by Gayle E. Tice
On the morning of September 11, 2001, my mother cried as I pulled on my socks and then ran for my bus to the fifth grade. The television news was on; it was trained on the Twin Towers. My father stayed with her until she could call and make sure her family in New York was alright. I got on the school bus and watched young boys crash finger airplanes into each other and laugh. I got to school and my teacher, Mrs. Spawn, was crying like my Mom. Continue reading
by Bruce A. Smith
Long-time DB Cooper suspect, Ted E Mayfield, was killed Friday, August 28 in an aviation-related accident at his home in Sheridan, Oregon. He was struck on his arm while hand-starting an Air Coupe prop airplane and died of his injury at the scene. Continue reading
By Bruce A. Smith
The National Forest Service announced today that the Alder Lake fire continues to “smolder” even after torrential rains passed through the area over the week.
But the fire did not spread over the weekend and remains at 275 acres. The NFS says the fire is now 15% contained.
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National Forest Service spokesperson Kristin Bowles announced today that the overnight rains have “calmed things down” at the Alder Lake fire but not extinguished it. The fire has entered its third week of burning. Continue reading
by Bruce A. Smith
Concern is mounting in Eatonville and surrounding communities as our skies become smoke-filled and many local residents are staying indoors to protect themselves from unhealthy air. The culprits seem to be two-fold – first an 100-acre fire on the south shore of Alder Lake, and secondly, contamination from regional forest fires east of the Cascades. The following press release has been issued by the National Forest Service (NFS) and the US Department of Agriculture giving details about a 100-acre forest fire on the southern shores of Alder Lake. Dozens of firefighters are battling this blaze and have attacked the flames with bulldozers and aerial water drops. Continue reading
by Bruce A. Smith
John Anderson, president of Kapowsin Meats in Graham, announced today that his wholesale meat producing firm has issued a recall notice for all “Whole BBQ Hogs” sold between May 14 and July 21, 2015.
These meat products have been identified by the Washington State Department of Health as a primary source of the Salmonella outbreak that has caused illnesses in 134 cases state-wide. Continue reading
By Bruce A. Smith
The Washington State Department of Health (DOH) announced today that its team of investigators have discovered Salmonella bacteria in products from Kapowsin Meats in Kapowsin.
By Bruce A. Smith
Jonathan D. Harris appeared before Justice Megan M. Foley in Pierce County Superior Court June 24 to answer charges that he killed Nicole White, the Orting mother of two young boys.
Harris pleaded not guilty and was placed in Pierce County jail pending payment of his a $2 million bail. He is charged with 2nd degree manslaughter. For the past week he has been in federal custody on an unrelated weapons charge.
The court’s gallery was packed with family, friends and media as Harris entered the chambers. He was heavily shackled and wore a full-length padded suit, believed to be bullet-proof, and Nicole’s supporters gasped audibly when he walked into view.
Charging documents and court statements further shocked the family. Harris, 29, has numerous prior convictions, ranging from a 2008 assault to a 2011 DUI.
In addition, White’s death was brutal. Court documents reveal that she suffered a fractured skull, a broken eye socket, several broken ribs, and numerous contusions and lacerations. Harris, too, when he was later arrested on the weapons charge, was found to have a swollen wrist, and numerous bruisers and scratches on his arms and legs.
“He is a complete monster,” Amy Ancira later told the Mountain News. “He needs to be held fully accountable for his actions.”
Ancira said that Harris deserves the death penalty, a sentiment widely shared by Nicole’s supporters, dozens of whom brought signs into court demanding an “Eye for an Eye.” Court officers insisted that they not display the signage before cameras, and they later held a protest rally in front of the courthouse, receiving approval from many passerbys.
On the street most of the signs proclaimed “Justice for Nicole,” and when asked what that justice might look like, one supporter simply said, “Fry the motherf-ker.”
But the supporters also drew attention to another disturbing dynamic in the death of Nicole White – did Harris act alone?
Harris lives with his mother in an upscale double-wide sited at the end of a rural road in Graham, off 70th Ave. Reportedly, she was home when her son allegedly murdered Nicole. Court documents also reveal that she spotted bloody clothes and a blood stain in her home on the Sunday after the incident, but supposedly was told by her son that the family’s dogs had killed a rabbit and tracked in blood.
Additionally, a neighbor told police she heard a woman’s scream about 4 am on the morning of June 7, which ended abruptly. Yet, she did not call 911.
Casting more doubt on Jonathan Harris’ mother, Amy Ancira told the Mountain News that Nicole’s mother went to the Harris home on Sunday afternoon after her daughter failed to return home in Orting. Nicole’s family claims that Mrs. Harris gave them no information, denied access to Jonathan, and told Nicole’s family to leave.
As a result, several signs in the courtroom demanded that Harris’ mother be charged as an accomplice.
However, the Mountain News was unable to talk with the mother, and no one answered at the Harris’ home when this reporter knocked on the door.
When asked about the mother, Sheriff’s spokesperson Ed Troyer simply said that his department is “still investigating.”
But adding to the mystery, Jonathan Harris was captured by police because he returned to the scene where he allegedly dumped White’s body on early Sunday. Because of his DUI conviction, his vehicle has an ignition interlock which requires him to breathe into the device to start the engine.
Why he revisited the scene is unknown, but presumably, when he returned from inspecting the body on Sunday, he blew into the interlock, which also snapped a cell phone picture of him and his surroundings. Police retrieved the cell phone picture when they arrested Harris on the weapons charge, and spent nearly two weeks matching local landscapes with the picture. On Saturday, June 20, Sheriff deputies and K-9 teams found Nicole’s badly decomposed body in a wooded ravine off the Camp One East Road on Hancock timberlands southeast of Lake Kapowsin.
The court proceedings also had the synchronistic effect of bringing many interested parties together who were able to share their insights into how Nicole and Jonathan met, and how this death might have occurred.
Members of Nicole’s family said that she had met Jonathan weeks earlier through an online dating service. In addition, “Kathy,” the owner of the Jeepers Country Bar and Grill, told the Mountain News that both Nicole and Harris were known as regular customers at Jeepers, and that they had met there as friends the week prior, Saturday, May 30.
“But it was a date on the 6th,” she told the Mountain News.”
Tracey Rutherford, a Jeepers customer toting a sign at the courthouse, said that she had spoken with Nicole at Jeepers on the 6th, confirming that Nicole and Harris were on a date.
“I saw her standing by herself near the fire pit out back. I walked up to her and asked how it was going. She said it was a ‘first date’ and not going too good because Harris wasn’t talking to her and was hanging out with everyone else,” Rutherford said.
Rutherford said that she and her friends stayed until closing, at 2 am, and never saw anything threatening.
“I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary or aggressive. It was just a regular night.”
However, the Jeepers owner did acknowledge that Harris had broken two beer bottles that night.
“He said the first one slipped out of his hands, and the second one happened out at the fire pit, “Kathy told the Mountain News. “My security talked to Harris, but it didn’t seem like a big deal.”
Kathy also said that Harris was well known to her and her customers, and claimed that Harris was well-known in many local taverns in the Spanaway area.
“He’s worked at a lot of bars around here.”
She also described Harris as a non-threatening guy.
“I’ve even driven him home once – he lives not too far from my place. I certainly wasn’t afraid he was going to kill me,” she said.
As for Nicole and Harris, Kathy said they left together, leaving the bar at 2 am.
“She hugged my security guy out in the parking lot, and nothing seemed out of place. If she was worried about something, if she was scared, she could have whispered something to the security guy but she didn’t.”
But another woman at the courthouse raised other concerns. A woman who said she was a waitress at the Roy Y Bar and Grill, near Jeepers, claimed that Harris worked there as a bouncer. The waitress said that Harris frequently followed women to their cars in a menacing manner, but when she confronted Harris he claimed he was providing a measure of protection, a notion she did not believe.
But a related issue looms for many women – how can you trust an online dating site?
“Online dating is now the way of the world,” Tracey Rutherford said. “Everyone is doing it – but how can you be safe? What happened to Nicole is very sad, and it hits very close to home – it could have been anybody.”
Acknowledging that Harris was not a stranger, Amy Ancira simply said, “Nicole trusted someone who could not be trusted.”
Nicole’s family has not made any funerary plans as they have not received the body back from the coroner, and the Prosecutor’s Office has confirmed that the autopsy process is not finished.
Pierce County Prosecutor Mark Lindquist said on Q-13 that the state of decomposition was delaying the testing process, and his office wanted to wait until all findings were complete because he would increase the criminal charges to first degree murder if premeditation or planning could be determined.
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Family members Steven Ancira and Gracie Sandoval display signage at the arraignment of Jonathan Harris in the murder of Nicole White.
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Tracey Rutherford displaying her support for Nicole White
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Family and friends showing support for Nicole in Tacoma
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Amy Ancira, right, and Melissa Nieto, left, addressing the media at the Pierce County Superior Court on Wednesday, after the arraignment of Jonathan Harris in the murder of Nicole Harris
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Special to the Mountain News
By Bruce A. Smith
The Office of the Pierce County Prosecutor announced today that Jonathan Harris – the man first identified by the family as responsible for her disappearance two weeks ago – has been criminally charged in her death.
Nicole’s body was found late Saturday in a wooded area southeast of Lake Kapowsin, off of Camp One Road East. Continue reading
by Bruce A. Smith
John Harris, the person of interest questioned last week in the disappearance of Nicole White, has been arrested on unrelated weapons charges, according to KIRO news.
KIRO also confirms what Nicole’s sister, Melissa Nieto, had told the Mountain News last week that Harris was a convicted felon and had arrests for assault.
Detective Ed Troyer, the spokesperson for the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department, has been asked to confirm this news break but has been non-responsive throughout the day on Monday.
KIRO is also reporting that the PCSD has suspended their independent search for Nicole today to allow their rescue dogs to rest. Again, this has not been confirmed.
Additionally, Jeepers Bar and Grill has announced that it is hosting a fundraiser to support the Help Find Nicole effort. Jeepers will have a local country band, Broken Trail, perform live this Saturday night, and the $5 cover charge will be donated to the cause. Also, Jeepers will offer a sirloin steak dinner special for $8.
by Bruce A. Smith
The search for Nicole White has revealed a strange mix of decision-making and behaviors among officials, and her family and friends on how best to find the Orting mother of two, missing since Saturday June 6.
After a very public search of the Webster Hill area on Monday when Nicole’s car was found abandoned in Graham, the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department and the county’s Search and Rescue teams have opted for a more secretive approach.
It is now known that after its search in Graham the official effort moved mid-week to the lands of Joint Base Lewis McChord.
“The Pierce County Sheriff’s Department was in charge, and they told us that they were planning to investigate several of our training areas out that way (Graham-Spanaway),” Public Affairs Officer John Norgren told the Mountain News on Friday.
However, the official search has moved again apparently, and Sheri Badger, Public Information Officer of the Pierce County Department of Emergency Management told the Mountain News that her agency’s Mobile Operations Command Center had been deployed to the joint search operations headed by the PCSD, and she expected the search to continue into the weekend.
“They are out there searching,” Badger said, but she declined to give any exact locations.
In addition, Detective Ed Troyer, spokesperson for the PCSD, emailed the Mountain News on Friday evening and said the primary search area for Nicole was now in eastern Pierce County, but he would not give any specifics.
This counters information released by several news organizations, such as the Seattle PI-online and the Chehalis Chronicle that the search for Nicole White had moved into “three cities of Washington State.”
But all of this is news to the family and friends of Nicole who have gathered at the Rainier View Christian Church on 224th St in Graham to organize their own search for their loved one.
“We haven’t heard anything,” said “Margie,” the woman who has taken on the role of managing the encampment.
“But we’re looking everywhere, and we’re not going to stop until we find her,” Margie added.
However, her group’s efforts are quite separate from the official search.
“The police are pretty ‘hush,’” Margie said. “They pretty much won’t tell us anything.”
Expanding, Margie and others from the “Help Find Nicole” group said they have been told not to join the official search and instructed not to comb through private and residential properties.
“So, we’re looking wherever people will let us. We’re mostly searching in the outskirts of where the car was found,” Margie added.
In fact, when a caravan of Help Find Nicole searchers started looking along the boundaries areas of JBLM lands in Spanaway off 8th Ave, military police descended upon them quickly and asked them to leave.
“They got on us before we even got out of our cars!” said one volunteer. “It was like a SWAT team or something.”
As a result, Margie said the group’s primary role was to “cushion” the family and provide emotional support.
They are also stockpiling water, apples, flashlights and reflective vest for the searchers who go out – giving them a rest place and bathrooms after their trek, along with providing the emotional support of those who appreciate their efforts.
“There’s lot of dead ends, and it’s hot, and people are beat up, but we need to do this,” said “Will” a young man who identified himself as a friend of Nicole’s “since high school.” Will appeared weary as he walked over the tables piled high with water and cookies after looking for his friend in the Spanaway area.
In fact, the entire group appears discouraged, although they are focused and resolute on their mission to find Nicole. When asked about what they think happened to Nicole, individuals shut the conversation down immediately.
“I don’t want to talk about that,” said Will.
Nevertheless, the effort to find Nicole seems to be growing. A former Graham resident, now living in Colorado, arranged with a local sanitary company to provide a Porta-Potty for the encampment.
In addition, Boeing has supplied numerous vests and flashlights, and Verizon has purchased cases of bottled water and apples.
“We’ll accept anything, but we need coolers, ice, and Gatorade,” said Margie. “We’re starting from nothing.”
However, one thing they aren’t asking for is financial support.
“We’re not asking for money,” Margie stressed, as a Bethel bus driver drove past, honked his horn and waved. Margie waved back and smiled, saying, “See?”
However, members of Nicole’s immediate family seem to be struggling. Two individuals whose names and phone numbers were posted on the initial set of flyers distributed to the community now refuse contact. In fact, one family member became openly hostile to a reporter asking for an update.
Further, the family does not seem to have an appointed representative who can provide either updates to the media or advocate for the volunteers.
Nicole’s father, Eddie Nieto, arrived Tuesday from his home in San Diego, and has assumed some roles of leadership, but even though cordial and open to this reporter in our initial interview he has been unresponsive subsequently.
Often the Help Find Nicole group seems to be twisting in the wind, with no liaison to the official search nor any support from the Red Cross or other community service groups.
Nevertheless, Crime Stoppers has issued a $1,000 reward for information leading to Nicole’s recovery.
As to Nicole’s fate, the PCSD’s Detective Ed Troyer is sanguine, saying in a Fox-13 interview that although he is hoping for a positive outcome he is expecting a “sinister” conclusion.
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The encampment of Help Find Nicole, at the Rainier View Christian Church in Graham.
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Nicole’s friend Will, returning from a search.
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Editor’s Note: Over 5,000 readers have viewed the posts on the Nicole White search since our first article was posted 6. 9. 15. Thank you, and I hope the information is useful.
The Mountain News – WA
The Mountain News - WA 