Lewis County Sirens.com

Kia Sephia at milepost 39 on Interstate 5 at Kelso. / Courtesy photo by David Jackson

Updated at 10:25 p.m.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

A pursuit by numerous police agencies through Lewis County this afternoon ended with two males – wanted in connection with an Olympia homicide – taken into custody near Kelso.

Winlock Police Department Officer Steve Miller was on the Park Road overpass at Interstate 5 when he spotted the suspect vehicle eastbound on Park Road, according to Winlock Police Chief Terry Williams. It was about 2:45 p.m.

Olympia police detectives had asked for assistance in locating the subjects in the Winlock area, Williams said.

A pursuit ensued through various county roads at speeds at times in excess of 95 mph, maybe into triple-digits, according to Williams.

Miller was joined in the chase by Toledo police and deputies from both Lewis and Cowlitz counties, the chief said.

Williams said the occupants of the stolen car were throwing full pop cans and several lit firework-like items at their pursuers. He said they were an unknown type of incendiary device, possibly mortars.

The chase wound onto Jackson Highway and through Toledo and eventually back to Interstate 5 at exit 57 where Officer Miller conducted a so-called PIT maneuver, but the car recovered and continued on, according to Williams.

The car continued south on Interstate 5 where troopers and police from Castle Rock and Kelso joined in until the car lost control and wrecked, William’s said.

Doty resident Sharyl King Quinn said she was passing through Castle Rock headed home when she saw a dozen police vehicles “flying” southbound with lights and sirens.

The chief said it was either because of spike strips set out to stop them or attempting to avoid the strips that caused the crash.

The wanted subjects were taken into custody, Williams said.

The Olympian newspaper reported detectives were after a person interest in Friday’s homicide at an apartment on Lilly Road in Olympia.

Olympian news reporter Lisa Pemberton wrote earlier this evening the chase initially began near Centralia and ended with the crash that shut down Interstate 5 near near the Three Rivers Mall in Kelso this afternoon.

The Longview Daily News reported the two occupants were 21-year-olds and that nobody was injured.

Update: from The Olympian on Monday March 12, 2012 at 5:27 p.m.: News reporter Jeremy Pawloski writes the two 20-year-olds were in Thurston County Superior Court today in connection with the stabbing death of a 29-year-old Joint Base Lewis-McChord soldier.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Joshua Leroy Vance was a Centralia College student who got straight “A”s last semester and earlier this week he cut his own hand so severely, he was taken to a Seattle trauma hospital to save his fingers.

Vance, 25, is in the Lewis County Jail today, because according to prosecutors, that same night he also cut the throat of his sleeping father and stabbed him at least 11 times.

Joshua Leroy Vance

Terry Vance, 58, was found dead on his bedroom floor early Wednesday morning after family members awoke to screaming.

Joshua Vance, his father and 11-year-old nephew lived together in his grandmother’s Onalaska home.

Family members say he was prone to violent outbursts, his mental health issues so serious, he could not work and collected social security disability payments instead.

His grandmother Bonnie Vance said he’d been off his medication since last weekend.

“Each day he was off of it, I could see him deteriorating and going back to the way he was before,” she said.

“He could be very abusive and erratic,” she said. “And then he would come to and he would be pretty good. For awhile.”

“And then something would happen and … It’s been bad,” she said.

“And when he was good, he was such a good young man,” she said.

Terry Vance

Deputies were called about 2:45 a.m. on Wednesday to a mobile home on the 400 block of Pennel Avenue in Onalaksa when Joshua Vance called 911 and said he killed his father.

According to charging documents, his grandmother confronted him in the hallway, he dropped a knife and ran outside.

Eleven-year-old Thomas Flood told deputies he followed, to warn his Uncle Larry Vance who lives in an adjacent travel trailer.

Thomas said he heard Joshua say, “I killed my father and I slit my throat so somebody come help me because I will die in about five seconds,” charging documents state.

The child said he ran back inside and hid.

Both Bonnie and Joshua Vance had reportedly called 911.

When deputies arrived, they had firefighters tend to Joshua Vance’s cut hands.

It was self-inflicted laceration to the fingers on his right hand, according to Lewis County Fire District 1 Chief Mark Conner who treated him.

“He said he did it to make himself stop,” Conner said.

Prosecutors described the injuries as severe and wrote that he cut his hand on the knife while stabbing his father.

When Deputy Matt McKnight videotaped him before he was taken to the hospital to save his fingers, Joshua Vance told him he was going to kill everyone else on the property, but he couldn’t because he cut his hand, according to charging documents.

Charging documents also say his grandmother saw him a few hours earlier, pulling kitchen knives out of their cutting block and checking their sharpness.

Joshua Vance was charged today with first-degree murder and three counts of attempted first-degree murder.

Lewis County Superior Court Judge Nelson Hunt ordered him held on $1 million bail.

He sat quietly, shackled with a large bandage on his right hand.

Deputy Prosecutor Joely Yeager said the cruel and heinous act showed he was extremely dangerous to the community.

Defense attorney Bob Schroeter said the case showed Joshua Vance has significant documented mental health needs that have not been met.

Bonnie Vance says her grandson has had issues for years.

“His (treatment providers) were in the process of changing his medicine,” she said. “Because of the cost of it; he evidently didn’t have it for a few days.”

The uncle, Larry Vance, was in the courtroom this afternoon, and afterward, said he saw something bad coming as well. But not this.

“I don’t know what to say, it’s like a nightmare I can’t wake up from,” he said.

His biggest question is, why? he said.

Larry Vance commented that just a few days previous he asked his nephew why he wasn’t at school.

“He said he had the flu, it was finals week and he was going to flunk all his classes,” he said.

It was odd, because he got such good grades the previous semester, he said.

Larry Vance said he warned his mother a few days ago, his nephew was “turning into a Hyde again.”

He said his mother and the family have bent over backwards to help his nephew.

Bonnie Vance didn’t talk about herself, in a brief interview yesterday. She spoke of her children and grandchildren.

The 78-year-old raised her family on the block near the school and across from the ball field since about 1970.

Terry Vance and her two younger sons all attended Onalaska schools, as did her grandson, though he also attended Centralia High School too, she said.

Terry Vance played, coached and refereed baseball for years, she said.

“He dearly loved his grandkids, fishing and his games,” she said.

Her two adult sons stayed with her to take care of her, she said. “I had cancer, I’m okay now,” she said.

Joshua Vance was given a court-appointed attorney. His arraignment is scheduled for March 22.
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Family friend Cindy Hanson says a group of Onalaskans are getting a work party together, to brighten up Bonnie Vance’s home – do a little renovation like the carpets, and maybe plant a garden, she said.

“Just trying to be supportive,” Hanson said.

Donation can be dropped off at Brenda’s Country Market, she said.

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Read “Coroner’s office names Terry Vance as victim in Onalaska home” from Wednesday March 7, 2012 at 7:53 p.m., here