ID & WA: LEWISTON & CLARKSTON VALLEY SERIAL KILLER

Author	Comment
Justice seeker1	Re: Kristine Nelson and Brandy (Jacqueline Ann) Miller Murde	#21	[-]
SENIOR MEMBER Posts: 33398 (10/19/07 20:44:35) FORUM OWNER PROTECT YOUR KIDS RESEARCH LEADER Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Report Post	Bodies may be those of missing women By Kathy Barnard of the Tribune Thursday, March 22, 1984 There is a "very strong possibility" that the two bodies found north of Kendrick Monday are those of two women who disappeared from Lewiston in September 1982, according to officers investigating the case. Sgt. Donald Schoeffler of the Lewiston Police Department and Latah County Sheriff Laune Odenborg said Wednesday that the clothing found with the bodies is similar to that worn by Kristina Diane Nelson, 21, and Brandy Miller, 18, when they disappeared in September of 1982. Investigators still are trying to confirm that jewelry found at the scene matches that worn by the women. A forensic anthropologist from San Francisco will arrive at Lewiston this weekend to positively identify the skeletal remains and attempt to establish a cause of death as well. "We can't be positive the bodies are those of the women that disappeared from here until we get the pathology and dental record reports." Shoeffler said. "But there is a very, very strong possibility that they are." The detectives said the families of the women at Boise have been notified. The women were among three young Lewiston residents who disappeared in the Normal Hill area on Sept. 12, 1982. The two were step-sisters from Boise and were attending Lewis-Clark State College at Lewiston. They are assumed to have been together when they left their home to go shopping in downtown Lewiston, but virtually no clues have surfaced to explain what happened to them. Steven R. Pearsall, 35, was the other Lewiston resident to disappear that night. He, too, was an LCSC student and an acquaintance of Nelson's. However, Lewiston police said at the time there was no evidence to link his disappearance with that of the women. Law enforcement authorities also said Wednesday that stories that a thrid body had been found near the location where the first tow were located are just rumors. A Kendrick teen-ager found one body at approximately 3:30 p.m. Monday at the bottom of a steep embankment near State Highway 3 north of town. He and two friends later discovered a human skull about 15 feet from the rest of the remains. Latah County deputies arrived at the scene about an hour later and discovered a second body. Odenborg said it took some additional searching, but investigators were able to find the jaws and teeth of both victims, keys to positively identifying them. Both bodies were decomposed, he added. The forensic anthropologist who will be examining the bodies is Roger Helgar, a professor of anthropology in the San Francisco area. He helped Dr. Carl Keonen of Lewiston identify two bodies found last September in the Santiam Road area, 40 miles east of Grangeville, as Capt. Robert M. Bravence and his wife, Cheryl Bravence. of Arizona. Mark Lankford, 27, and his brother bryan Lankford, 23, are being held in the Idaho County Jail pending trial on first-degree murder charges in connection to the couple's slayings. Koenen said Helgar will attempt to determine the sex, age, race and size of the bodies based on an examination of the skeletons. He also may be able to determine the cause of death, the Lewiston doctor said. "Hopefully, he (Helgar) will be able to give us the identities very soon," Odenborg said. "But the cause of death, which is what we're really concernd about, will take about two or three weeks." The bodies currently in Moscow, will be moved to the Regional Pathology Lab in Lewiston later this week. They will be examined there. Both Odenborg and the Lewiston officers are banking on the examination to confirm their theories. Any apparent friction between the two agencies because of the amount of time it took Odenborg to notify Lewiston police about the discovery of the bodies seems to have evaporated. Lewiston officers did not hear of the discovery until 10 a.m. Tuesday when KLEW television station at Lewiston called the department for comment. Rodney Frederiksen, chief of police at Lewiston, expressed some concern about not being officially notified by Latah County. "That was an unintentional over-sight on our part," Odenborg conceded. "That has been rectified." Transcribed from the Lewis-Clark State College microfilm archives of the Lewiston Morning Tribune. Published in the Lewiston Morning Tribune.
Justice seeker1	Two bodies identified as missing stepsisters	#22	[-]
SENIOR MEMBER Posts: 33398 (10/20/07 15:46:08) FORUM OWNER PROTECT YOUR KIDS RESEARCH LEADER Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Report Post	Wednesday, March 28, 1984 Two bodies identified as missing stepsisters By Kathy Barnard of the Tribune The bodies found outside Kendrick more than a week ago are those of tow Lewiston women who disappeared in September 1982, and at least one was murdered. Law enforcement officials formally confirmed the identity of the skeletons Tuesday afternoon after doctors who performed post mortem examinations on the remains over the weekend and Monday exchanged notes. According to Latah County Sheriff Laune Odenborg and Lewiston Police Chief Rodney Frederiksen, the bodies are those of 21-year-old Kristina Nelson and her 18-year-old stepsister Brandy (Jacqueline Ann) Miller. Frederiksen said Dr. Roger Helgar, a forensic anthropologist from San Francisco, confirmed that Miller was murdered. He was not positive about the cause of Nelson's death, however. Both the Lewiston chief and Odenborg declined to discuss the specifics of how Nelson was killed. "It could be imperative to the success of our investigation," Odenborg said. Neither Odenborg nor Frederiksen would discuss any leads they might have in solving the murder case, but both expressed interest in questioning Steven R. Pearsall, 35, of Lewiston. Pearsall, who was an acquaintance of Nelson, disappeared from the Normal Hill area of Lewiston on September 12, 1982, the same night that Miller and Nelson disappeared on their way shopping. "Virtually no clues have surfaced to explain what happened to any of the three until the discovery of the remains of the two girls. "I wouldn't really say he is a suspect at this time," Odenborg said. "But we would like to talk to him." Nelson and Miller, who changed her first name to Brandy when she moved to Lewiston from Boise, were students at Lewis-Clark State College of Lewiston. They told friends they intended to go shopping at the Safeway store in downtown Lewiston and do some laundry. Photo of the Lewiston Civic Theatre where Steven Pearsall was last seen. Looking uphill at route from Lewiston Civic Theatre to Safeway store. The theatre is on the left at the top of the hill. This is the most likely route the girls would have taken to Safeway store. They would have been walking down the hill to the store. Old Safeway store building in downtown Lewiston, now the North Central District Health Department. They were not seen again until March 19 when a Kendrick teen-ager stumbled upon their skeletal remains at the bottom of a steep embankment 2.5 miles north of Kendrick off State Highway 3. Pearsall was last seen about midnight on Sept. 12 by his girlfriend, who dropped him off at the Lewiston Civic Theatre where he worked as a custodian. He planned to do his laundry there. His whereabouts still are unknown. Officials assumed the bodies were those of the two women after discovering jewelry and clothing with the bodies that matched the description of what they were wearing when they disappeared. They called in Helgar, who with Dr. Karl Koenen of Lewiston, spent most of the weekend studying and reconstructing the remains. They also took the jawbones of the corpses to forensic orthodontist Frank Morgan of Spokane, who compared the bones with dental records of the two women for identification purposes. Although the investigation officially has been Latah County's alone the past nine days, Odenborg said from here on out, both his deputies and Lewiston officers will work on it. The Lewiston police have assembled reams of information on the case but still have no concrete leads. Transcribed from the Lewis-Clark State College microfilm archives of the Lewiston Morning Tribune Published in the Lewiston Morning Tribune.
Justice seeker1	Suspect: Harry Anthony Hantman aka Thomas Andrew Dorian	#23	[-]
SENIOR MEMBER Posts: 33398 (10/20/07 18:45:40) FORUM OWNER PROTECT YOUR KIDS RESEARCH LEADER Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Report Post	HANTMAN REFUSES TO BE EXTRADITED OREGON AUTHORITIES WANT MAN CAUGHT IN LEWISTON TO FACE RAPE CHARGES Joan Abrams Tuesday, March 30, 1993 Harry Anthony Hantman will not willingly return to Oregon to face charges of kidnapping, rape and sodomy. The 20-year fugitive from a Washington, D.C., mental hospital for the criminally insane Monday refused to sign a waiver of extradition from Lewiston to Benton County, Ore., where he is wanted on four felony charges arising from the sexual assault of a 27-year-old female Oregon State University student. Hantman, 44, was recaptured outside a Lewiston motel Friday by federal marshals and Lewiston police officers. Deputy U.S. Marshal William Bonk said Hantman had been a target of an intensive effort to track down violent sexual offenders. He was found not guilty by reason of insanity in 1969 of the brutal rape and murder of an 11-year-old Washington, D.C., girl. He escaped from St. Elizabeth's Hospital on Christmas Day 1973. In the course of the search, Bonk said the U.S. Marshal's Service discovered Hantman had been living in the Northwest for the past two decades under the alias of Thomas Andrew Dorian, a Washington, D.C., man who died in 1973. They also found out Hantman/Dorian was wanted in connection with the Benton County crime and previously had been convicted and served prison time for burglary, kidnapping and assault in Oregon's Multnomah County. A task force of federal marshals headed by Bonk came to the Northwest in search of Hantman and for the past three weeks had been tracking him as he moved about from Oregon to Washington and finally to Lewiston. His wife, Linda Lee Cannon, 38, was arrested with him at Lewiston on a Benton County warrant charging her with hindering prosecution. She waived extradition Monday and will be returned to Benton County to face the felony charge. Bonk said Hantman and Cannon have lived a quiet life in Joseph, Ore., for some time. Hantman also has attended several Oregon colleges and universities during the past 20 years and currently is enrolled at Oregon State University in Corvallis. In papers filed with the court at Lewiston, Hantman also lists a home address in Corvallis. During a court hearing Monday, Hantman told Nez Perce County Magistrate Gary Elliott he owns no property and is unemployed. He said he did have about $1,200 in cash on him when he was arrested Friday. Elliott appointed the public defender to represent him and set a fugitive hearing for 3:30 p.m. April 7. Bonk said Monday search warrants were obtained to search Cannon and Hantman's home in Joseph and their cabin in the mountains near there. Photographs and documents, including a birth certificate for Dorian, were taken as evidence. He also said a gold Krugerrand (South African coin), $600 cash and some food stamps were found in the Joseph residence. At the cabin, deputy marshals found a storage locker and a trap door leading to a space underneath the building hidden behind a roll-out cabinet. The cabin was ''well-secured'' with barred windows, Bonk said. In Enterprise, Ore., a storage unit registered to Cannon was searched and a shotgun, two handguns, flex cuffs, leg irons, mace, a stun gun and handcuff keys were discovered. Bonk said the items matched the inventory of items taken from Hantman/Dorian when he was arrested in 1989 on kidnapping and assault charges. Cannon gave her consent for officers to take the items, he said. Lt. John Chilcote of the Benton County Sheriff's Department said Monday an investigation has begun concerning Hantman's possible involvement in other sexual assault crimes, including sexually motivated murder in Oregon and other parts of the Northwest. Law enforcement officials are worried about the 20-year period since Hantman escaped from the mental hospital. ''We have not positively identified him as being a strong suspect in any other case. (But) the percentages directly point to the probability he has done some crime for which he hasn't been identified as a suspect,'' Chilcote said. He said Hantman's pattern of sexual assault includes using bondage, movement from one place to another and use of stun guns and other weapons. ''He's a dangerous, bad person,'' according to Chilcote. Lewiston police Sgt. Randy Kingsbury said LPD detectives are doing some checking to see if Hantman could be connected to local unsolved cases, including the abduction, murder and dismemberment of Kristen David in June 1981. ''If there's any possibility, we're going to look into it,'' he said. Published in the Lewiston Tribune
Justice seeker1	LPD wishes Lt. Jim Cain happy trails	#24	[-]
SENIOR MEMBER Posts: 33398 (10/20/07 18:53:41) FORUM OWNER PROTECT YOUR KIDS RESEARCH LEADER Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Report Post	LPD wishes Lt. Jim Cain happy trails Stroke sends irreplaceable 20-year veteran to retirement Dean Ferguson Thursday, May 22, 2003 When Lt. Jim Cain moved to Lewiston more than 20 years ago, he knew he would retire here. He just didn't think retirement would come at age 55. On Feb. 14, Cain suffered a stroke that paralyzed his left arm. "It was a hell of a Valentine's Day present for my wife, " he says. His friends will honor his years of service with a retirement party tonight from 6 to 8 in the Red Lion Hotel. After a week in the hospital, followed by a few weeks at St. Luke's Rehabilitation Center in Spokane, Cain can walk again. But he still has no feeling in his left arm and hasn't figured out how he's going to hold a fishing pole. The Lewiston Police Department hasn't figured out how to replace Cain either. "You can't replace him. You can replace the position, but you can't replace Jim," says Capt. Alan Sharp, a 25-year Lewiston police veteran. "You're not going to find anybody who has a bigger heart." Sharp says Cain, who has served in many different areas for the department, helped teach younger officers how to do the job. Specifically, he says Cain was adamant about treating people well. Cain says as much himself. "Even though whatever call I'm on ... may seem like the most stupid, mundane call in the world, to the person that called in to the police, it's the most important thing in the world." Cain says during his years with the department, he never single-handedly saved anyone's life. He has brought people back to life with cardiopulmonary resuscitation, but that was just his job, he says, what he was trained to do. He does have one regret as he leaves the department -- an unsolved triple homicide. "I know I know who did it." Brandy Miller, 18, and Kristina Diane Nelson, 21, and Steven Pearsall, 35, disappeared from the Lewiston Civic Theatre in September 1982. The remains of Miller and Nelson were discovered in 1984 near Kendrick. Pearsall's remains have never been found. "We were just never able to come up with that one piece of physical evidence that would stand up in court beyond a reasonable doubt." Cain believes he interviewed the killer shortly after the murders. He says the man's reactions were odd. "He was overly dramatic and had a staged reaction. It was theatrical in nature, but I thought that was his nature." Cain hopes when Pearsall's remains are discovered there will be something to link him with the man, who is no longer living in the area. Despite that regret, Cain says he is proud of the Lewiston police. "This department has a phenomenal clearance rate." The department clears more than 40 percent of its cases, while the national average is about 25 percent. Cain is married to Lois Cain, a police dispatcher. He has two daughters, a grandson and three stepgranddaughters. His parting words to the young officers in the police department is advice he learned from years of patrol. "A good cop never loses compassion for his fellow humans. We are all public servants." ------ Ferguson may be contacted at dferguson @lmtribune.com published in the Lewiston Tribune
Justice seeker1	Re: Harry Hantman's capture in Lewiston	#25	[-]
SENIOR MEMBER Posts: 33398 (10/20/07 19:06:58) FORUM OWNER PROTECT YOUR KIDS RESEARCH LEADER Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Report Post	MANHUNT FEDS NAIL LONGTIME FUGITIVE 20 YEARS AFTER HIS ESCAPE FROM D.C. MENTAL HOSPITAL, CONVICTED KILLER HARRY HANTMAN IS RECAPTURED BY U.S. MARSHALS OUTSIDE LEWISTON MOTEL Joan Abrams Saturday, March 27, 1993 A man called one of the most notorious of the nation's missing criminally insane was recaptured Friday morning by federal marshals outside a Lewiston motel. Harry Anthony Hantman, 44 who has been living in the Northwest under the alias of Thomas Andrew Dorian for the past 20 years was taken into custody without incident at 11:54 a.m. in the parking lot of the Super 8 Motel in North Lewiston, said Deputy U.S. Marshal William Bonk. Bonk, 31, of Washington, D.C., headed the investigation that led to Hantman's capture. He said the Hantman case was one of the oldest in the files of U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Hantman escaped on Christmas Day 1973 from St. Elizabeth's Hospital in the District of Columbia, the same hospital where John W. Hinckley was incarcerated after he shot President Reagan in 1981. Hantman was being held in the hospital's ward for the criminally insane after being found not guilty by reason of insanity in 1969 of the brutal rape and murder of an 11-year-old Washington, D.C., girl. He currently is wanted in Oregon on charges of kidnapping, raping and sodomizing a Japanese exchange student. Since disappearing, Hantman also has been convicted in Oregon as Thomas Dorian on charges of burglary, kidnapping and assault and served 18 months in prison there. He was indicted on the current charges in February 1993 in Corvallis, Ore. Hantman, who lived with his wife, Linda Lee Cannon, in the mountains near Joseph, Ore., is being held in the Nez Perce County Jail without bond. Cannon, 38, also was arrested Friday at Lewiston on a Benton County, Ore., warrant charging her with hindering prosecution. She is being held in the Nez Perce County Jail in lieu of $90,000 bond. A segment on Hantman will appear soon on the Fox Network's Friday night show, ''America's Most Wanted.'' The purpose, Bonk said, is to provide information about Hantman that might help in the investigation of unsolved crimes. ''We're all worried about the 20-year break. ... You have to wonder what he's been doing,'' he said. Hantman's past victims were bound before they were raped, Bonk said. Deputy U.S. Marshal Scott Samuels of Los Angeles added when Hantman was arrested in 1989 for assault, he had handcuffs and leg irons with him. The young girl in Washington, D.C., was bound and gagged before she was shot, Samuels said. Bonk said he was assigned the case in October 1991. The search was part of ''Gunsmoke II,'' a U.S. Marshals Service effort to track down national fugitives focusing on violent sexual offenders. For a long time, officers believed Hartman was out of the country. Bonk said the fugitive had been communicating with his family by telephone through coded messages until his brother killed their mother and himself in 1988. Several investigative methods were used to track Hartman down, including forensic creation of a bust, using an old photograph, of what he would look like today. The bust and Hantman were nearly identical, said Don Ward, deputy chief of the Enforcement Division for the U.S. Marshal's Office in Arlington, Va. The big break in the case came within the past month when officials in Nevada, through fingerprints, identified Hartman as possibly living in Oregon under the name of Thomas Dorian. Fingerprints had been sent electronically to all 50 states in an effort to find him. Dorian died in 1973 in Washington, D.C. Bonk said the death is now being investigated. He did not say Dorian had been murdered, but added, ''We're not ruling that out.'' Federal marshals had been out west for about three weeks looking for Hantman before finding him in Lewiston. Several times they were only days behind him as he moved from Oregon to Washington to Idaho. Bonk does not know why Hantman and his wife came to Lewiston. In Joseph, Hantman kept to himself. ''He has a cabin, basically a fortress, in the mountains near Joseph,'' Bonk said. He also described Hantman as a professional student who had taken classes at Lane Community College and the University of Oregon in Eugene, Eastern Oregon State University in LaGrande and currently is enrolled at Oregon State University in Corvallis. Samuels, one of eight federal officers who took part in the capture, had praise for Bonk's detective work. ''He took a 20-year-old case and tracked him down. ... Bill Bonk is basically a hero,'' he said. But Bonk said it was a team effort involving several law enforcement agencies, including the Lewiston Police Department, the Nez Perce County Sheriff's Department, Benton County Sheriff's Department and the U.S. Forest Service. ''It definitely was a group effort. It just happened to be my case,'' he said. ''I'm just glad it's locked up.'' Hantman faces extrdition to Oregon. When he has been through the state court system there, he will face federal charges. www.lmtribune.com
Justice seeker1	JUDGE RULES ARREST WARRANT FOR HANTMAN IS IMPROPER	#26	[-]
SENIOR MEMBER Posts: 33398 (10/20/07 19:13:57) FORUM OWNER PROTECT YOUR KIDS RESEARCH LEADER Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Report Post	FUGITIVE'S EXTRADITION JUDGE RULES ARREST WARRANT FOR HANTMAN IS IMPROPER ESCAPED MENTAL PATIENT WANTED ON KIDNAPPING, RAPE CHARGES REMAINS IN CUSTODY AT NEZ PERCE COUNTY JAIL Joan Abrams Thursday, April 8, 1993 Escaped mental patient Harry Anthony Hantman will not yet return to Oregon to face sexual assault charges. A Nez Perce County judge Wednesday denied an extradition request to return Hantman to Benton County, Ore., where he is wanted under the name Thomas Andrew Dorian on charges of kidnapping, rape and sodomy. During a fugitive hearing, Magistrate Darrel R. Perry told Nez Perce County Prosecutor Denise L. Rosen copies of the arrest warrant for Hantman/Dorian did not meet the proper certification criteria for him to order extradition. Hantman was then returned to the Nez Perce County Jail, where he is now being held without bail on a warrant charging him with parole violation in Oregon. A copy of that warrant was received just before Wednesday's hearing. Rosen said the extradition request was denied because authorities in Oregon failed to provide the proper certification on documents that would prove Hantman is the man wanted for crimes committed there. ''Fortunately, he's still in custody,'' she said after the hearing. ''That's the important thing.'' The originals of the arrest warrant and other documents are being sent to Lewiston and another extradition request will be filed today, she added. ''We'll try again.'' Hantman, 44, escaped in 1973 from a Washington, D.C., hospital for the criminally insane, where he'd been committed in 1969 after being found innocent by reason of insanity of the brutal rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl. He was recaptured outside a Lewiston motel March 27 by U.S. marshals and Lewiston police officers after an intensive federal manhunt that had tracked him from Oregon to Washington and finally to Idaho. Hantman was brought into court Wednesday wearing orange jail overalls and leg irons. He sat silently during the entire proceeding. He is being represented by public defender Jeff M. Brudie. His wife, Linda Lee Cannon, 38, was arrested with him at Lewiston. She waived extradition and already has been returned to Oregon to face a felony charge of hindering prosectuion. Hantman is believed to have lived in the Northwest the past 20 years under the alias of Dorian, a Washington, D.C., man who died of cancer in 1973. Court records show he currently lists addresses in Joseph and Corvallis, Ore. In 1989, he was convicted as Dorian in Multnomah County, Ore., for kidnapping, assault and carrying a concealed weapon. He served time in the Oregon State Penitentiary on those charges. He currently is accused in Benton County of kidnapping, raping and sodomizing a 27-year-old female Oregon State University student. Federal officers suspect Hantman may have committed other sexual assaults and/or murders during the nearly two decades he's been on the loose. Searches of storage units rented to Hantman under aliases at Enterprise, Ore., and Grangeville have produced numerous weapons, thousands of rounds of ammunition and items used for bondage, including handcuffs and leg irons. Deputy U.S. Marshal Mark Shealey said Wednesday Hantman may have rented other storage units in the Northwest under various aliases. He said two of the other names allegedly used by Hantman are Jay Palmer and Bruce Colter. The storage units may hold other weapons, he said. Hantman is believed to have spent time in several towns in the Northwest, including Missoula and Hamilton, Mont., Walla Walla, Lewiston, Moscow and Grangeville. Hantman is described as a ''professional student'' who took classes at many colleges and universities. He has studied psychology, general mechanics, guitar, outdoor recreation and business management, among other things. He is interested in Nez Perce Indian culture, especially spirituality, and may have visited the Nez Perce Indian Reservation and participated in events there. Shealey said Hantman has told people he is part Nez Perce Indian. He asks anyone with information about Hantman's activities to contact the Lewiston Police Department at 746-0171. ''We're hoping somebody knows something,'' he said. ''We're trying to put him in certain locations at certain times.'' www.lmtribune.com
Justice seeker1	FUGITIVE CHARGED WITH RAPE IN OREGON	#27	[-]
SENIOR MEMBER Posts: 33398 (10/20/07 19:17:07) FORUM OWNER PROTECT YOUR KIDS RESEARCH LEADER Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Report Post	FUGITIVE CHARGED WITH RAPE IN OREGON Associated Press Thursday, May 13, 1993 CORVALLIS, Ore. A criminally insane fugitive who lived in Oregon for 20 years has been charged with raping an Oregon State University student. Harry Hantman, 44, who was extradited from Idaho earlier in the week, was charged on Tuesday and is being held in Benton County Jail in lieu of $100,000 bail. Hantman also faces charges of kidnapping and sodomy, sheriff's deputies said. Hantman's years of hiding ended March 25 when he was arrested outside a motel in Lewiston. He escaped on Christmas Day in 1973 from St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington, D.C., where he was being held after being found innocent by reason of insanity in the 1969 rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl. Federal marshals believe Hantman applied for an Oregon driver's license as Thomas Dorian in 1974, and lived under that name until March. In 1989, Hantman was convicted as Dorian of kidnapping and assaulting a woman who had broken off a relationship with him, said Larry Kelley of the U.S. Marshal's Service in Portland. He spent 18 months in the Oregon State Penitentiary for those crimes, but authorities didn't discover his real identity. The real Dorian died in 1973 in Washington D.C, and Deputy U.S. Marshall Bill Bonk says the circumstances of Dorian's death are being investigated. Benton County Sheriff's detectives discovered Hantman's identity while investigating a Feb. 13 attack on the 27-year-old Oregon State student. The student said another student, Thomas Dorian, had attacked her after stalking her for several months. Fingerprints were sent to all 50 states in an effort to find Dorian, and the prints matched Hantman's 20-year-old file, Benton County sheriff's Detective Scott Fels said. Hantman's wife, Linda Lee Cannon, was also arrested in Lewiston in March. She has been charged with hindering prosecution, but Benton County officials say they might drop the charges. www.lmtribune.com
Justice seeker1	GRANGEVILLE WEAPONS STOCKPILE TRACED TO CAPTURED FUGITIVE	#28	[-]
SENIOR MEMBER Posts: 33398 (10/20/07 19:20:36) FORUM OWNER PROTECT YOUR KIDS RESEARCH LEADER Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Report Post	GRANGEVILLE WEAPONS STOCKPILE TRACED TO CAPTURED FUGITIVE ASSAULT RIFLES, AMMO AMONG CACHE FOUND IN LOCKER Kathy Hedberg Wednesday, April 7, 1993 GRANGEVILLE Federal agents discovered a cache of weapons and ammunition here Tuesday belonging to a federal fugitive recently captured at Lewiston after being on the loose for 20 years. Agents from the U.S. Marshal's Service in Washington, D.C., and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, retrieved 31 weapons from a storage unit at Gortsema RV Center in Grangeville. The unit had been used by Harry Anthony Hantman, 44, who has been living for the past two decades under the alias of Thomas Dorian. The real Dorian died in Washington, D.C., in 1973. Hantman, who in court records lists addresses in Joseph and Corvallis, Ore., escaped in 1973 from a mental hospital for the criminally insane in Washington, D.C. He was committed to the hospital after being found innocent by reason of insanity of the rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl. He was captured outside a Lewiston motel March 27 by federal marshals and Lewiston police officers. Mark Shealey of the U.S. Marshal's Service said Tuesday the weapons seized included semi-automatic pistols, other handguns, assault rifles, one shotgun and various hunting knives. Boxes of ammunition, sleeping bags, suitcases and other items also were found. Agents made an inventory of the unit's contents and transported them to another location. Shealey said none of Hantman's belongings would be left in the storage unit. Shealey declined to say how agents were led to the Grangeville storage unit. But he said Hantman is known to have been in many places throughout the Pacific Northwest, including Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington and Canada. He had been living in the Enterprise-Joseph, Ore., area, Shealey said. A storage unit in Enterprise recently was searched and one shotgun and two pistols were found. Agents also discovered rope and tape at the unit. Shealey said those items could be used to bind people. Hantman is believed to have used that method of operation on his victims in the past and handcuffs and leg irons were found in the Enterprise storage unit. Various chemical agents, including mace cannisters, were found in the Grangeville unit as well. Hantman/Dorian has been linked to other crimes in the area. Shealey said in 1985 he was arrested by the Secret Service and charged with counterfeiting, but was never prosecuted. In 1989 Hantman was arrested as Dorian in Multnomah County, Ore., and prosecuted for kidnapping, assault and carrying a concealed weapon. He served 14 months in the Oregon State Penitentiary on those charges, Shealey said. He currently is wanted in Benton County, Ore., on charges of kidnapping, rape and sodomy. Agents are investigating other possible crimes with which Hantman could have been connected. ''We're trying to close up a span of 20 years,'' Shealey said. ''We find it hard to believe in that 20 years he got involved in only three crimes. We find it very hard to believe.'' He said there is a ''good possibility'' there may be other storage units in the area Hantman may have used. Shealey said agents are not sure why Hantman came to the Northwest, but it is known he was interested in the Nez Perce Tribe and reservation and in the outdoors. Idaho County Sheriff Robert E. (Gene) Meinen said, ''People need to be aware we're isolated here, but we're not that isolated.'' Shealey said Hantman is scheduled to appear in court for a fugitive hearing on the Benton County warrant in Nez Perce County today. He said the case is intended to be kept at the federal level, but local agencies are cooperating with the investigation. ''They've been a great help,'' he said of the local agencies. ''I'm not used to getting this type of cooperation where I'm from.'' www.lmtribune.com
Justice seeker1	Photo of Christine White and story	#29	[-]
SENIOR MEMBER Posts: 33398 (10/20/07 19:36:14) FORUM OWNER PROTECT YOUR KIDS RESEARCH LEADER Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Report Post	Original article: April 30, 1979 Asotin girl, 12, missing ASOTIN - An Asotin County sheriff's posse launched a search for a 12-year-old Asotin girl who disappeared Saturday night. The missing girl is Christine White, daughter of Betty Eminger. Her stepfather, Mick Eminger, said the girl was last reported seen around 7 or 8 Saturday night at the Asotin County Fair. She was riding a white Schwinn 10-speed bicycle which also is missing. The Emingers notified the Asotin County Sheriff's office, The sheriff's posse and some volunteers searched in the late afternoon and evening Sunday in the hills around Asotin for the girl's bicycle and any clue to her whereabouts. Eminger said schoolmates of the missing girl reported she had been on her way home when they last saw her at the fairgrounds. She was dressed in blue jeans, red leather tennis shoes and possibly a tan and pink striped shirt, Eminger said. He asked that anyone who might have any clues to the girl's whereabouts notify the sheriff. Transcribed from the Lewis-Clark State College microfilm archives of the Lewiston Morning Tribune. Published in the Lewiston Morning Tribune.
Justice seeker1	Human leg, torso found on river edge	#30	[-]
SENIOR MEMBER Posts: 33398 (10/20/07 20:47:57) FORUM OWNER PROTECT YOUR KIDS RESEARCH LEADER Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Report Post	Human leg, torso found on river edge By Wendy Williams of the Tribune July 5, 1981 A headless human torso with numerous puncture wounds and a leg were found by a boater Saturday evening on the shore of the Snake River one half mile west of Chief Timothy State Park. Whitman County Coroner Peter Martin said wounds found on the torso may be stab wounds. "There is no question that we are dealing with a homicide here," he said. The torso appeared to be that of a female and had apparently been in the river about four or five days. No clothing was found on or near it. Whitman County Sheriff Cleve Hunter said "there is a possibility" the remains might be those of 22-year-old Kristin David of Clarkston, who disappeared on June 26. The leg and torso were found at 7 p.m. 50 yards apart on the north side of the Snake River , six miles down stream from the Re Wolf Crossing Bridge at Clarkston. The body was transported to St. Joseph's Hospital at Lewiston where it was to be examined today by a pathologist. Martin said he was unsure what the method of decapitation was and he "couldn't say where the act was performed or what was the origin of the body parts." Divers from Nez Perce County were expected to continue the search this morning. Hunter said police will also search around the river bank in hopes of uncovering additional evidence. The river bank search Saturday noght was hampered by rattlesnakes and a lack of light. Although the torso and leg were found in an area under Whitman County jurisdiction, the sheriffs of Latah and Nez Perce counties are assisting with the investigation. Meanwhile, law enforcement officers in the four counties continued their search for a brown van with Oregon License plates that may have figured in David's disappearance. Vehicles matching that description were being stopped and checked. A Genesee man said Thursday that he saw a man in a dark brown van with Oregon plates stop to help a young woman along U.S. Highway 95 south of Genesee June 26 - the day David disappeared. David was last seen riding her bicycle from Moscow to Lewiston. Transcribed from the Lewis-Clark State College microfilm archives of the Lewiston Morning Tribune. Published in the Lewiston Morning Tribune
Justice seeker1	More body parts found	#31	[-]
SENIOR MEMBER Posts: 33398 (10/20/07 21:44:23) FORUM OWNER PROTECT YOUR KIDS RESEARCH LEADER Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Report Post	More body parts found By Wendy Williams of the Tribune July 6, 1981 A dismembered head and two arms were found by police Sunday within 300 yards of where a torso and leg were found by a boater in the Snake River Saturday, six miles west of the Red Wolf Crossing Bridge at Clarkston. Police also found part of a leg three miles west of the bridge and what appeared to be blood stains on the bridge's railing. The body has been identified as that of a female and law enforcement officers are "operating under the assumption" the dismembered body is the remains of Kristin David, a 22-year-old University of Idaho student missing since June 26, Latah County Sheriff Mike Goetz said Sunday. Goetz said the remains apparently were flung from the bridge and then floated downstream. Despite the discoveries, Whitman County Sheriff Cleve Hunter said a positive identification will not be made until an autopsy has been performed. The body has been sent to a private forensics laboratory in Wenatchee, Wash. Nez Perce County Sheriff Ron Koeper said the lab is well-equipped to perform crime-related autopsies. The pathologist who will perform the autopsy, Dr. Robert Bonifaci, said he will need "a few days" to check dental records and X-rays before he can make a positive identification. Meanwhile, two divers from the Lewiston Police Department searched beneath the bridge for more clues. Goetz said the divers were looking for the blue 10-speed bicycle that David was last seen riding. A Genesee man who was driving north on U.S. 95 June 26, told officials while under hypnosis Thursday that he saw a man in a brown van stop to help a young woman cyclist. Police declined to identify the witness. David was supposed to have taken that highway from Moscow to Lewiston on her bicycle that day but she did not reach Lewiston. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has joined the three county sheriff's offices handling the homicide because the crime possibly extends across state lines and possibly involves a missing person, Hunter said. The county sheriffs debated what to do with the body when it arrived at St. Joseph's Hospital, and considered sending it to an FBI lab, said Dr. Robert Cihak, a Lewiston pathologist who was at St. Joseph's Hospital Sunday when the additional body parts were brought in. Cihak said he was prevented from examining the remains because he did not have the necessary permit from Peter Martin, Whitman County coroner. The search has been called of until the victim is identified. Members of David's family said they had not received word from authorities as of Sunday evening. Goetz, who is in charge of the investigation, said the van, with Oregon license plates, is being checked through the department of motor vehicles, but it is a "time-consuming process" because only two digits of the license plate number were revealed by the Genesee man, and this could result in "thousands of combinations." Goetz also refused to release any details of the search for the van because it could hamper the investigation, he said. More than 70 volunteers combed the grass and brush along a 13-mile-stretch of U.S. 95 last week searching for clues to David's disappearance. Transcribed from the Lewis-Clark State College microfilm archives of the Lewiston Morning Tribune Published in the Lewiston Morning tribune.
Justice seeker1	Murder Victim Identified as missing Kristin David	#32	[-]
SENIOR MEMBER Posts: 33398 (10/21/07 22:04:04) FORUM OWNER PROTECT YOUR KIDS RESEARCH LEADER Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Report Post	July 1981 Murder Victim Identified as missing Kristin David The mutilated body found Last Saturday in the Snake River near Clarkston was identified Thursday afternoon as Kristin David, the college student from Clarkston who disappeared June 26 on the road between Moscoe and Lewiston. David, 22, disappeared while bicycling from Moscow to her job at Twin City Foods in Lewiston. The dismembered body was found in parts along the north shore of the river some thre miles downstream from Red Wolf Crossing Bridge. FBI Special Agent Jay Bailey said Thursday " an extensive investigation is being conducted in a multi-state area" by the FBI, along with Whitman, Nez Perce and Latah county sheriff's deputies. Bailey said positive identification was made by pathologists at Wenatchee, Wash., through comparison of David's dental charts. Forensic specialists haven't completed their examination. "Every effort is being expended to identify the person or persons responsible and any citizen possessing information related to the slaying is urged to contact ...law enforcement agencies," said Bailey. FBI agent Clyde Whitson of Butte said Thursday the agency "will target whatever resources are necessary to do the job. "The combined resources (of all agencies involved) are certainly extensive," he said. "The FBI considers this an important matter in this area." Police divers searching for David's bicycle and other clues were hampered on Wednesday by murky water from recent rains. Nez Perce County Sheriff Ron Koeper said they might try again later in the week. Whitson said Thursday no cause of death had been determined by pathologists. "I don't know that the scientific cause of death is all that important at the moment," he added. A memorial mass will be celebrated Saturday at 11 a.m. at St. James Catholic Church at 1519 Ripon in the Lewiston Orchards by the Rev. Joseph Schmidt of Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Lewiston. The body will be cremated. Funeral arrangements are under the direction of Vassar-Rawls Funeral Home. David, who lived last year at 610 Urquart, Moscow, was born December 23, 1958 at Pierre, SD, the daughter of John W. and Sally J. David. The family lived in Pierre until 1969, when they moved to Longview, Wash., where she attended school. The family moved to Lewiston in 1974 and she graduated from Lewiston High School in 1977. While a high school senior, David also attended Lewis-Clark State College. She attended the University of Idaho at Moscow, majoring in broadcast journalism and political science.
Justice seeker1	STILL A MYSTERY	#33	[-]
SENIOR MEMBER Posts: 33398 (10/22/07 19:58:40) FORUM OWNER PROTECT YOUR KIDS RESEARCH LEADER Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Report Post	STILL A MYSTERY Tribune Sunday, December 31, 1989 The decade of the '80s leaves a number of lingering mysteries. The murders of three young women, one a University of Idaho student and two stepsisters from Lewiston, remain unsolved. Six people have disappeared between 1979 and 1989, three from Grangeville and one each from Moscow, Lewiston and Asotin. Two disappearances in 1979 have never been explained. Sometime after 10 p.m. on April 28, 1979, 12-year-old Christina White of Asotin disappeared from the Asotin County Fairgrounds. Extensive work by police and psychics have not located her. Just three months later, Gayla Schaper, 27, vanished after going to feed her horses in a field east of Moscow on the evening of June 29, 1979. Again, searches and investigations were fruitless. Two years later, on June 26, 1981, UI student Kristin David, 22, disappeared while riding her 10-speed bicycle between Moscow and Lewiston on U.S. Highway 95. Her dismembered body was found July 4 along the banks of the Snake River below the Red Wolf Crossing at Clarkston. Law enforcement officers from four counties in two states and the FBI formed a task force to investigate the grisly murder, but the case has never been solved. Four people disappeared in a two-week period, beginning Aug. 31, 1982. Young Ricky Barnett disappeared Aug. 31 from Hillcrest Farms seven miles north of Grangeville, where he was visiting his grandparents. Hundreds of volunteers searched for days for the 2-year-old boy, but he has never been found. Sgt. Herbert J. Lindsey of the Idaho County Sheriff's Department said the case is still open. Ricky's picture still appears on posters circulated by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. ''We get leads all the time,'' Lindsey said. ''We check all of them out.'' He said he checked out a possible sighting in Montana just last week. ''But the subject was a year older,'' he said. Ricky Barnett would be 10 this year. ''There's every possibility that he's not alive,'' Lindsey said. ''But we have to treat it as though he is alive.'' Three Lewiston residents vanished without a whisper 12 days after Ricky's disappearance. Steven R. Pearsall, 35, and stepsisters Kristina Nelson, 21, and Jacqueline (Brandy) Miller, 18, all disappeared Sept. 12, 1982, from the Normal Hill area of Lewiston. The bodies of the two young women were found almost two years later, on March 19, 1984, at the bottom of a steep embankment on State Highway 3 north of Kendrick. Pearsall has never been found. A couple of months after the bodies of Nelson and Miller were found, Lewiston police announced they had a strong suspect in the killings. But no arrests were made. The same suspect was being looked at in connection with the disappearance of Christina White, police said earlier this year. The person is still a suspect in both cases, and still resides in the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley, police said last week. The latest unsolved puzzle is the disappearance of Marie L. Rogers, 50, and her ex-stepson, Samuel L. Webb, 16, of Grangeville. Rogers and Webb were last seen the evening of Nov. 1 at the Cash and Carry grocery store at Grangeville. After the pair's pictures were run in the Lewiston Tribune, police also received reports that Rogers and Webb were seen at a restaurant at Craigmont and a store at Moscow. Family members say they have their suspicions about what happened to Rogers and Webb, and police admit they considered foul play. But the initial suspect in the case, Rogers' ex-husband Pat Webb, voluntarily submitted to and passed a polygraph test. So the whereabouts of Marie Rogers and Sam Webb remains the last mystery of the decade. Diane Pettit Published in the Lewiston Morning Tribune
Justice seeker1	David Murder	#34	[-]
SENIOR MEMBER Posts: 33398 (10/23/07 09:00:19) FORUM OWNER PROTECT YOUR KIDS RESEARCH LEADER Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Report Post	David Murder Area officers to interview convicts in Texas, Florida By Lorraine Nelson of the Tribune Two law enforcement officers from this area will travel to Texas and Florida soon to interview two men about the death of Kristin David in June 1981. Lewiston Chief of Police Rodney H. Frederiksen said that the task force formed shortly after the murder and dismemberment of the Lewiston woman met Thursday and decided to send two investigators to Georgetown, Texas, to interview Lenry Lee Lucas and to Jacksonville, Fla., to talk to Ottis Elwood Toole. Frederiksen said the task force has been studying both men for about five months. Lucas already has been convicted of murder and claims to have killed 100 women in 16 states in recent years, including several in the Inland Northwest. Toole is also charged with homicide. Frederiksen said there is some difficulty getting an interview because together, the two men are implicated in more than 200 murders and there is a waiting list of investigators who want to talk with them. Lucas could be available in four weeks, but the task force probably won't know until the first of next week when Toole could be visited. Frederiksen said the investigators will see both of them on the same trip and airfare alone will cost about $1,400. The taskforce has not yet decided who will do the interviews, Frederiksen said. The group is made up of representatives of the FBI, Clarkston Police Department, Lewiston Police Department, Moscow Police Department, and the sheriff's offices of Asotin, Whitman, Latah and Nez Perce counties. David was a senior at the University of Idaho when she disappeared while riding her 10-speed bicycle between Moscow and Lewiston on U.S. Highway 95 on June 26, 1981. She was living at Clarkston and working for Twin City Foods for the summer. Parts of her dismembered body were found eight and nine days later on the shore of the Snake River, west of the Red Wolf Crossing Bridge at Clarkston. Blood stains were found on the railing of the bridge. No suspects were ever arrested in the murder. Published in the Lewiston Morning Tribune (date of publication unknown at this time.)
Justice seeker1	LEWISTON POLICE STILL TRYING TO GET IDENTIFICATION	#35	[-]
SENIOR MEMBER Posts: 33398 (10/24/07 15:28:00) FORUM OWNER PROTECT YOUR KIDS RESEARCH LEADER Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Report Post	LEWISTON POLICE STILL TRYING TO GET IDENTIFICATION ON MYSTERY BONES Mohsin Askari Thursday, October 25, 1990 Two persons have responded to a Lewiston Police Department appeal for information about human bones found in Lewiston's Normal Hill Cemetery last year. But neither has led to discovery of the identity of the person who was buried, apparently illegally, sometime within the past 10 years. It has been established that the bones were not the result of a legitimate burial and that the person probably was male. The skull was given to a reconstruction artist to create a likeness of what the person may have looked like. The reconstructed face was publicized by the police department last month in the hope that someone could provide information about the circumstances that led to the bones being found at that spot. ''We had two calls. We were given two names of individuals that were missing,'' Cpl. Alan Johnson said Wednesday. One was that of Dan Wilson, who has been missing from Spokane since August 1988. Police obtained dental records for Wilson but Johnson said they did not match those of the skull found in the cemetery. The second report on a man who has been missing from the Kooskia-Kamiah area was eliminated on the basis of the physical description. The missing man was 6-feet 5-inches tall, while it is believed the man whose bones were found was about 5-feet 8-inches. Examination of dental records also ruled out the possibility that the bones were the remains of Steven Pearsall, who has been missing from Lewiston for several years. Police have entered the Normal Hill man's dental records into national computer systems. ''We are still waiting to see if somebody gets a hit on the dental records we have put in,'' Johnson said. He asked anyone who may have information about the bones, or about someone who is missing, to contact the Lewiston Police Department. Johnson said police are certain the bones are not the result of a legitimate burial for several reasons. One is that since the 1960s the law has required all burials to be done in a vault or casket, and these bones were in neither. Scientific examination established that the bones had been in the ground no more than 10 years, which means they should have been in a vault or casket. Johnson said that bones for which there is no apparent explanation may be unearthed at other places in the cemetery because some burials were done many years ago without regular records. But careful records have been maintained for at least the past 40 or 50 years, and these bones are too recent to have escaped recordkeeping, he said. Published in the Lewiston Morning Tribune
Justice seeker1	HAGEDORN HELPS SHERIFF'S OFFICE WITH PROBE	#36	[-]
SENIOR MEMBER Posts: 33398 (03/10/08 21:35:22) FORUM OWNER PROTECT YOUR KIDS RESEARCH LEADER Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Report Post	Hagedorn Helps Sheriff's Office With Probe Friday, January 28, 1994 FD Lead MOSCOW An accused murderer has been enlisted to help in the investigation of a 14-year-old missing persons case by the Latah County Sheriff Departmen. Latah investigators took William Gale Hagedorn, accused of the second-degree murder of the woman he lived with, JoAnn Grace Romero, to the site of their recent investigation into the Gayla Schaper case. Schaper, 27, was reported missing in 1979. She was last seen by her husband, Ken Schaper, at a pasture near Lenville Road and Idaho Highway 8. He had dropped her off there to feed her horses and never saw her again. In 1979 the land was owned by Larry Gale Hagedorn of Moscow, the father of William Gale Hagedorn. Ken Schaper was cleared of any involvement, but no arrests were made and the case has never been closed. The Hagedorn family lived at the site at the time of Schaper's disapearance. Current investigators noticed an inconsistency in a statement made in the Schaper case in 1979. They have spoken to Hagedorn twice in the last two weeks. It is not known if investigators have found anything with Hagedorn's help. http://www.lmtribune.com/archived-story//92748/
Justice seeker1	Civic theater case still unsolved	#37	[-]
SENIOR MEMBER Posts: 33398 (02/21/09 00:52:19) FORUM OWNER PROTECT YOUR KIDS RESEARCH LEADER Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Report Post	Civic theater case still unsolved Donald Schoeffler Steven Pearsall Fred and Chris Pearsall are still awaiting closure in the 1982 disappearance of Steven Pearsall. Brandi Miller Kristina Nelson Young women's bodies were found two years after '82 disappearance; police believe man who vanished that night was also killed By Brad W. Gary of the Tribune Monday, January 26, 2009 Their faces are etched in Don Schoeffler's mind. When the now-retired Lewiston police detective spent a year investigating the 1982 murders of Kristina Nelson, 21, Jacqueline (Brandi) Miller, 18, and Steven Pearsall, 35, everything reminded him of the case. Nelson and Miller, stepsisters from Boise, vanished on the same night as Pearsall. Their disappearance in the vicinity of the Lewiston Civic Theatre on Sept. 12, 1982, left detectives with little to go on at first. Schoeffler soon believed something afoul had met all three, though it would be two years before the remains of Nelson and Miller were discovered. Pearsall's body has never been found, but Schoeffler doesn't view him as a suspect. Neither does Pearsall's father. Fred Pearsall, of Lapwai, conducted his own investigation into the disappearance and believes his son was killed and buried at the theater. Schoeffler doesn't believe anyone is buried there, but he does think one or two of the three died inside. The detective still hopes a piece of evidence may one day be found to resolve the case. Pearsall was the last of the three to be seen, dropped off at the theater by his girlfriend shortly before midnight. Three people, including a police officer who happened to be driving by, saw him enter the building's basement door. He planned to do laundry while practicing his clarinet. That clarinet was later found inside the theater when officers began their investigation. The fact Pearsall left an instrument behind made them pause. "Mr. (Fred) Pearsall, he said Steve would have never left without a musical instrument, he would never leave, because that was just a part of him," Schoeffler said. "They said that he was extremely attached to that, and he wouldn't go anywhere without it." It was one of many indicators that led investigators to believe the three disappearances were not voluntary. An uncashed paycheck was found at Pearsall's apartment, and his car remained parked at a friend's house. Nelson and Miller had gone from Nelson's apartment on the 200 block of Fourth Street, just a few houses from where Pearsall lived, to a downtown grocery store earlier the same evening. Miller lived nearby. Nelson had previously worked as a janitor at the theater, a job later held by Pearsall. Police believe they stopped by the civic theater on their way to or from the store. Nelson's boyfriend intended to meet her later that Sunday night, but fell asleep and didn't come to see her until Monday afternoon. There he saw a note tacked on the front door inviting him in while she was gone. He couldn't wait, but returned the next day to find nothing had changed. She later failed to show up at her job at Skippers, and he called the police. Both women's purses were in Nelson's apartment, as was her cat. A 10-speed bicycle, her main means of transportation, was there. "We had gone through the homes; nothing was disturbed, their personal identification was in the apartments," Schoeffler said. No physical evidence turned up, even in a search of the rafters and basement at the theater. And Luminol tests that would have identified blood at the scene turned up false positives because of lead paint in the building. "We looked in every nook and cranny," for any physical evidence or traces of a struggle, Schoeffler said. Fred Pearsall believes his son was killed because he witnessed something that night inside the theater. Now 85, he remembers searching everywhere in and around the theater, even resorting to hiring a water witcher in an attempt to find his son. "His mother hired a psychic; the psychic told him he was at a place near where a building had burned," said Chris Pearsall, stepmother to Steven Pearsall. A former corporal in the U.S. Air Force, Pearsall returned home to attend Lewis-Clark State College and became active in the theater. He painted backdrops for the group's productions. He was shy, but made friends easily, especially when he was acting. He loved to be a comic, even imitating Jerry Lewis, Chris Pearsall said. "He was easygoing, soft-hearted, he didn't even want to take the dog to the vet to be put to sleep," she said. If he were alive, his parents said, Pearsall would have contacted someone. But relatives on both coasts never heard from him. It also wasn't like Nelson or Miller to take off. Harold Nelson, the girls' father and stepfather, said he placed fliers both near his home in Boise and around Lewiston in search of the girls. "I didn't know what had happened; I suspected the worst at the onset," he said. "Kristi or Jacquie, I don't think either one, I don't think either one would take off and not tell anybody." A Boise High School graduate, Nelson attended LCSC for art classes and the possibility of becoming a veterinarian. Miller later followed her stepsister to Lewiston, and was working as a baby-sitter at the time of their disappearance. They were a part of his life that he'll never forget, Harold Nelson said. "They were my daughters; I loved them both," he said. Pearsall was initially classified as a suspect, said former Lewiston Police Lt. Alan Johnson, but was quickly ruled out after interviews and a psychological profile led investigators to believe he had been killed along with Nelson and Miller. Their instincts always turned to the same man. "Pretty early on," Johnson said detectives were able to connect the murders to a missing Asotin girl who disappeared three years earlier. The case still shares the same person of interest with the disappearance of Christina White. The man of interest was also at the theater the night Miller, Nelson and Pearsall disappeared. He told police he briefly left for the former Red Baron pizza parlor downtown, but returned to the theater at about 10 p.m. and fell asleep. He told police he didn't wake up until 4 the next morning, and didn't see anything out of the ordinary. "We started doing a bunch of background checks on him. We found some information out of a California authority that gave us more of a positive lead on what had happened to the three girls primarily," Schoeffler said. Nelson and Miller's bodies were found in a canyon below the Juliaetta-Kendrick Grade March 19, 1984, when a teenager collecting cans and attempting to retrieve a hat that blew off his head discovered remains 60 feet down an embankment. Detectives said dental records provided the only positive identification. But clothing remnants found with the remains helped police determine both were wearing the same clothes Nelson and Miller were wearing when they disappeared. Investigators never released how Nelson and Miller died, and Johnson said the pathologist's determination continues to be withheld as part of the investigation. There was evidence of trauma, he said. Schoeffler set up a polygraph test with their person of interest shortly after the bodies were discovered. The man initially agreed and sat through a taped interview that detectives said had inconsistencies. But Schoeffler said the man later retained an attorney and backed out of a lie detection examination. "I know it just upset us because we knew we had him," Schoeffler said. "We took our tape recordings, we even sent our recordings to a voice stress analyst." Other leads came up, but nothing as strong as that one person of interest. He can't be named because he hasn't been charged. But Johnson said the case's original detective, now-deceased Capt. Duane Ailor, once sought to file criminal charges. Prosecutors declined to charge the case for the simple reason that Pearsall was still missing, and his absence could create a hole for a jury, Johnson said. "Until you have a definitive location for Steven, you put 12 people on a jury and they are going to have reasonable doubt," Johnson said. The fact the case has never been to court bothers Schoeffler. Retired and living in Arizona, he still questions little pieces of his investigation when a similar case appears on the news. He wonders if there is someone else he could have talked to who would have pointed him in the right direction. "We always ask that question; if there was something we didn't see at the time, you're always second-guessing yourself. I'm still second-guessing myself." Johnson got involved in 1997, when now-retired Chief Jack Baldwin asked a group of retired police officers to review the police department's case. The group, Officers Without Legal Standing, reviewed the cases in order to provide a different look on leads that might not have been explored. Their review gave police a few avenues to investigate, and others still come up, though less often. "In August there was a location that was excavated. It was an area of interest for us," Johnson said recently. "Irregularities appeared in the ground and we got permission from the property owner to excavate." Another location was excavated last month. Both excavations were near the same spot in Asotin County. No excavation was ever done at the theater, Johnson said, because no information ever led police to believe anyone was buried there. The cases now lie dormant, but Johnson notes they are not forgotten. "Every once in a while someone comes forward with something to look at," Johnson said. A dental record from remains in another county might have a partial match to Pearsall, but is later ruled out upon further review. Johnson was the case's primary investigator until earlier this month, when he retired to take a job with the Nez Perce County Sheriff's Office. The case remains in the hands of Lewiston police detectives, but Johnson said he wants to be there if it is ever solved. So does Fred Pearsall. He still thinks about his son almost every day, and would do anything to find him. "It would be nice to get it straightened out. I could give Steven a decent burial," he said. --- Gary may be contacted at bgary@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2262.
Justice seeker1	Unsolved but not forgotten	#38	[-]
SENIOR MEMBER Posts: 33398 (02/21/09 03:13:14) FORUM OWNER PROTECT YOUR KIDS RESEARCH LEADER Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Report Post	Unsolved but not forgotten Barry Kough / Lewiston Tribune Lewiston Police evidence officer Brian Birdsell keeps track of row after row of boxes full of evidence in the secure basement of the Lewiston Police Department. Barry Kough / Lewiston Tribune Lewiston Police Lt. Alan Johnson helps keep track of cold cases with binders full of facts ready to assist with any new leads. By Brad W. Gary of the Tribune Sunday, October 19, 2008 The black binders are loaded with notes, and visible to anyone who peeks inside Lt. Alan Johnson's office. Those neatly kept files, with both typed and hand-scrawled notes related to five unsolved murders, will remain in Johnson's care until he walks out the door of the Lewiston Police Department for good. He's not the first officer to investigate the cases, but Johnson hopes to be the last. His department reopened a series of murder cases in 1997, continuing an already decades-old investigation into the deaths of Christina White, Kristin David, Steven R. Pearsall, Kristina D. Nelson and Jacqueline (Brandy) A. Miller from 1979 to 1982. Investigators at the time believed all five cases involved the same "person of interest." No arrest has ever been made. "You're always hoping to find that one piece of evidence that either puts it over the top or identifies the criminal suspect, or provides closure to the family," Johnson said. They aren't the only unsolved murders in Lewiston. And Johnson's list isn't the only one that has aged in the depths of detective offices around the region. As many as 19 suspected homicide cases, going back to 1961, remain unresolved in southeast Washington and north central Idaho. Police suspect homicide in many of the cases, even when a person is still legally declared missing. Bodies of others have turned up years after the initial reports were made. "It's really important that these folks are not forgotten," said Nez Perce County Chief Deputy Bill Madison. He has two cases on his department's evidence shelf. Johnson admits the days in which new notes are added to his binders have winnowed. Working a two-decades-old murder case can often lead to dead ends, detectives say. "It's true - 48 hours are the most critical hours in a homicide, witness interviews, that's when the information is going to be at its best," Johnson said. But the boxes of evidence have swelled since he took on the investigation that began when 12-year-old White disappeared from the Asotin County Fair on April 28, 1979. In June 1981, David, 22, was last seen riding her bicycle from Moscow to Lewiston. Her remains were found dismembered in the Snake River days later, and no killer has been found. And in September 1982, Nelson, 21, Miller, 18, and Pearsall, 35, disappeared from the Lewiston Civic Theatre. Nelson and Miller's bodies turned up two years later at the bottom of a hillside near Kendrick. Pearsall has never been found, but police suspect him to be a victim in the case. Witness memories fade over time, and family member addresses spiderweb across the country. Some interviews are now conducted by phone, Johnson said. Decades-old cases often don't get the resources of a full-time detective, and often take years to work through. That is why former Lewiston Police Chief Jack Baldwin made contact with a group of retired detectives in 1997. Then living in northern Idaho's Kootenai County, the retired Los Angeles-area officers had formed a group to aid peace officers in their investigations. Officers Without Legal Standing, as the group is called, looked over the Civic Theatre murders and White's disappearance. It was the only such instance Johnson can remember his department sharing an investigation with an outside agency. Tom Johnston, a retired lieutenant from Los Angeles County, was the lead on that investigation, Johnson said. "In his opinion, the investigations were looking at the right individual," Johnson said. That individual is the "person of interest" in both cases, and the case of David, he said. That person of interest has never been named publicly, Johnson said. While not officially classifying the man as a suspect, Johnson said there were inconsistencies in his statements to investigators. "That is why he has never been removed as a person of interest in our case," Johnson said. "He was also one of the last individuals to be seen with Christina White." He was later one of the last to be seen at the Civic Theatre before Nelson, Miller and Pearsall disappeared. David's case was eventually taken over by the FBI, Johnson said, primarily because of the jurisdictional issues regarding her disappearance and subsequent discovery. Follow-up interviews suggested by the law enforcement group led to the use of cadaver dogs, and excavation of separate sites in Asotin and Clarkston. The city contracted with a geophysics expert to conduct ground-penetrating radar at a few locations. "There was never any physical evidence recovered at any of the sites," Johnson said. Their efforts left the murder investigation open for eight years. Investigative efforts continued intermittently until 2007. The cases were reopened without much fanfare - the same as many investigations throughout the region. Unsolved cases are periodically reviewed by the region's detectives in an effort to find any potential information. Idaho County sheriff's Capt. Skott Mealer brought in the help of the state police, FBI and even psychics in efforts to help detectives solve the murders of Lynn and C. Bruce Peeples. The Grangeville couple was found strangled in their burned home on April 1, 1994. Mealer said he's still collecting pieces of a puzzle that could one day lead to a resolution in the case. "There are victims out there, and we have an obligation to do our job," Mealer said. The Peeples homicide is routinely investigated, he said, as is the 1982 disappearance of 2-year-old Ricky Barnett, who was visiting his grandparents near Grangeville. "Every time we have something new we check it," he said, noting calls do come in occasionally on both cases. Sgt. Earl Aston also gets calls about missing persons. The Latah County Sheriff's Office detective is trying to find Gayla Schaper, a 27-year-old who was last seen feeding her horses on Lenville Road, southeast of Moscow, in June 1979. Clothing was later discovered in a nearby meadow, but Schaper has never been found. Whenever an unidentified person is discovered that could match Schaper, a description is sent to the sheriff's office for review, he said. "Generally it happens less and less frequently," Aston said. "It can go in spurts, you might get a few inquiries, or you might get a few pieces of information." As time passes, the frequency of inquiries lessen. An inability to give closure to the families can also be difficult, Aston said. "You try to think what it would be like for you if you were in their shoes," Aston said. "I think it would be extremely difficult. Hopefully it gets dulled by time, but I don't know." In Pullman, Police Chief Ted Weatherly said the investigation of a 2004 serial rapist has run cold. Police have collected DNA from three suspected rapes in the city, and a warrant has been issued using the DNA signature absent a name. A suspect has not been identified, but may if the DNA ever gets a hit on national databases. While DNA has proved a useful tool for today's homicide investigations, it might have to be ruled out in cases opened at a time when detectives never thought of collecting such evidence. Prior to DNA's commonplace role in investigations, many detectives didn't seek it out as evidence that would be material to their case. Some evidence has been destroyed over the years, Johnson said, while other DNA evidence was just never collected. "At the time the evidence was processed, people didn't know about DNA, and you can't make up 15, 20 years later, and can't anticipate what to do 15, 20 years later," he said. But departments do keep the evidence they have, Johnson said. Laws require police to maintain evidence in a murder until either the perpetrator has served his sentence, or dies. Investigative reports into the Civic Theatre murders have swelled into three binders of reports and notes, each three inches thick. The David case consists of two such binders. Boxes of evidence from the crimes fill shelves in the department's basement. "They are inactive," Johnson said, a labeling that allows a case to be reopened but in which no current leads are being explored. When new information does come in, it typically passes over Johnson's desk. And new leads often aren't publicized, in part to keep family members from building anticipation in the event detectives come up empty handed. Detectives say they also don't want to ruin a criminal case, and note that same feeling of cracking a case often ebbs and flows among themselves. "You get that anticipation or that feeling that something's going to happen, that's going to clobber this," Johnson said. "That doesn't happen, so it goes back to inactive status. It's disappointing, frustrating." Still, investigations continue, but slowly. Johnson said those efforts will continue even after he leaves his office. "If and when I leave, somebody will inherit these books," he said. But he likes to think the murders will be solved before then. --- Gary may be contacted at bgary@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2262.
Justice seeker1	Woman's story lends credence to theory	#39	[-]
SENIOR MEMBER Posts: 33398 (03/03/09 07:26:53) FORUM OWNER PROTECT YOUR KIDS RESEARCH LEADER Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Report Post	Woman's story lends credence to theory Encounter with man in brown van happened around time of Kristin David's murder By Sandra L. Lee of the Tribune Monday, March 2, 2009 Her voice was soft on the telephone, almost hesitant. This is really trivial, she said. But her story gives some credibility to one theory behind the disappearance of Kristin David in 1981, that a man in a brown van picked David up near Genesee, killed her, dismembered her body and disposed of it in the Snake River on the Whitman County side below Red Wolf Crossing, where her body was found. She didn't know about the brown van, the woman said. If anything, she thought the case had been solved when David's body was found July 4, 1981, eight days after she disappeared while riding her bicycle from Moscow to Clarkston along U.S. Highway 95. Then she read about the 27-year-old case in the Tribune's Awaiting Justice series and that a Genesee man, under hypnosis, said a brown van with Oregon license plates had stopped to help a young woman on a bicycle. It was June 26, 1981, the last day David was seen alive. She was 22 years old in 1981, the woman said, the same age as David. Both young women were students at the University of Idaho. They didn't know each other. The caller was recently married and commuting to classes from her home on Bridge Street in Clarkston. They were young and poor, she said, living in a camper trailer without a television or daily newspaper, spending their spare time with school books and each other. She also was an avid jogger, running most days west from her home several miles along U.S. Highway 12 bordering the Snake River. It was a hot day when she had her encounter with an unknown man driving toward Clarkston in a cargo-style van with no windows along the sides. It was brown. She can't say now why she was so frightened. For whatever reason, "it gave me the heebie-jeebies." She can't even remember what the man looked like, except he may have been middle-aged. At least, he was probably older than she was. He wanted her to get into the van. He offered her help, the woman said, "which was ridiculous because it was obvious I was jogging." Then he said it was too hot for her to be running. "I remember thinking, am I going to have to dive over and bail into the river? I was just thankful traffic came and moved him on. That's probably why I didn't report it." The man wasn't aggressive. He didn't threaten her. "But it always bothered me." Later, she even remembers it going through her mind that maybe he was a doctor who was truly concerned she was going to have heat stroke. "I always wished I was more observant." She tried once she realized the David case was unsolved to narrow down the time frame. It was after April and before the middle of August when she and her husband moved to another county for new jobs. The caller was at first open with her name and details of her life. She doesn't have any more information, she said, but with the possibility that somewhere still walks a man who could have targeted her for a bizarre death, the less she wants to be identified publicly. The David case has defied solution for more than 27 years. A multi-jurisdictional task force was formed and detectives were sent to Texas and Florida to question suspects, and followed dozens of potential leads to no avail. The case is now in the hands of the FBI because law enforcement organizations in two states, three counties and at least a couple cities were involved in the investigation. Anyone with information is asked to call the FBI office at Lewiston, (208) 746-3440, or the Lewiston Police Department, (208) 746-0171. --- Lee may be contacted at slee@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2266.
Amateur		#40	[-]
REGISTERED POSTER Posts: 2 (05/17/09 16:59:16) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Report Post	This compilation of published articles is very well done and much appreciated. It paints a chilling picture of unsolved crimes and un-apprehended suspects. The Hantman case is perhaps the most telling. The man, who was supposedly insane but who was just a common sex killer, lived among us for 20 YEARS. He committed at least one crime, was arrested, convicted and served time, and was suspected of another crime, and yet Pacific Northwest law enforcement officials never even bothered to find out his real name. Meanwhile, Federal law enforcement officials from Washington DC finally decided that they needed to find this individual, and three weeks later they know his alias and are arresting him in Lewiston. If I was involved in law enforcement here, I'd be hanging my head in shame. Then there are the disappearances/murders of the two young women from the Normal Hill area in Lewiston. Law enforcement states that they "know they know" who killed the women and probably a young man, but they can't do anything about it. When they interviewed this man just after the crimes, the young women were either being held somewhere or had already been killed and dumped. Either way, there would have been evidence in his home or buildings to which he had access, in his vehicle or vehicles to which he had access--SOMEWHERE! Was any of this checked? The same suspect admitted to being with the 12-year-old girl from Asotin on the day she disappeared. The man was a suspected serial killer. He spent at least part of the afternoon with the child, who was not feeling well. He had ample motive, means and opportunity, and in some places that will at LEAST get you arrested and questioned. Not here. The suspect has since moved on to new opportunities. I wonder if people in his new killing fields have been notified that he enjoyed a killing lifestyle here, unfettered by law enforcement intervention, or is he as free to practice his craft there as he was here? Then there is the college student who disappeared and was killed. The local law enforcement lumps in the murder of Kristin David with the other, MANY, unsolved murders in this area. Even the casual observer can see, though, that the killings were very different. If I'm not mistaken, these depraved societal predators don't usually deviate much from whatever set of habits return the sick satisfaction they seek. The Hantman person was active during the period that Ms. David was killed, and is known to have lived in or at least spent time in both Moscow and Lewiston. His own peculiar methods and habits are largely unknown because he spent 20 years of his prime free and unobserved. A Genesee man saw a man in a brown van with OREGON license plates stop to "help" a young female bicyclist on the day Ms. David disappeared. Hantman lived in Joseph, OREGON at the time. Was the question of whether he had or had access to a brown van ever pursued? The Genesee witness offered two digits of the license plate number of the van. Did those two digits appear on any vehicle accessible to Hantman at the time? Did anyone check? I mean, this is something that could be determined from the easy chair in any law enforcement office. The Pacific Northwest law enforcement officials interviewed in these articles have a common them: they all lament that no killer has ever been arrested for any of the dozen or so crimes that have been committed under their noses. They "hope" that the crimes will be solved "someday." Well, I have the conviction that these crimes will never be solved. The investigations were bungled, neglected, or otherwise flawed, and you can't get back the precious first hours after a crime has been committed. I also have an even more frightening conviction: that the Pacific Northwest is a wide-open practice arena for criminals who wish to elude detection while they practice their art. One of the compilers of this series of articles says, "Protect your children." I say, "Protect your children, your grandma, your cousins, your mailman, the kids' soccer coach, the guy down the street, your hairdresser..." Protect everyone. No one else is doing it.