{"id":8708,"date":"2011-09-27T11:57:23","date_gmt":"2011-09-27T18:57:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lewiscountysirens.com\/?p=8708"},"modified":"2011-09-27T12:02:13","modified_gmt":"2011-09-27T19:02:13","slug":"convicted-lewis-county-murderer-died-from-heart-problem-andor-plastic-bag-over-head","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/?p=8708","title":{"rendered":"Convicted Lewis County murderer died from heart problem and\/or plastic bag over head"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Sharyn\u00a0 L. Decker
\nLewis County Sirens news reporter
\n<\/strong>
\nLaw enforcement concluded their investigation into the prison death of a former Lewis County man deciding it was a suicide.<\/p>\n

Daniel W. Johnson, 54, was found dead in his cell with a plastic bag over his head at Stafford Creek Corrections Center near Aberdeen in July.<\/p>\n

Johnson began his prison sentence in 1993, convicted of murder after a man and a woman were found stabbed to death in a home on Elk Creek Road near Doty. The victims were the resident, Paul Pilz, and his friend Eleanor Warden.<\/p>\n

The Grays Harbor County coroner concluded the manner of death was undetermined, finding possible asphyxia and an irregular heartbeat, but the sheriff’s office said today they found several reasons to label it suicide.<\/p>\n

Johnson had no defensive wounds, and according to his parents had mental issues and had tried to commit suicide before, Grays Harbor County Sheriff’s Office detective Sgt. Steven Shumate said.<\/p>\n

“It’s a combination of a number of things, we’re very confident it’s a suicide and not a homicide,” Shumate said.<\/p>\n

When Johnson was found by his cell mate the morning of July 27, he also had a cord around his neck, but no ligature marks from it, Shumate said.<\/p>\n

Shumate said detectives learned Johnson rarely left his cell, and had collected some plastic bags even though the prison had stopped using them some time ago. It was a thin bag that was not secured around his neck, Shumate said.<\/p>\n

Correspondence between Johnson and a relative of one of his victims also were looked at, Shumate said.<\/p>\n

Johnson was serving a 27-year sentence following the December 1991 deaths in West Lewis County.<\/p>\n

Johnson, then 34, had just been released from psychiatric treatment days earlier, and had a five-year psychiatric history, according to court documents.<\/p>\n

Coroner Dan Burns said there was nothing to indicate homicide, but the cause of death was arrhythmia – even\u00a0 though there was no disease that would explain it – and a significant condition was the asphyxiation due to the plastic bag.<\/p>\n

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

Read previous story from Saturday July 30, 2011, here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sharyn\u00a0 L. Decker Lewis County Sirens news reporter Law enforcement concluded their investigation into the prison death of a former Lewis County man deciding it was a suicide. Daniel W. Johnson, 54, was found dead in his cell with a plastic bag over his head at Stafford Creek Corrections Center near Aberdeen in July. […]<\/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-8708","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\/8708","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=8708"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8708\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8713,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8708\/revisions\/8713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}