Lewis County Sirens.com

The Lewis County coroner displayed the urns of the unclaimed dead for the news media in hopes a bit of publicity might turn up relatives.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Anyone out there missing a grandmother? A cousin? Maybe a great uncle?

More than a dozen individuals who have died with no family to claim them for burial remain in the custody of the Lewis County Coroner’s Office.

Over the past 14 years, each unclaimed person has been cremated, their ashes placed in a a temporary plastic urn or even just a cardboard box, and then shelved.

Many of them were older when they died, although David J. Robertson, for example, was just 48 when he passed away at a Centralia nursing home in June of 2010.

Two local men who passed away earlier this year are among them.

Some may have been estranged from their family, or simply had no living relatives, according to Coroner Warren McLeod.

“One gentleman we spoke to his neighbor, he said no, he doesn’t have any family,” McLeod said.

It’s been somewhat distressing to McLeod and employees at the coroner’s office that so many have not gotten a proper burial.

“It’s frustrating,” McLeod said. “I mean, these folks have been stored in the back store room.”

“You gotta figure somebody somewhere loves them,” he said.

When McLeod took over as elected coroner in January 2011, there were many unclaimed sets of cremated remains being stored in the office.

Last year, volunteers worked with the coroner to take the military veterans among them to be buried at Tahoma National Cemetery in Kent.

Since then, McLeod’s deputy coroners have checked and re-checked and found relatives of just a few.

Just last week, they matched up an urn containing a woman’s remains with her son who lives in Olympia, according to McLeod.

“When he was contacted, he said, oh, I thought someone else in the family took care of her,” McLeod said.

Five families have been found in the past several months, he said.

Now that virtually all avenues have been exhausted, the 16 remaining individuals will finally go to their final resting spot.

Claquato Cemetery west of Chehalis has donated a plot. A burial service is in the planning for next month.

The 16 urns will be placed in a shared concrete liner in a part of the cemetery known as the county section.

McLeod said he was told that’s where the county buried people who were unclaimed from the 1930s until the mid-1990s. He said he didn’t know why that practice ended.

Just in case in the future, a relative turns up who wants to retrieve their loved one, each urn will be sealed separately with a copy of the death certificate.

Their names won’t be engraved on any headstone, but the grave will be marked, and the cemetery will keep a listing as well as copies of the death certificates on file, according to McLeod.

The burial and a non-denominational memorial service is tentatively set for the week of Aug. 20.

If any of them do have a family member who wants to claim them, there is still time. The coroner thought publishing a list could possibly turn up more relatives.

Some of them still have friends in the area, just not family who could legally claim their bodies, according to the coroner’s office.

“Once we have the date, if people from the public want to come, they’re welcome,” McLeod said.

The following individuals are scheduled to be buried at Claquato:

• Lawrence T. Erickson, Centralia: 7-10-1915 to 5-4-1998

• Richard Farrell, Randle: 3-31-1943 to 10-26-1999

• Delores Fletcher, Centralia: 10-11-1928 to 3-24-2000

• Mary Katherine Gibson, Chehalis: 5-17-1936 to 3-31-2000

• Gladys Vivian Pitts, Centralia: 10-5-1915 to 10-6-2003

• Hiram Mahlon Coleman, Pe Ell: 7-22-1935 to 1-18-2004

• Edward M. Dombrowe, Chehalis: 4-22-1924 to 7-15-2004

• Harry Edwin Fields Jr., Chehalis: 8-25-1946 to 10-17-2004

• Stella Richardson, Centralia: 3-7-1928 to 8-12-2006

• Michael S. Edin, Centralia: 2-20-1944 to 10-5-2009

• David J. Robertson, Centralia: 6-7-1962 to 7-27-2010

• Eugene Briese, transient Chehalis area: 7-1-1943 to 12-6-2010

• Gary M. Ward, Centralia: 8-23-1961 to 6-15-2010

• William Dane, Centralia: 8-17-1942 to 3-1-2011

• Richard Fisher, Centralia: 12-16-1938 to 1-14-2012

• Curt Lynn Allison, aka Curtis Hughes, Curtis: 11-17-1950 to 4-7-2012

Updated

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

Aid was called this afternoon to a train versus vehicle collision near Tenino.

A family of four were in a pickup truck which was hit by an Amtrak passenger train just north of Tenino, according to responders.

Courtesy photo by WSP

Trooper Guy Gill says they are very lucky to be alive.

Three were injured. Two individuals were transported by medics with advanced life support capabilities and one person was transported with basic life support personnel, according to Thurston County Fire District 12.

It happened in the area of McDuff Road near 143rd Avenue Southeast, according to Fire Chief Robin Duncan. Gill described the location as McDuff Road and Fenton Avenue.

It was a 2004 Ford F-150.

The train struck the front area of the pickup, Gill said on Twitter. “Three feet the other way and we would be dealing with multiple fatalities right now.”

The trooper said the two adults and two children are going to be fine. The driver is Thomas G. Hertter, 52, of Olympia, according to Gill.

The train was traveling approximately 79 mph.

Duncan said he thought the call came around 2:45 p.m., but couldn’t be sure as the fire department had three calls at about the same time.

The town’s Oregon Trail Days celebration is going on this weekend.

Robert T. Hendrickson listens as his lawyer addresses a judge about the March holdups.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – It’s off to prison for a 23-year-old Centralia man whose short-lived bank robbery career included trying to hold up a credit union that keeps no cash in its drawers.

Robert T. Hendrickson admitted to making off with money from Chase Bank on South Market Boulevard the morning of March 17, and moments earlier attempting to do the same at the nearby Twin Star Credit Union.

When he asked for all the cash in the drawer there, an employee said there wasn’t any, but he could get some out of their ATM.

Hendrickson and the driver of the getaway car were captured less than 30 minutes later after a high speed chase and a wreck on Cooks Hill Road in Centralia. Hendrickson was taken to the ground by a police dog when he tried to run.

“This is extraordinarily uncharacteristic of his general demeanor,” his attorney told a judge. “My client has admitted a drug problem.”

Hendrickson pleaded guilty and was sentenced to five and a half years on Thursday in Lewis County Superior Court.

The charges included a bank robbery the night before in Olympia at a U.S. Bank branch inside a Safeway store.

Chehalis defense attorney Chris Baum said he worked with other lawyers to get the two cases combined for the plea agreement.

Baum suggested to Judge James Lawler in court on Thursday afternoon that his client was influenced by his partner.

“(Robert) Hughes sat in the car,” Baum said.

The attorney noted Hendrickson was never armed and never threatened anyone with a weapon.

Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Will Halstead recommended five and a half years, the middle of the standard sentencing range for the crimes.

Hendrickson, who has no previous felonies on his record, told Judge Lawler he’s going to use the time to change his life.

Hughes, 32, of Tenino, pleaded guilty last month and was sentenced to five years for the incidents in Lewis County. He faces more potential time for the Thurston County bank robbery, Halstead said.
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For background, read: “Foiled Chehalis bank heists lead to serious charges for local pair” from Monday March 19, 2012, here

Twin Star Credit Union was closed temporarily after an attempted robbery the morning of March 17.

Jeff Calcagno, his wife and grown sons stop briefly in Chehalis today after spending more than a week in an Olympia hospital.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Jeff Calcagno is tired, but he’s alive.

The 55-year-old Battleground resident finally left the hospital today, nine days after his heart stopped as he was passing by Winlock on Interstate 5.

Calcagno had been driving home from Kent, where one of his business’s four warehouses is located.

He doesn’t remember much at all about the entire day, but several local troopers, firefighters and medics likely won’t forget.

It was about 3:30 p.m. on July 18, when his Subaru Legacy twice drifted into a semi truck in the next lane, struck the inside concrete barrier and then veered off onto the right shoulder into a ditch.

Two passing motorists, both emergency room nurses from the Portland area, stopped, found him with no pulse and pulled him from his car to begin CPR.

Soon, they were joined by a sheriff’s deputy, trooper, paramedics from Lewis County Medic One and firefighters from Winlock and Napavine.

Resuscitation efforts continued on the shoulder of the freeway. Medics shocked him and administered drugs until his heart was beating again.

Calcagno was rushed in an ambulance to Providence Centralia Hospital, and then transferred to Providence St. Peter Hospital in Olympia with its specialized cardiac care.

Paramedic Clayton Skinner spoke of how unlikely that sort of outcome is, crediting the immediate CPR started by the nurses.

Lewis County Fire District 15 Assistant Chief Kevin Anderson noted how the nurses were in the right place at the right time for the patient.

Calcagno and his wife Pam Calcagno today said even the doctors teared up when they heard the story.

“The cardiologist said 95 percent of people don’t have that outcome,” Pam Calcagno said.

For the first few days, he was in an induced semi-coma state and then recovering, the couple said.

Their 25-year-old son Christopher flew home from where he was working in Afghanistan. Their 21-year-old son Nicholas came and the family stayed in Olympia.

The Calcagnos were told it was just a chance occurrence. His heart just went into an irregular rhythm and then stopped, they said. It was possibly a rare consequence of a heart attack he had a couple of years ago, according to Calcagno.

Yesterday, doctors installed a mini defibrillator in his chest. About the size of a pager, with wires, the device will “kick start” his heart if something happens again, the Calcagnos said.

“It’s like a little team of paramedics in his chest,” his wife said.

His heart is strong and healthy, she said. He did have six fractured ribs, but medical personnel at the hospital just called that “very effective CPR.”

Calcagno said he’s just beginning to realize what happened.

The family said there’s no words to express their gratitude for strangers who saved his life.

“We can’t say how much we appreciate these people and want to meet them,” Pam Calcagno said.

Her husband feels the same way.

“There’s amazing people out there,” Calcagno said. “You don’t know it till you’re on the other side of that coin.”

Nicholas said he plans on taking a CPR class now.

Assistant Fire Chief Anderson notes the incident should serve as a reminder to the critical role people can play in their communities if they are trained in CPR.

District 15 wants folks to know they can get more information about obtaining training in CPR and first aid, by contacting them at 360-785-4221.
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For background, read: “Passing nurses help revive driver whose heart stopped on Interstate 5” from Wednesday July 18, 2012, here

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – A judge this afternoon ordered a 24-year-old Winlock man held on $500,000 bail following his arrest for a sexual assault of an 8-year-old girl in a Mossyrock-area campground almost five years ago.

Reginald L. Juntunen was identified only late last month as a suspect through DNA, according to the Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office.

He was in Lewis County Superior Court yesterday on an unrelated matter when he was taken into custody.

Temporary defense attorney Bob Schroeter told the judge Juntunen is a graduate of Winlock High School and a life-long resident of the South Lewis County town.

Charging documents in the case allege the child was anally raped by a dark-skinned male wearing a hoodie and a stocking cap who forced her into the public restroom.

The girl, who is now 12, said she rode her bicycle to the nearby bathroom when she saw the man.

She said he told her he had a knife and to stop screaming, and he left in a yellowish car, according to the documents.

Deputies at the time collected a tissue the girl had wiped herself off with when she returned to the family’s motor home, the documents state.

On July 2, the sheriff’s office received a report from the   Washington State Patrol Crime Laboratory declaring a match with Juntunen.

Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Joely O’Rourke said his DNA would have been entered into the system from a previous felony.

Juntunen told detectives yesterday he’d been to the park camping with his family when he was nine years old and two years ago fishing with a friend, but not in 2007 when he was 19 years old.

“When asked by Detective Callas if he could explain how his DNA was recovered from semen found on a female child, Juntunen’s eyes got very large, he appeared to be in shock, and he simply said ‘no’,” charging documents state.

O’Rourke said she has not yet spoken with the victim, and doesn’t know where she is from.

Juntunen is charged with first-degree rape, first-degree rape of a child and  first-degree kidnapping with sexual motivation. Each offense carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.

The Winlock man is currently in Lewis County Drug Court, having entered in connection with a case in which he allegedly sold jewelry to a Centralia boutique that had been stolen in a February burglary in Winlock.

Yesterday he was in court to plead not guilty to burglary and theft related to a case in which he and another individual allegedly were involved in a May break-in at another Winlock residence and a stolen banjo and guitar were sold to a pawn shop.

He has a 2008 drug conviction.

Juntunen is represented by Chehalis attorney Chris Baum.

He will return to court next Thursday morning to make his plea in this new case.