{"id":5258,"date":"2011-03-03T14:18:17","date_gmt":"2011-03-03T22:18:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lewiscountysirens.com\/?p=5258"},"modified":"2011-03-03T21:00:36","modified_gmt":"2011-03-04T05:00:36","slug":"packwood-highway-death-of-witness-in-murder-case-still-unsolved","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/?p=5258","title":{"rendered":"Packwood highway death of witness in murder case still unsolved"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Sharyn\u00a0 L. Decker
\nLewis County Sirens news reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n

The cause of the automobile accident and death almost two weeks ago of a witness in a recently filed Randle murder case continues to puzzle state troopers even after an autopsy was conducted.<\/p>\n

\"2011.0222.don.diemert_2\"<\/a>

Donald G. Diemert<\/p><\/div>\n

Donald G. Diemert, 62, of Randle, was dead at the scene of a wreck in which his Pontiac Grand Am struck a guard rail, crossed the highway and then ran into a rock wall on U.S. Highway 12 east of Packwood the night of Feb. 19.<\/p>\n

State Patrol Sgt. Jason Ashley said it was a slow speed crash, not serious enough it should have killed him.<\/p>\n

The state patrol ruled out any mechanical failure and leaned towards some kind of medical issue or something like falling asleep at the wheel, according to Ashley.<\/p>\n

An autopsy however, turned up no evidence of a medical event, the Lewis County Coroner’s Office said this week.<\/p>\n

Diemert died from a broken neck, according to Chief Deputy Coroner Dawn Harris.<\/p>\n

“Basically when his air bag deployed, because he wasn’t wearing a seatbelt, it broke his neck,” Harris said.<\/p>\n

Trooper Jason Hicks, the technical investigator for the collision, said today he found that odd.<\/p>\n

Hicks said he has never in almost 12 years as a trooper seen a case or heard of a case in which an airbag deployment broke a person’s neck.<\/p>\n

The windshield was cracked and Diemert was tossed to the right, with his head landing on the passenger seat, Hicks said.<\/p>\n

“I highly doubt the airbag broke his neck,” Hicks said. “The evidence showed he was thrown low to the passenger side corner.”<\/p>\n

Diemert was a witness in the case against Randle taxidermist Erik Massa. The 43-year-old was charged Feb. 7 with second-degree murder for the March 14 death of a 58-year-old welder from Federal Way.<\/p>\n

Guy W. LaFontaine died from blunt force injuries to his head, torso and extremities after, investigators allege, he was at Massa’s home in Randle.<\/p>\n

Massa, who is related to LaFontaine by marriage, has pleaded not guilty and is free on $25,000 bail.<\/p>\n

Diemert was a retired Boeing worker who moved to the Randle-Packwood area in 1996.<\/p>\n

Part of what was odd, was Diemert did have a laceration on his head, but it hardly bled at all, Hicks said.<\/p>\n

“It’s just one of those things that didn’t make sense,” Hicks said.<\/p>\n

Hicks said the state patrol is still waiting for a report from the coroner, and will look to the toxicology results to find if Diemert had any alcohol, drugs or medications in his system.<\/p>\n

The only indication troopers had Diemert might have been impaired was an unopened can of beer in the cup holder in the car, Hicks said.<\/p>\n

Harris said Tuesday she expected those tests to come back in eight or nine weeks.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u2022\u2022<\/p>\n

Read more about Don Diemert here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sharyn\u00a0 L. Decker Lewis County Sirens news reporter The cause of the automobile accident and death almost two weeks ago of a witness in a recently filed Randle murder case continues to puzzle state troopers even after an autopsy was conducted. Donald G. Diemert, 62, of Randle, was dead at the scene of a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10],"class_list":["post-5258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-top-story","tag-by-sharyn-l-decker","tag-news-reporter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5258"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5258\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5261,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5258\/revisions\/5261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}