By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
The Olympian reports a Thurston County Sheriff’s Office K9 bit a police officer in the groin during an attempt to apprehend a burglary suspect.
Read news reporter Jeremy Pawloski’s story here
Read about police dog bites police man in groin in Thurston County …
November 19th, 2010News brief: Springtime trial set for one defendant in triple homicide
November 18th, 2010By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – A trial date was finally set for murder suspect Ryan McCarthy.
McCarthy, 29, is charged is charged with John Allen Booth Jr. in August’s triple homicide in the Salkum-Onalaska area. Both men have pleaded not guilty and remain in the Lewis County Jail.
Ryan J. McCarthy
The defendant, his lawyer Olympia defense attorney Rick Cordes and Deputy Prosecutor Brad Meagher met briefly before a judge this afternoon in Lewis County Superior Court in Chehalis.
McCarthy’s trial was scheduled for the week of April 18.
The two men are charged with murder and extortion in connection with the gunshot deaths on Aug. 21 of David J. West Sr. 52, his son David J. West Jr., 16, and Tony E. Williams, 50, of Randle, at the West’s Onalaska area home. Booth is also charged with attempted murder of 51-year-old Denise Salts who lived in the home.
Two of the counts against Booth are for aggravated first-degree murder, potentially putting the death penalty on the table. A trial date has not yet been set for him.
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Read most recent news story about Booth here
Read most recent story about McCarthy here
News brief: Morton homicide suspect pleads not guilty
November 18th, 2010By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – The 20-year-old accused of killing Morton teenager Austin King pleaded not guilty today in Lewis County Superior Court.
Jack A. Silverthorne
Jack Arnold Silverthorne, of Renton, was charged last week with first-degree murder and remains held on $2 million bail.
The 16-year-old vanished from his family’s home in the Tilton River Mobile Home Park early on June 23 and was the subject of a month-long search headed up by volunteers. His body was found some 10 miles away off a logging road outside Morton. His skull was cracked.
Authorities believe Silverthorne took Austin up into the woods after a birthday party at Austin’s family home the night of June 22, and his motive was related to an attraction to a girl, the mother of Austin’s child, according to charging documents.
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Read more about the case in “Morton homicide: Suspect had broken hand, victim had cracked skull” from Wednesday Nov. 10, 2010 by clicking here
Sharyn’s Sirens: Daily police and fire roundup
November 18th, 2010CENTRALIA HOUSE FIRE
• A fire broke out this morning in a house on the 1100 block Centralia College Boulevard causing an estimated $70,000 or $80,000 damage. The two-story home looks fine on the outside but the upstairs sustained fire and smoke damage, and water damage – both from fire hoses and plumbing that burst – is an issue, according to Riverside Fire Authority Capt. Tim Adolphsen. Firefighters, called about 10:40 a.m., found fire in the attic space, Adolphsen said. The cause isn’t yet known, he said.
BURGLARY
• Centralia police were called just before 8 a.m. yesterday about a burglary at a business on the 300 block of Harrison Avenue in which someone broke a window and stole stamps off a windowsill.
VANDALISM
• Police were called to the 300 block of North Oak Street in Centralia yesterday about a rock thrown through a car window.
SEXUAL MISCONDUCT ARREST
• Thomas Allen Reeves, 39, of Centralia, was arrested yesterday for allegedly engaging in sex with a patient at a drug rehabilitation center in Chehalis. The patient is a 27-year-old female from Tacoma, according to the Chehalis Police Department. Chehalis police, and prosecutors this afternoon, said he works at American Behavioral Health. The charge of custodial sexual misconduct comes because since patients, or clients, of ABH are required by the state Department of Corrections to be there, a sexual relationship between an employee and patient is custodial sexual misconduct, according to police and prosecutors. Bail was set for Reeves, a care team member at ABH, at $25,000. Reeves was charged in Lewis County Superior Court this afternoon and his defense attorney Bob Schroeter told the judge Reeves is employed by a construction company. Deputy Prosecutor Colin Hayes said he didn’t know anything about the defendant working for a construction company.
Retired sheriff says high interest could help solve Ronda Reynolds case
November 18th, 2010
More than an hour after author Ann Rule's presentation on her book "In the Still of the Night" the line to get it signed reached the top of Centralia College's Corbet Theater
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CENTRALIA – Corbet Theater at Centralia College was filled to capacity with folks who wanted to hear true crime writer Ann Rule speak on her new book about the Ronda Reynolds’ case last night and dozens more were turned away.
Rule, the Seattle-based author, was joined on stage by Barb Thompson, the mother of the former trooper who was found with a bullet in her head on the floor of a walk-in closet inside her Toledo home in 1998.
“Something seemed hinky to me,” said Rule, as she shared the curiosities that led her to explore the suspicious death.
While she normally doesn’t write about cases without a criminal trial and a conviction to structure her story around, Rule made an exception, according to Thompson.
A civil case a year ago in Lewis County Superior Court ended with a panel of 12 citizens concluding that the coroner’s determination the 33-year-old committed suicide was wrong, as well as arbitrary and capricious.
Thompson, who lives in Spokane, told of her efforts through the years to get the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office and the Lewis County Coroner’s Office to give her answers about her daughter’s death and why she finally turned to the courts for a review.
While a judge ordered elected Coroner Terry Wilson to change the death certificate, he has appealed that, Thompson said.
What happens with the appeal, however, may be moot, Rule said.
“Because he won’t be in office in January, you’ll have a new coroner,” she said.
Her pronouncement was followed with heavy applause and some cheers from the audience of more than 500 attendees.
The draw was so large and so close geographically to the heart of Rule’s story, an off duty officer kept close to the two women throughout the evening.
Rule, whose writing career began penning stories for detective magazines under the pseudonym Andy Stack, offered her twist on the case.
“I don’t think the main suspect in this case is who everybody thinks it is,” Rule told the crowd.
“I put forward in the book anywhere from nine to 12 possible suspects,” she said.
New information in the book tells of an individual who revealed to former Lewis County detective Jerry Berry earlier this year that he and several friends of Ron Reynolds’ sons were partying at the house that night, and that Ron Reynolds wasn’t there.
Berry turned his information over to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office who interviewed him, according to Rule’s book. The detectives concluded he was too “wishy-washy” to be believable, Rule wrote.
Much of the evening was questions and answers. Audience members had several.
Can the prosecutor do anything to insist the sheriff’s office reopen the case? Can you not go all the way up to the FBI?
Why would someone killing themselves bother to cover their face with a pillow?
What time were the crime scene photos taken? Why are there different accounts of where the gun was found?
Rule told the gathering there is a reward for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of someone who carried out a plan to murder Ronda Reynolds.
Retired Lewis County Sheriff Bill Logan didn’t have a question, but offered advice to the crowd.
“I’m familiar with these kinds of cases,” said Logan whose two terms as sheriff ended in January 1995.
“The sheriff’s people are not magicians, they don’t have any magic to solve these things,” he said.
Sometimes the only way it happens is if someone talks, he said.
With so many in the room so interested in the case, something good could come out of the renewed attention, according to Logan.
He urged those in the theater, if they know someone who may know something, to encourage them to talk.
“Sometimes it takes awhile,” Logan said. “With your help, maybe we can get this thing figured out.”
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“In the Still of the Night: The strange death of Ronda Reynolds and her mother’s unceasing quest for the truth” went on sale early last month.
Read my story about the five days in court last November after which “Jury finds coroner erred in ruling former troopers death a suicide” here
Ann Rule, left, and Barb Thompson sign copies of Rule's book about Ronda Reynolds death
News Brief: Check of state roads and bridges after quake finds no damage
November 18th, 2010By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – State highways and bridges in Lewis County were undamaged by Tuesday’s earthquake near Mossyrock, according to the Washington State Department of Transportation.
Engineers and maintenance staff paired up Tuesday and drove the roads after the 4.2 magnitude quake, a DOT spokesperson said yesterday. On U.S. Highway 12, the Mayfield Bridge over the Cowlitz River at milepost 82 and the Twin Canyon Creek Bridge at milepost 89.5 got special attention, according to spokesperson Heidi Sause.
“They went out and checked every state route in the county and checked every structure and everything was good,” Sause said.
Similar checks were conducted on state highway infrastructure in the region to the north of Lewis County as well and no damage was found, according to DOT.
Sharyn’s Sirens: Daily police and fire roundup
November 17th, 2010GANG OF TEENS THREATENS BOISTFORT TEEN
• An 18-year-old male armed himself with a rifle and fired at a car yesterday after seven individuals reportedly came to his house in the Boistfort area and threatened to kill him. Deputies called about 1 p.m. were told one of the suspects kicked open the front door at the 2400 block of Pe Ell-McDonald Road, prompting the 18-year-old to fire several shots with a .22 rifle at their vehicle, some of them hitting the rear window, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. The subjects left. Deputies found the car on state Route 6 and detained them, arresting six teenagers. Booked into the Lewis County Jail for felony harassment were Cody J. Snider, 19, Christopher B. Arkell, 19, both from Chehalis and Megan M. Striefel, 18, of Salkum. The juveniles arrested were from Chehalis. They are two 17-year-old males and a 14-year-old girl. Lewis County sheriff’s Cmdr. Steve Aust said they were still sorting out the motive, but it was related to a disagreement about one of the males dating a girl who is the ex-girlfriend of the victim.
LOST FISHERMAN
• A man who got separated from his fishing partner outside of Cinebar was found cold, nauseous and exhausted early Tuesday morning. A deputy had been called about 11:40 p.m. on Monday about the missing man by his partner, from a gas station in Onalaska, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. Few details were available, but the man apparently walked out and was met by aid about 1:30 a.m. on Tuesday near Forest Road 71 off of state Route 508.
THEFTS
• Centralia police were called just before 7 p.m. Tuesday about a burglary at a residence on the 1100 block of West Chestnut Street, where “several items” were taken.
• Centralia police reported yesterday they are investigating a burglary on the 100 block of Virginia Drive that was reported on Monday.
MARIJUANA AT MIDDLE SCHOOL
• Centralia police reported a juvenile was arrested for possession of marijuana yesterday by the school resource officer on the 900 block of Johnson Road, Centralia Middle School. The age and sex of the individual was not revealed, nor the amount of the drug in question.
CAR PROWL
• Centralia police were called yesterday morning to a vehicle prowl on the 500 block of North Rock Street in which a car window was smashed out.
VANDALISM
• Centralia police were called yesterday evening to the 1100 block of North Tower Avenue where someone had broken the back window out of a a car.
• Somebody slashed the tire of a car at the 100 block of South Pearl Street in Centralia, according to a report made to police Monday afternoon.
TEEN ARRESTED FOR TOUCHING 10-YEAR-OLD BOY
• Chehalis police said yesterday they arrested a 13-year-old boy for alleged sexual contact with a 10-year-old boy. An officer took a report on Nov. 9 of an incident that had just occurred in Chehalis. The boys are acquaintances, according to detective Sgt. Rick McNamara. On Monday, the 13-year-old was arrested for first-degree molestation and booked into the Lewis County Juvenile Detention Center.
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