By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
“You want to know what most nights are like for us?” a local firefighter asked this morning. “Google ‘My knee hurts now’.”
Watch “My knee hurts now” on YouTube
Bonus link: ‘My knee hurts now’
September 1st, 2011News brief: Centralia woman discovered unclothed, hypothermic along Interstate 5
September 1st, 2011Updated at 4:25 p.m.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
A young woman wearing only her underclothes was taken into the care of a truck driver who found her this morning when she crawled over a guard rail onto Interstate 5 where he was preparing to repair a flat tire, according to the Washington State Patrol.
The 23-year-old Centralia woman was hypothermic and taken to a hospital, according to Trooper Guy Gill. It’s not clear how she ended up alongside the freeway.
Gill said it happened near the Nisqually River Bridge at the Thurston-Pierce county line about 8:30 a.m.
According to Gill, she was soaking wet and covered from head to toe with cuts and scratches from sticker bushes. She emerged from a swampy area next to the freeway, according to Gill.
Gill said the truck driver’s actions may have saved her life.
Troopers later located an abandoned Jeep Cherokee at the end of a dirt road about 200 yards from the freeway, and believe she and a Centralia man had been in it, Gill said.
He thinks she could have been out in the elements at least eight hours.
The state patrol had gotten a report about 12:30 a.m. of a shirtless male walking on the freeway near that area, but never located him, even after using aircraft with a device that looks for heat signatures.
Troopers continue to look for the man, not because they think any crime was committed, Gill said. They suspect he was picked up by a passing motorist.
“More than anything, we’re checking on his well-being,” he said.
They don’t know if the vehicle broke down or maybe ran out of gas, and the female was not coherent enough to give much information, Gill said.
“She said the male left her at the vehicle, and the reason she was only in her underclothes is in the water, her clothes got heavy so she took them off,” he said.
The truck driver, John C. Davis of Portland, helped the girl into his truck, and drove to the state patrol “scale house” in Dupont, where he called the state patrol, according to Gill.
She was in very poor condition this morning, he said.
“She’s very lucky he came by ’cause she was not doing good,” Gill said. “This could have been much worse.”
In her condition, she could have easily walked right out onto the freeway, he said.
The woman was taken to St. Clare Hospital in Lakewood and the last Gill heard today, she was in good condition, he said.
Breaking news: Witnesses subpoenaed for Reynolds’ coroner’s inquest
August 31st, 2011Updated at 6:47 p.m.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – The preliminary witness list for the coroner’s inquest into the 1998 death of former Trooper Ronda Reynolds in Toledo was released today by Lewis County Coroner Warren McLeod.
Ronda Reynolds
Not on the list is former Lewis County Coroner Terry Wilson, but McLeod said in a news release any potential witnesses who have not yet been subpoenaed are not listed.
He expects the list to be complete by Sept. 9.
The inquest is currently scheduled for the second week in October, to be held in Lewis County District Court in Chehalis. McLeod will be the presiding officer.
Reynolds, 33, was found with a bullet in her head and covered by a turned-on electric blanket on the floor of a closet in the home she shared with her husband of less than a year, Ron Reynolds, in December 1998.
Among those McLeod has subpoenaed to testify are Ron Reynolds and his three sons who were present when the first sheriff’s deputy arrived, the deputies and detectives who examined the scene, and two of their superiors from the sheriff’s office.
Others include an outside former homicide detective who reviewed the case for the sheriff’s office and concluded it was a homicide, and two outside investigators who reviewed it after that and concurred with then-Sheriff John McCroskey that the determination of suicide was appropriate.
The case was the subject of a judicial review in Lewis County in November 2009 after which a panel of citizens concluded then-Coroner Wilson’s determination that Reynolds died of suicide was arbitrary, capricious and incorrect. A judge ordered Wilson to change the manner of death, but Wilson appealed.
One of McLeod’s first acts after he took office in January was to change Reynolds’ death certificate from suicide to undetermined and announce he wanted to hold a coroner’s inquest.
McLeod has said an inquest is an investigation, not a trial.
The coroner’s jury will consist of five individuals plus two alternates. They will be encouraged to reach a unanimous decision about the cause and manner of death, but will be permitted to make a determination by majority vote, according to the rules McLeod has adopted.
If they determine it to be homicide, they will be asked to determine whether by a preponderance of evidence they can identity the person or person’s responsible for the death.
If someone is named as causing the death, Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer has said he would have to decide what to do next. One of the RCWs states the coroner shall issue a warrant if the person committing the homicide is ascertained by the inquisition.
The inquest jury’s determinations are not binding, but McLeod has said he will abide by them.
The courtroom is expected to have seating for 60 persons, with as many as 20 allocated for the news media.
The witness names are as follows:
• Gary Holt – retired Lewis County sheriff’s deputy
• Robert Bishop – former Lewis County sheriff’s deputy
• Dave Neiser – retired Lewis County sheriff’s detective
• Jerry Berry – retired Lewis County sheriff’s detective
• Joe Doench – retired Lewis County sheriff’s chief criminal deputy
• Glade Austin – retired Lewis County sheriff’s detective’s sergeant
• Steve Aust – Lewis County Sheriff’s Office commander
• Carmen Brunton – former Lewis County coroner’s chief deputy
• Laurie Hull – friend
• David Bell – friend
• Ron Reynolds – husband of decedent
• Joshua Reynolds – son of Ron Reynolds
• David Reynolds – son of Ron Reynolds
• Jonathan Reynolds – son of Ron Reynolds
• Tom Lahmman – former Toledo School District superintendent
• Kathryn Hatulla (sp) – Ron Reynolds’ ex-wife
• Dr. Daniel Selove – forensic pathologist
• Barbara Thompson – decedent’s mother
• Marty Hayes – firearms examination
• Mark Liburdi – decedent’s ex-husband
• Richard Underwood – polygraph expert
• Terry Ball – polygraph expert
• Steve Birley – polygraph review
• Joe Upton – handwriting examiner
• Vernon Geberth – consulted
• Rod Englert – consulted
• Raymond Pierce – consulted
• George Fox – former Attorney General’s Office investigator
• Richard Steiner – former Attorney General’s Office investigator
• Gary Aschenbach – forensic statement analyst
• David Stritzke – Washington State Patrol crime lab
• Matthew Noedel – Washington State Patrol crime lab
• Kenneth McDermott – Washington State Patrol crime lab
• Ronald Wojciechowski – Washington State Patrol crime lab
• Raymond Kusumi – Washington State Patrol crime lab
• Jill Bartlett – Washington State Patrol fingerprint division
•••
See the rules governing the procedures for McLeod’s coroner’s inquest, here
•••
For some background and to see the roles some of the above individuals may have played, read “Jury finds coroner erred in ruling former trooper’s death a suicide”, here
Centralia man realizes piece of “junk” in garage is pipe bomb
August 31st, 2011By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CENTRALIA – A small object at a Centralia residence that its owner thought looked like a pipe bomb, was a pipe bomb.
Police were called about 9:40 a.m. today to a house on the 1300 block of Crescent Avenue in the north end of town, and summoned a bomb squad from the Washington State Patrol.
Law enforcement was there for two to three hours, eventually taking the item into his backyard and detonating it, home owner Robert Knutz said.
Nobody was hurt and nobody was in too much danger, according to Centralia police.
It was a working pipe bomb, Officer John Panco said.
It’s a mystery who built it or who it belonged to; and, according to Panco, not one that’s likely to be solved.
It was amongst a box of junk given to Knutz by a friend who cleaned out a house at the Greenwood Cemetery along Van Wormer Street in Centralia, Knutz said.
The rental house is owned by cemetery owner John Baker, but has been in the possession of the woman he assigned to take care of the properties while he was in prison.
Knutz said he put it in his garage weeks ago, and didn’t look closely at it until last night.
That’s when he noticed a fuse, he said.
Panco described it as about three-quarters of an inch in diameter and about two and a half inches long.
Panco this afternoon said he was told by the investigating officer there have been so many people in an out of the Van Wormer house, they didn’t expect to be able to pin down the pipe bomb’s owner.
Police would like to know why someone had a bomb, he said, but at this point they don’t know.
News brief: Locals travel to Eastern Wash. to battle wild land fires
August 31st, 2011By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
Local firefighters have gone to assist in fighting wildfires in Eastern Washington.
Two members of Lewis County Fire District 5 were asked early Monday morning to take their brush truck and join a strike team in the southeast corner of the state where lightening started a large fire on Sunday evening.
They are Raymond Smerek and Kevin Van Egdom, according to District 5.
As of last night, the fire near Pomeroy in Garfield County had spread over almost 6,000 acres but is expected to be contained by the end of today, according to the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center.
On Monday evening, District 5’s Brad Bozarth was assigned to a water tender as part of a team headed to Wishram in Klickitat County, according to Megan Van Egdom of District 5.
That fire as of yesterday evening had consumed more than 1,000 acres of grass and sage and firefighters there are expected to be in “mop up” mode today, according to the Coordination Center.
Firefighters from the Rochester area’s West Thurston Regional Fire Authority left on Monday as well to assist. Four members of the Toledo area fire department have also gone.
The center reports about 300 firefighters are working the two wild land fires.
Read about Grays Harbor County deputy accused of sexual extortion …
August 31st, 2011By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
King5.com reports the operator of a now-closed Oakville medical marijuana dispensary has filed suit, claiming a Grays Harbor County sheriff’s deputy threatened to arrest him if he didn’t provide the deputy sexual favors.
News reporter Drew Mikkelsen reports the lawsuit was filed Monday in Grays Harbor County and outside agency – Lewis County – is investigating the claims.
Read about it here
Kirotv.com has a story as well, here
Sharyn’s Sirens: Daily police and fire roundup
August 30th, 2011THEFT
• A computer, a radio and pain medication were reported taken in a burglary at a residence on the 2400 block of North Pearl Street, according to Centralia police. The break-in was reported about 1:50 p.m. yesterday.
• A 28-year-old Centralia man was arrested yesterday for theft and trafficking in stolen property for allegedly stealing an unassembled metal shed from his father’s shed and selling it a recycler, according to Centralia police. The discovery of the missing item from the 400 block of Hemlock Street was reported to police yesterday morning. The loss is estimated at $300, Officer John Panco said. Wesley W. Mitchem was booked into the Lewis County Jail, according to the Centralia Police Department.
• A car sitting in a driveway on the 700 block of West Reynolds Avenue in Centralia yesterday and checked by a police officer there on another matter turned out to be stolen, according to the Centralia Police Department. It was an El Camino previously reported to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office as stolen, according to police. The resident told the officer someone had left it there, Officer John Panco said.
• The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office reported this morning deputies have learned the names of local youngsters suspected in a break-in to a Mossyrock area concession stand, that was hit twice in the same week. Sometime on Aug. 14 or 15, someone went inside the stand on the 200 block of Ajlune Road and stole candy and Monster energy drinks, according to the sheriff’s office. A window was replaced and then on Aug 19, it happened again, according to Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown. This time money and firewood were missing, as well as snacks, according to Brown. The investigation continues, Brown said.
BRUSH IGNITES ALONG INTERSTATE 5
• Firefighters from three departments extinguished several brush fires that broke out on the northbound shoulder of Interstate 5 south of Winlock yesterday afternoon. One of the fires had grown to about 60 feet long, according to Lewis County Fire District 2. Chief Grant Wiltbank said he believed they were probably caused accidentally, likely by something such as a vehicle dragging a chain and throwing sparks.
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