into a tree on the 100 block of Brockway Road west of Chehalis. Responders called just before 1 p.m. found five teenagers and a Jeep Cherokee that was totaled, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s office.

The 16-year-old – who wasn’t wearing a seatbelt – had head and neck injuries, according to the sheriff’s office. Two girls, ages 13 and 15, had minor injuries and a 17-year-old boy was reportedly uninjured, the sheriff’s office reported. All are from Chehalis.

The 16-year-old driver, a Seattle resident, was also uninjured, Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown said. He was taken to the Lewis County Juvenile Detention Center for a warrant, driving on a suspended license, taking a motor vehicle without permission and for giving a deputy a false name, according to Brown.

Earlier in the morning, a 31-year-old Toledo woman was flown to Harborview with a broken pelvis after her car slid into a telephone pole on the 700 block of Jackson Highway South near Toledo, according to the sheriff’s office. Her 4-year-old passenger sustained a cut on the forehead and was transported to Providence Centralia Hospital, according to Brown. The car was destroyed in the approximately 8:40 a.m. crash, according to Brown.

Two other accidents attended to by deputies left drivers with no injuries but their vehicles with major damage, according to the sheriff’s office. The first was around 8:15 a.m. on the 200 block of Ingalls Road west of Centralia in which an SUV slid into a ditch onto it side, according to Brown.

At about 8:30 p.m., a deputy responded to a car that ran into a fence on the 300 block of Jackson Highway South, according to Brown.

And finally at about 11 p.m., a 17-year-old Centralia girl driving a pickup truck slid into a ditch and a telephone box on the 4700 block of Galvin Road in Centralia, according to the sheriff’s office. Her truck was described as totaled and her family took her to the hospital, Brown said.

East Lewis County where the residents have seen more snow fared better.

Washington State Patrol Sgt. Darin Foster, supervisor of the Morton detachment,  said he didn’t investigate a single collision yesterday.

This morning he found compact snow along U.S. Highway 12 farther east toward White Pass and mostly slush around the Morton area, he said.

“We’ve got  lot of skiers going up to White Pass,” Foster said. “We had 24 inches in 24 hours.”

Foster credited the Department of Transportation with doing a good job of keeping the highway cleared, but advised motorists to be cautious.

“Obviously, drive for conditions, slow down and be prepared to slow down,” he said.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The Centralia man robbed over the weekend of marijuana he offered on Craigslist to “qualifying medical patients” tells police a story of grabbing the pistol that was used to strike him in the face as he sat in the backseat of the suspects’ car.

He said he fought them both to escape, jumping out of the car and landing in a puddle on East Van Buren Street, in a south Centralia residential neighborhood, according to charging documents.

Joshua Z. Smith, 28, told police he produced his own handgun from a shoulder holster and, because he feared the suspects would shoot at him, fired approximately four rounds striking the back of the vehicle before it sped away, according to charging documents.

Two teenage suspects from Tacoma went before a judge yesterday in Lewis County Superior Court. The pair were arrested later on Saturday for the robbery after a trooper followed their car into a Ross store parking lot in Lacey.

Their vehicle reportedly had several bullet holes in the right rear quarter panel.

Nobody was shot and police recovered four or five shell casings from the scene of Saturday’s events.

It’s not legal to sell marijuana under the newly enacted recreational use law, nor is it legal to sell it under the existing medical marijuana laws.

Centralia police this weekend weren’t focused on the sale, or exchange, of the drug, but on the armed robbery. Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Kjell Warner who is handling the case said he didn’t have any information about whether Smith is facing any potential charges.

“I’m not sure what we’re going to do with him at this point,” Warner said yesterday afternoon.

The teens, who are apparently cousins, are both students in the Tacoma area.

Yahdriel E. Jones, 18, is enrolled at Tacoma Community College, where is earning his GED, defense attorney Bob Schroeter told the judge as he argued for lower bail yesterday afternoon.

Howard E. Ross 19, is in his fourth quarter at Clover Park Technical School, Schroeter said.

Ross has two prior convictions for first-degree robbery, from 2009 when he was a teenager, according to Warner.

“He paid his debt to society in 2009,” Schroeter told the judge. “He made a mistake, a terrible mistake.”

Judge James Lawler increased Ross’s bail from $150,000 as it was set over the weekend to $500,000 at the prosecutor’s request. Bail was set at $300,000 for Jones.

The two young men are each charged with first-degree robbery, along with a special allegation they were armed with a firearm.

Ross’s mother was in court yesterday, prepared to sign the unsecured bond Schroeter requested.

Charging documents and police offer other details as follows:

Smith said he placed the ad online on Craigslist that he had “extra quality meds” up for donation. He listed the price at $125 per ounce.

Two males drove down from Tacoma to buy the marijuana from him and parked their white Hyundai Elantra on the street in front of his house.

He got in their car.

“The two suspects asked Smith how much weed he had, and Smith showed them what he brought out,” Warner writes. “The front seat passenger produced a large semi-automatic pistol and told Smith to give him all the weed.”

Smith hesitated.

That’s when he was hit in the face with the end of the gun.

Warner said police searched the car and recovered the weed, the gun and the cell phone the suspects allegedly took from Smith.

Centralia Police Department detective Sgt. Pat Fitzgerald didn’t have any information on Saturday if Smith was a qualified medical marijuana user or someone’s designated provider.

Arraignments for Jones and Ross will take place on Thursday.