Lewis County Sirens.com

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – A judge agreed today a Centralia woman accused of killing her premature newborn should be evaluated by doctors from the state psychiatric hospital.

Laura Lynn Hickey, 24, made a brief appearance this afternoon in Lewis County Superior Court. She is charged with first-degree murder.

Laura Lynn Hickey

Prosecutors allege Hickey – who was about halfway through her pregnancy – used a serrated knife to cut off her baby’s head  as it was trying to take a breath after she unexpectedly delivered it into a toilet two weeks ago.

She told police she didn’t think it was going to live and she didn’t want it to suffer.

Defense attorney Ken Johnson made the request for an evaluation from Western State Hospital.

They’ll look into issues of competency, insanity and diminished capacity, he said.

“In cases like this, you certainly want to look at potential defenses,” Johnson said. “Also the facts in this case, that are unusual, may indicate a mental issue.”

Hickey lived in a fifth-wheel trailer at the Peppertree Motor Inn and RV Park in Centralia. According to the attorney who represented her for her first court appearance, she has no income and no assets.

Hickey reportedly told police she used methamphetamine two days before the incident and had been awake since then. She has previous misdemeanor convictions for theft, vehicle prowl and trespass.

Charging documents indicate an emergency room doctor estimated she was about 21 weeks along in her pregnancy when he examined Hickey after what she initially said was a miscarriage.

Preliminary findings from the autopsy indicated the fetus was born alive and was viable, according to charging documents.

Whether a fetus at that stage of development can survive outside its mother’s womb is an issue that will come up in this case, Johnson said today.

Hickey has three children who were previously put into foster care by the state.

Last May, her 5-year-old and her 2-year-old were taken out of her home and in July, when she gave birth to her third child, it too was taken, according to a spokesperson for the state Children’s Administration.

Sherry Hill, communications director for the state agency, said she can’t disclose the reasons for the removals, however, she said the law provides for such action when a child is abused, neglected or no parent is capable or caring for it.

Hickey remains in the Lewis County Jail, held on $1 million bail.

She is expected to return to court on April 7.

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Read “Mother charged with killing newborn, held on $1 million bail” from Friday March 11, 2011, here

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The Lewis County Coroner’s Office concluded the deaths of the Winlock father and son were homicide and the mother shot herself.

Each of the three died of penetrating gunshots to the head, according to Coroner Warren McLeod.

His finding followed today’s autopsies.

Rodney Walter, 57, Cathy Lee Walter, 65, Devon Walter, 18, their three dogs and a cat were found shot dead on Tuesday night at their home on the 300 block of Frost Road. They were last heard from on Sunday.

McLeod, in a brief interview, said his reason for the determination was because that’s what the pathologist – who conducted the autopsies – said happened.

Lewis County Sheriff Steve Mansfield said the announcement by the coroner doesn’t mean he expects to release any further information about their investigation today.

Still not revealed is if there was a suicide note or what kind of firearm was found.

“I’m not saying anything about that now,” Mansfield said. “We’ve still got several things to do and look at.”

Rodney Walter was a truck driver, and the family moved into the two-story log cabin six or seven years, according to neighbors.

Mansfield indicated yesterday solid ideas about what prompted the double-murder suicide were few. Detectives continue to look for a motive, he said.

“Why did this happen, we’re still working on this,” he said this afternoon. “We’ve got a little ways to go.”

Update: The sheriff’s office said in a news release on Friday morning, March 18, they believe there are no other participants in the shooting beyond the three individuals who are dead.
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For more, scroll down to this morning’s news story, or click here

A husband, wife and their 18-year-old son were found dead of apparent gunshots.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

WINLOCK – The three members of the Walter family who authorities believe died as a result of a murder-suicide were considered  thoughtful neighbors who somewhat kept to themselves and weren’t familiar to law enforcement until Tuesday night’s discovery at their Winlock-area home.

Rodney Walter, 57, Cathy Lee Walter, 65 and their 18-year-old son Devon Walter, along with their family pets, were found dead of apparent gunshots at their two-story log cabin on the 300 block of Frost Road.

An adult daughter from Tacoma who normally spoke or texted with her mother daily drove to the house when she hadn’t heard from her mother after a couple of days, Lewis County Sheriff’s Steve Mansfield said yesterday.

Mansfield said he had no idea what might have sparked the tragedy, and neither did the daughter.

“They seemed to be a family that kept in contact with each other,” he said.

It wasn’t a home known to the sheriff’s office as a drug house or an address they went to for domestic violence calls or anything like that, Mansfield said.

“That’s what’s so strange about this,” he said. “They were not even on our radar as a family with problems.”

The sheriff’s office has not said which one of the three they think fired the shots, although by yesterday afternoon, they had a “very good idea” of who they think it was, Mansfield said.

“We’ve got several other pieces of this put together, but nothing we can share at this point,” the sheriff said.

Neighbor Dave Boyer said yesterday he thought they’d lived on the gravel road six or seven years, a place where the next house might be a quarter of a mile away.

“They were alright, they were nice people,” Boyer said. “They’d wave and say hi.”

Rodney Walter had a small trucking company. His loaded rig was parked near the family’s home, leading Boyer and his friend Marty Russell to speculate about who did or didn’t pulled the trigger.

“One and one adds up to two,” Boyer said. “He was leaving on a run, why would he have a load on his truck?”

The home sits in a rural area of the county east of Interstate 5 and not far from Lewis and Clark State Park.

An American flag flew from the porch and tie-died curtains covered an upstairs window of the vacant house yesterday afternoon. A small sign in front noted the property was certified wildlife habitat.

Cathy Walter had a duck pond, according to neighbors and goats in the back which – unlike the three dogs and cat – were not shot dead, Boyer pointed out.

Devon Walter was remembered as a “little feisty” by Boyer. “To the best of my knowledge, he didn’t go to public school,” he said.

Devon Walter was briefly a student in the Toledo School District, a long time ago, according to the district superintendent.

“The system doesn’t show he was enrolled anywhere in the state,” Superintendent Sharon Bower said yesterday. “I don’t know if he was enrolled in another state, or what.”

The young man attended for three weeks in 2003, when he would have been in middle school, Bower said.

Neighbor Tim Sweeney recalled Devon when he was younger coming to his place and asking if he could do work for him.

While he didn’t know them well, the Walters were the kind of neighbors who help each other, Sweeney said.

He recounted a time when his truck broke down and Rodney Walter stopped, crawled under it and got it going for him. He laughed when remembered a day when Cathy Walter asked for help in rounding up her ducks.

“They stayed to themselves,” Sweeney said, adding that many of those who reside on the hill live that way.

Autopsies were scheduled to take place this morning.

Lewis County Coroner Warren McLeod said however, he didn’t expect any surprises.

McLeod released the names this morning, noting the official identification of the victims is pending signatures from family members.

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Read “Winlock family and pets shot dead in suspected murder-suicide” from Wednesday March 16, 2011, here

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – An undivulged number of staff members at Green Hill School have been reassigned during an investigation into the November escape of a 16-year-old inmate.

Chehalis police were told the boy was last checked on at about 5 a.m. on Nov. 8 and discovered missing from his room about 6:30 a.m.

After he was captured, however, the youth told detectives he had climbed out his window about 10:15 p.m. the night before, taken wire cutters from an unlocked building and fled through a hole he cut in the fence, according to charging documents.

The now-17-year-old boy is set to be arraigned this week on first-degree escape and other charges following the November incident at the state juvenile detention facility in south Chehalis.

Michael A. Lavallie was incarcerated at Green Hill for possession of a stolen vehicle and attempting to elude a police vehicle.

Normal procedures are for head counts to be done hourly, according to Criss Stewart, a manager at Green Hill.

Green Hill Superintendent Marybeth Queral said yesterday she requested an outside investigation to see if there were policy violations and at what level.

“Those are the facts being investigated; when did he leave, when was he checked on, who was responsible,” Queral said.

The Washington State Patrol is conducting the investigation, she said.

Lavallie was picked up in Yelm three weeks after he escaped and remains at Green Hill. He was set to be released in July of next year, according to the Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office.

Last week, he was charged as an adult in Lewis County Superior Court.

Charging documents in his case say he told Chehalis police detectives he dug the rubber out from around his cell window with his comb and pencil and shook the metal bars until the screws were loose enough he could remove them.

He was in the “Hawthorne” unit.

Lavallie said he first tried to use a rake he found to help him climb over the fence but when that didn’t work, went to the vocational shop building and got two pairs of wire cutters, according to the charging documents.

Police, deputies and troopers who converged on the neighborhood discovered an Isuzu Trooper had been stolen from the 300 block of Chehalis Avenue. The youth allegedly told police he dumped the vehicle in Rainier because it was having transmission troubles. He then went to stay with his father on Hobby Street, according to charging documents.

Lavallie has previous addresses from places such as Tenino, Rainier, Olympia and Roy, according to Chehalis police.

He was captured on Nov. 29 by a Thurston County sheriff’s deputy who followed a vehicle in Yelm which was registered the boy’s sister.

Lavallie is also charged with theft of a motor vehicle, second-degree burglary, third-degree theft and third-degree malicious mischief.

Green Hill School is a medium and maximum secure facility for older juvenile boys incarcerated for felonies and operated by the Juvenile Rehabilitation Administration, under the state Department of Social and Health Services.

It sits on some 45 acres between Interstate 5 and Southwest Pacific Avenue north of Southwest Parkland Street. It currently holds about 182 residents and employes about 250 people.

Queral became its superintendent in the fall of 2007 and about a year ago, was made the superintendent also of Maple Lane School in Grand Mound.

Queral said she couldn’t speak to the specifics about the incident during the active administrative investigation, and said she didn’t know when it would be completed.

Depending on the results, she will probably conduct an internal investigation afterward, she said.

She declined to say how many employees were reassigned because of the escape, only that it is more than one.

The last escape from Green Hill was in early 2003 when two residents were apprehended in the area within less than an hour after climbing over the razor-wired fence.

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Read “Search for Green Hill escapee moves into south Thurston County” from Monday Nov. 8, 2010, here

Read “Green Hill escapee picked up near Yelm” from Tuesday Nov. 30, 2010, here