Lewis County Sirens.com

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

Diana Howard’s security camera paid off as deputies arrested the man yesterday suspected of repeatedly pilfering food from the freezer in her Centralia-area garage.

Freezer burglar suspect

Four times in the past month, the 63-year-old discovered various items missing and last week set up a surveillance camera at her property on Old Highway 99 near 220th Avenue Southwest.

After it captured images of a man picking through her freezer over the weekend, Howard shared those photos with the news media and the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office.

The sheriff’s office yesterday morning received an anonymous email someone who said they recognized the man in the picture, sheriff’s Lt. Greg Elwin said.

Deputies compared the images with a photo of the person and yesterday morning arrested 46-year-old Darrell Normand, of Rochester for residential burglary, Elwin said.

Normand lives about a half mile from Howard’s house, he said.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer asked a judge today to issue a no-bail warrant for 22-year-old Steven Moulton of Morton.

Moulton is being held on $500,000 bail in a Cowlitz County sex-related offense, but Meyer wants to be certain if he is released, he will be brought to the Lewis County Jail.

Moulton has a pending case in Lewis County from last summer when he was found inside a park bathroom stall in Morton with an 8-year-old boy.

He was charged in November in that case, but authorities have been awaiting a competency evaluation to be conducted by Western State Hospital.

While he was free on a $25,000 signature bond, he allegedly attacked an 8-year-old boy in a ballpark restroom in Castle Rock.

Also, possible charges are pending in Thurston County for a June 27 incident at the Maytown rest area north of Centralia in which authorities say he groped and kissed a 9-year-old boy.

Meyer said Cowlitz County has requested a competency evaluation as well.

He told the judge he is amending the Lewis County request for an evaluation to reflect Moulton is currently incarcerated in Cowlitz County.

Moulton’s attorney in Lewis County noted that the lag time for Western State in getting those reviews done on subjects who are not in custody is six to nine months.
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Read “Breaking news: Morton’s Steve Moulton a suspect in a third bathroom assault” from Friday July 15, 2011, here

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – A trial expected this summer for a man who allegedly helped his father – a former Washington state trooper – carry out a suicide plan and make it look like homicide so the family could collect insurance money, has been postponed.

Kenneth R. Varner

The lawyer for Kenneth R. Varner said a judge today agreed to postpone the trial until the week of Sept. 12.

The father, 49-year-old James E. Varner of Olympia, was found dead with a gunshot inside his car on a forest road near Packwood in February 2006.

Kenneth Varner, now 34, has pleaded not guilty in Lewis County Superior Court.

Charging documents in the case offer suggestions the son retrieved the firearm from Packwood; it was found later in Mayfield Lake.

Authorities arranged in April for Kenneth Varner to be arrested in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico where he had been living.

Defense attorney Michael Underwood said the large volume of documents gathered in the investigation made it necessary to push out the date of the trial.
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Read “Bail $500,000: Son wanted for allegedly helping former trooper in suicide, fraud, arrested in Mexico” from  Thursday April 14, 2011, here

Read “Packwood-area death scene was tampered with, authorities say” from June 11, 2010, here

A baby owl is getting veterinary care after a deputy helped rescue it from a barbed wire fence near Toledo this morning. / Courtesy photo Lewis County Sheriff's Office

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – An owl rescued from a barbed wire fence earlier today in Toledo is getting bandaged up and awaiting transport, hopefully, to a specialty clinic in Eastern Washington.

A sheriff’s deputy was dispatched this morning to an owl caught in a barbed wire fence along Kangas Road about 8 o’clock this morning, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.

A citizen called 911 after seeing the young bird struggling to get loose, the sheriff’s office reported.

Sheriff’s detective Bruce Kimsey, with the help of a farmer who lives nearby, was able to extricate the owl from the wire, according to Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown.

Brown said the owl was handed over to a wildlife group in Chehalis.

The owners of the group, called We are One: Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation, hope to nurse it back to health so it can be returned to its own habitat as soon as possible, according to Brown.

Tammy Yuth, of We are One, said she is making arrangements to send the owl to the veterinary school at Washington State University in Pullman.

“He’ going to have to get a graft on his wing, he’s lost a lot of flesh,” Yuth said.

Yuth said he’s just a baby, born this spring.

He’s either a Barred Owl or a Spotted Owl, it’s hard to tell when they’re so young,” she said.

Yuth’s husband brought the bird to her workplace, Tumwater Veterinary Hospital, she said. He’s bandaged up and sitting in a kennel awaiting transport, she said this afternoon.

Yuth is a veterinary assistant there, but also operates a wildlife center in Chehalis, where she currently is rehabilitating numerous animals, including a baby beaver, a raccoon and variety of birds, she said.

Kimsey named the owl Orville.