Rose Festival Death

My neighborhood in downtown Portland is packed to the gills with people, parking prices have tripled and quadrupled over night and the sidewalks are lined with folding chairs. Must be Rose Festival time again in Portland.

I’m not really a Grinch, I appreciate the parades and the fireworks and the crowds of people, as much as I can. I know this is the defining time of the year for the Rose City. The weather is great and the roses are in bloom. The U.S. Navy has ships docked along the Willamette River. All of the High Schools in town have elected a court of Rose princesses. It’s a hundred year old festival this year and it’s worth celebrating.

Washington Mutual’s Waterfront Village, the carnival that used to be known as the Fun Center, has tight security and a “family-friendly” focus this year. I wonder if anyone remembers how it got that way? Oddly, enough it started ten years ago this week. June 7, 1997, to be exact.

On that balmy Portland evening Kenneth Shanafelt, 39, of Vancouver, and his wife, Robin attended a performance of the musical Beauty and the Beast at the Civic Auditorium. The play let out at about 10pm. The night was young and the parents with three small children at home with a babysitter, decided to enjoy the Rose Festival that would still be open for another two hours.

Miraculously finding a parking space near the corner of SW Salmon and 2nd Ave, the couple walked through Waterfront Park to the Fun Center. The Oregonian described it as a romantic evening and I’m sure it was. Portland is pretty this time of year and the Willamette is always a beautiful river.

The Shanafelts walked along the river looking at the imposing Naval ships, munching Portland’s trademark fry-bread treat “Elephant Ears” and sipping lemonade. Shortly before 11:30pm, they headed back toward their car for the short drive into Washington that would take them home.

Five blocks away Daniel DeJesus, 19, and his friend George Garcia were leaving a nightclub and heading for Garcia’s car to drive home to Washington County. In front of the Hilton Hotel at SW Salmon and Broadway DeJesus and Garcia ran into a group of about eight young men who didn’t like the shirt that DeJesus was wearing, an NFL jersey with the number 13 on it.

The two groups of young men traded insults and possibly some gang signs. Soon they were throwing punches and a general melee broke out. DeJesus grabbed a .357 magnum pistol from Garcia’s pocket and began firing at their opponents. Garcia, told the Oregonian, that he heard four shots as he ran for his car and sped back to pick up his friend.

One bullet hit a bus shelter at SW Fifth and Salmon, spraying 20-year-old Mercedes Munden’s face with broken glass and injuring her severely.

Robin Shanafelt heard the gunshots as she and Kenneth approached their car. She said they sounded like firecrackers. Then Kenneth dropped to the ground. She didn’t know what happened at first, but then she saw the blood and his head wound. Two passing women helped her stop the bleeding and perform CPR, but it was too late. Kenneth Bryan Shanafelt, father of four and teacher of Truck Driving Safety was dead.

Shanafelt’s death didn’t really have anything to do with the Rose Festival or the Pepsi Fun Center, but it was such a shocking crime that it drew major attention to the festival. The next year security was tightened, but a stabbing incident in a parking lot near the Fun Center increased the pressure. [I’ll tell you about Anthony Nnoli and Andy Borlande another time.]

In 1999 they fenced in the fun center for the first time. Then came WTO, and May Day and then 9/11. And that children, is why we can’t even drive on Naito Parkway at this time of year.

Daniel DeJesus plead no contest to charges of manslaughter and was sentenced to 23 years. Prosecutors wanted to charge him with murder and were sure they could convict him, but Robin Shanfelt said that she did not see the young man as a murderer and wanted to spare her family the trauma of a trial. She urged them to accept the manslaughter plea.

Not all of Shanafelt’s family were so forgiving. Bill McGinty, Shanafelt’s step-father, told the Oregonian, “I’m 54 years old and I have never been so full of hate and anger as I am now.”

Amber Shanafelt, Kenneth’s oldest daughter who was 17 when he died, was badly traumatized by her father’s death. She suffered nightmares, panic attacks, fits of shaking and paralysis as a result of post-traumatic stress. Those are all normal symptoms and I’m sure over the last ten years they have abated, but I bet they haven’t gone away completely. I also bet that Amber’s startle reflex can be exaggerated, especially when she hears loud bangs.

None of this, of course has made Portland any safer. Random bullets still fly, lethally in May, 2005 when a 41-year old transient was killed by a gun fired at someone else a block away. That happened at SW 2nd and Yamhill , about a block from where Kenneth Shanafelt died.

I think Judge Kimberly Frankel said it best when she was sentencing DeJesus: “I can stop Mr. DeJesus by imprisoning him for a time. What I don’t understand is how to stop the next person and the next person. I’m disgusted.”

Carnival of the True Crime Blogs #77

Once again it is my pleasure to present the best of the True Crime Blogs this week. I have to say that submissions were very light this week. That means more work for me, so if you’re a true crime blogger, get your submissions in. If you’re not a true crime blogger then you’re excused.

Only two of this week’s entries are about actual crimes, so I’ll start with those:

Bonnie of My Life of Crime brings us the lonely death of volunteer Police Constable Robert Lee Bailey in Lincolnville, S.C. Bailey made a traffic stop that turned into every cop’s nightmare. Missing Cop’s Body Found and Identified.


jd chandler of the slabtown chronicle brings us more of an enigma than a story in Z on the Run.

That’s it for the crime stories submitted this week. But wait, there’s more…

Harding of TO Crime seems to be taking a break from crime writing at the moment, fortunately he’s still writing and this week he brings us an interesting story about keeping the peace at a soccer game – Policing the Trenches. Personally I’m not much of a sport’s fan, but what’s up with these Canadians anyway. It’s like they’re from a different country or something.

From Britain we are proud to welcome Gracchi from Westminster Wisdom. This is a blog about politics, but with a broad scope. The submission this week deals with a pet issue of our own Laura James of Clews – True Crime Writing; Is it Worth It? OK, I know that this is a British blog from academia, but does that mean you have to use such long paragraphs, Gracchi?

That’s it for the submissions this week. Come on guys, where are you? I don’t think it’s enough, so here are jd chandler’s picks of the week:

Laura James of CLEWS is one of my favorite crime bloggers and I love the focus she has on historical crime. She seems to be focusing her writing more on book reviews and author interviews than historical crimes these days (tsk, tsk), but I have two picks from her blog:

First the post that inspired our British friend Gracchi -- Who Makes Money Off Murder?

Second a guest blog by Kevin Sullivan which is a historical true crime story and it's creepy – The Valley Drive-in Murders

From the Netherlands, Nene Adams of The Year Round brings us an interesting look at drug addiction in the Victorian Era – The Demon From the Orient: An American's Palace-joint.

Last, but not least, Steve Huff of Crimeblog.us brings us an interview with the Mother of all True Crime Writers Ann Rule -- Ann Rule on Too Late to Say Goodbye

That’s it for this week’s carnival. I had fun and I hope you did too. If you would like to find older carnivals or submit a story for the next one then go here.

Z on the Run

Sometimes the most interesting stories start with a tiny little newspaper article that leaves more questions than answers. That happened to me last week. I ran across a five paragraph news brief in the Oregonian that left me wondering.

The headline said, Police seek man in Roommate’s slaying. It is the story of the death of 51 year-old Frank Clarence Johnson in his north Portland apartment. Johnson was killed by a blow to the head, probably during a fight with his roommate David Wayne French, 48.

Simple story. Not unusual, it seems. So why are there so many questions? Johnson was killed on May 4, but a warrant wasn’t issued for French’s arrest for nearly two weeks. The police say that French probably jumped out of a three story window as they were coming in the front door of the apartment, immediately after the killing. Why did it take them so long to issue a warrant for his arrest?

Here’s a quote from the Oregonian: “Police said that Johnson was trying to change his living situation with French.” The only thing I could think when I read this was, what are they not saying? The next paragraph tells us that David French is known to use the alias Zalia Crizta, or just the initial Z. He is 5 feet 6 inches tall, weighs 130 pounds and has long brown hair.

First thing I thought was, no wonder the Police can’t find him. I bet he could pass for a woman. Well, I didn’t learn it from the Oregonian, but French is a transgender “performer”. Here’s a good question: why didn’t I learn it from the Oregonian?

The next line raises even more questions: “Until recently, French had an Internet business and contacts across the West.” First question is what does this mean? Second question is why is the Oregonian being so cryptic? I haven’t been able to figure out the second question. All of the other media is reporting on the transgender angle, why does the Oregonian ignore it?

I can make a guess at what Z’s internet business was, but so far I haven’t found a trace of it. I’m still looking and I am hoping some of my more web savvy readers might give me a little help on that.

A man is dead. A killer is on the run. The police seem to be at a loss. Detective Molly Daul (503-823-0991) and Detective Barry Renna (503-823-0255) are asking for anyone who knows anything to call them. The Oregonian is writing the story in code. Somewhere there is an interesting story in this. I’m still working on it.

Happy Mother's Day

You might have heard the big news out of Portland this weekend is the “random” hammer attack at the Beaverton Fred Meyer. Sharon Weil, 56, of Cedar Mill was struck in the head with a hammer while buying groceries. The Oregonian tells us all about her plans to prepare a Mother’s Day brunch on Sunday. Her attacker Eric Osterholme is turning out to be a real piece of work.

Osterholme, who fractured Weil’s skull in Aisle 10 of the grocery store, turns out to have a violent past. Big surprise, huh? In 2002 he cursed at a 6-year-old boy in the parking lot of his apartment complex and then judo chopped the child in the throat. The little boy had been playing nearby and approached the neighbor to say, “Hi.” He should have listened when mom told him not to talk to strangers.

Osterholme proved himself to be a selfish and mean person during his arraignment on attempted murder charges. Asked by Judge Timothy Alexander if he had seen the charges against him, Osterholme complained about the food at the Washington County jail, saying, “I’m being force-fed meals that will cause a heart attack. I’m pre-diabetic.”

I can understand his health concerns. I probably wouldn’t want to eat the food in the Washington County Jail either, but then I wouldn’t hit anyone in the head with a hammer either.

The arraignment degenerated from there as Osterholme refused to respond or even listen until he was given better food. His next hearing will be on Monday when he will probably be indicted on charges of attempted murder, first degree assault and unlawful use of a weapon. Osterholme deserves to have the book thrown at him. In the 2002 case he was convicted of harassment and fined $300. He obviously didn’t take that very seriously.

Maybe he’s crazy, but it seems to me that he might just be a very selfish and mean man who needs to be locked up to keep his neighbors safe.

According to KGW-TV Fred Meyer officials say that nothing like this has ever happened before, but that’s not exactly true. There has been at least one murder in a Fred Meyer over the past few years. Even the random attack is not unprecedented. In fact it reminds me of an attack that took place in 1946.

On August 26, 1946 22-year-old Marine veteran William Kilpock was struck in the head with a hatchet while standing on the sidewalk in front of the Orpheum Theater on SW Park Ave. His attacker, Lenny Lloyd Brown, 40, was an ex-mental patient who was convicted of attempted murder. Kilpock was quoted in the Oregonian, “War is safer than standing in a Portland street.”

I feel safer knowing that “customer service remains [Fred Meyer’s] number one concern,” according to spokesperson Melinda Merrill. Fortunately Sharon Weil, a partner in a well-know property management firm with a reputation as a good cook, is recovering well. Her mother is still looking forward to having “a fabulous strawberry French toast brunch” with her daughter soon.

What Happened to Matthew Cantrell?

It’s been over a year since Matthew Cantrell was found dead, floating in the Willamette River. Before that was an agonizing month of searching for the 25-year old Portland newcomer. That month, Matthew’s father Tim drove in from Casper, WY to search for his son. Tim spent two weeks putting up fliers and talking to people who might know something about what happened to his son.

Tim Cantrell found out that his son, who had recently moved to Portland from Eugene, had worked a shift at the Delta Park Shari’s restaurant and then taken the MAX to downtown Portland. Matthew bought a gift for his girlfriend in Pioneer Courthouse Square and then stopped in at the H2O Martini Bar.

Matthew told the bartender at H2O that he would be back, before returning to the room he rented from a friend on N. Winchell St. Matthew had been in Portland for two weeks, planning to work and earn money to complete his education at the University of Oregon. Portland seemed like a big city to the young man and he wanted to go out exploring downtown.

About 10pm he called a friend from a payphone on N. Lombard St. He asked his friend to go downtown for a drink. His friend declined and that was the last anyone heard from Matthew until his body was found by a tugboat operator in the Willamette near NW Front and Kittridge more than a month later.

Tim Cantrell stayed in Portland as long as he could. The night before he had to leave someone broke into his pickup truck and stole his missing son’s snowboard. Portland has been very hard on the Cantrell family.

A year later Portland Crimestoppers is offering a $1,000 reward for information on this death, which police say is suspicious. No one believes that Matthew killed himself, but police said there were no signs of trauma on the body and they refuse to release the cause of death.

It’s a classic tale: the “clean-cut, All American boy” lonely and curious in a new city went out to explore and found more than he bargained for. Some one knows what happened to Matthew Cantrell.

No, I'm Not Okay

No-one really knows what happened to Fouad Kaady, 27, a Lebanese-American resident of Gresham, OR before he was shot to death by a Clackamas County Sheriff’s Deputy and a Sandy Police Officer on September 8, 2005. What we do know is that he is dead and the circumstances of his death raise serious questions about how police handle confrontations with injured and angry people.

The Clackamas County Shooting Review Board found that Deputy Dave Willard, one of the officers who fired shots at the naked, bleeding young man, had “acted within existing rules and regulations and according to current training.” If this is true, there should probably be some changes made to current training and existing rules and regulations.

Kaady’s death has become such a polarizing political issue that it is difficult to separate fact from opinion. The Sandy Post, a local paper in the Portland suburb, won an award for its reporting on this case and their website provides the clearest information. From their reporting of the police files released in October, 2005 it is clear that police acted in fear and created as much danger for the community as Kaady did. It is also clear that the officers distorted the facts in their version of the story.

Officers say that they feared the young man, who was bleeding severely from injuries and burns suffered during a car accident, “possessed chemically enhanced strength.” They are trying to imply that Kaady was under the influence of hard narcotics. There is no evidence of this at all. The evidence that might be able to prove the officers’ allegations, a Toxicolgy report, has not been released.

Most of Kaady’s friends said that he never used drugs, other than tobacco. There is some evidence that he may have been smoking marijuana earlier in the day, but it seems more likely that Kaady was under severe emotional stress, aggravated by a serious head injury and repeated Tasering by the officers.

Why did the officers Taser Kaady, a naked, injured man with a severe head wound and second and third degree burns over much of his body? Because he refused to lie down on his burned skin and they were afraid to touch him because he was covered with blood.

How did 27-year-old Foaud Kaady end up injured and burned and then shot to death by the police? That’s a harder story to tell.

Foaud Kaady was a graduate of Gresham High School and was well known around Gresham and Sandy. He was a painter and always willing to lend a helping hand to his neighbors. He had recently become a licensed real estate agent and was reportedly excited about joining his mother in the real estate business. The day of his death Kaady had planned to pick his mother up at the airport after a trip.

Friends said that Kaady had not been acting like himself for days, or even weeks, before his death, but no-one knew exactly what had happened. Sarah Maness, who knew Kaady for two years, said that he had been depressed and angry for a few weeks. “He’s been pissed at everything,” she told the Sandy Post.

Kaady’s father said that Kaady had recently broken up with his girlfriend. Other family members agree that he was under financial pressure, stressed about his break-up and some other unnamed problem. Other family members argued that he was not depressed and that he was very happy with his life.

Whatever Kaady’s state of mind, his actions on September 8, 2005 were odd. At 6:30am Kaady was spotted driving erratically in the parking lot of Mount Hood Community College. He was doing “donuts” and “burn-outs” in his pickup truck, some people do that for fun and the lot was probably empty at 6:30, but when a campus security officer approached Kaady acted strangely.

Security Officer Jefferson Potts said that as he approached the vehicle, Kaady accelerated the pickup and hopped over a three-foot embankment and onto Stark Street, bottoming out on the pavement. It is unclear how close Potts got to the vehicle, but he reported that it had a “strong smell of marijuana.”

Kaady was next seen at his father’s home wearing a suit. Rashid Kaady said that his son’s behavior was not unusual in any way.

At about 9:45am Kaady stopped at his usual drive through tobacco shop on Stark St. and bought two packs of cigarettes. Rudd McGarity, a clerk at Hilton Haven who had sold tobacco to Kaady before, told the Sandy Post that Kaady was not acting like himself. He over paid for his purchase, with change out of a big jar, and would not let the clerk return the extra change.

McGarity said that Kaady looked “frazzled” and he asked the young man if he was OK. Kaady replied, “No, I’m not okay.” McGarity said that Kaady looked “like he had the worst news of his life and had to go deal with it.”

Early that afternoon Kaady was seen parked in his pickup truck in the lot at Rick’s Custom Fencing on Stark about ten blocks from the tobacco shop. Kaady had run out of gas. Employees at Rick’s said the young man was acting “weird.” He “fooled around” in his truck for about ten minutes and then took off running in nothing but a pair of shorts.

Kaady’s sister said that wearing only shorts was Kaady’s “trademark” and that he ran to his father’s house to get a gas can for his truck. She said he returned to Rick’s in his mother’s car with a can of gas, but found that his pickup had been towed. Here’s where things really get weird.

According to the Sandy Post Kaady’s car was not towed from the lot at Rick’s until Saturday September 10, two days after Kaady was killed. For some reason Kaady drove in his mother’s car toward Sandy, a neighboring community.

Kaady’ sister says that a spark from Kaady’s cigarette ignited the gasoline can as he drove and Kaady crashed his car into two other cars while trying to put out the flames. The Buick LeSabre that Kaady was driving crashed into the vehicle of Tiffany Stanko, forcing her off the road.

Kaady then hit the car of Greg Elwell of Boring. Elwell, believing that the driver of the LeSabre was unconscious tried to slow both vehicles with his brakes, but then the LeSabre pulled away and the driver game him a “thumbs up” sign as he passed. Elwell said that Kaady was driving “completely crazy.”

Kaady’s body was severely burned on his upper torso, face and into his scalp, but the Oregon State Police Arson Investigating Team said there was no evidence that the fire started inside the vehicle. They said they found no evidence of a gas can inside the car.

Finally Kaady crashed the LeSabre into the woods, starting several fires in the dry brush. Read the story of this accident at the Sandy Post, you won’t believe it.

Kaady reportedly fought off would-be rescuers and wandered away from the accident before being confronted by the police on SE 362nd Ave. During the confrontation with the injured and distraught young man, Deputy Willard left a shotgun unattended on the hood of his vehicle. Later he said that he feared that Kaady would go for the shotgun and that’s why he fired three shots into the young man’s chest.

Willard also said that Kaady threatened to kill him and Police Officer William Bergin, who fired five shots at the young man. None of the witnesses on the scene heard death threats, but most agreed that Kaady “went crazy” after being Tasered three times and climbed onto the police car. None of them saw him go for the shotgun or lunge at the officers, as they both claimed at different times.

Witnesses on the scene said that Kaady was “docile” and sitting on the ground when the police arrived. He would not lie down at their command and so they Tasered him. Willard reported that Kaady was “kind of catatonic” when he arrived, but that he was afraid to approach him because of the blood that covered most of his badly burned body.

If this is the way Clackamas County Sheriff’s Deputies are trained to deal with accident victims then we need to rethink that training. Regardless of Kaady’s erratic behavior I wonder how threatening he would have been if he wasn’t walking naked, after losing his shorts in the accident, and if he didn’t look like an Arab.

Kaady’s family has filed a wrongful death suit against Clackamas County and the officers involved. Portland’s flamboyant attorney Gerry Spence is representing the family so there should be a good story to tell there eventually.

No Remorse

Beatrice Ward, 81, became Oregon’s second oldest prisoner last week when she was sentenced to 18 months for criminally negligent homicide in the death of Robert Carr, 89. Ward and Carr were described by a neighbor as a “loving couple,” but Carr’s family says that he was bruised on at least three occasions after fights with Ward.

Robert Carr was an ex-jockey and at 5’7" and 140 pounds he was about the same size as his girlfriend. They had been seeing each other for more than a decade. Friends say they saw each other nearly every day and often went for walks together in the neighborhood.

Last September Carr had had enough and he stopped seeing his abusive girlfriend. Beatrice Ward was not willing to take “no” for an answer. On September 13, Ward, angry that he did not come over, went to Carr’s house. She saw him drive away and followed him to a nearby Target store at Jantzen Beach.

In the parking lot Beatrice Ward charged Robert Carr and began hitting him and screaming at him. The older man fell to the pavement and received a fatal head injury.

Ward’s attorney, Scott Raivio, said that considering her advanced age and lack of a criminal record that a jail sentence was excessive. Deputy District Attorney Greg Moawad told the Oregonian, “There is no joy in sending an 81-year old woman to prison…. But I am confident that prison is the right outcome.”

Lynn Reinecker, daughter of the World War II veteran Carr said, “I hope through all of this she learns you can’t push people around.” Ward doesn’t seem to have learned any lessons, though. She was sullen and silent throughout the trial. After sentencing while she was being escorted out of the courtroom past Carr’s son and daughter all she would say is, “I’ve got my handcuffs.”

Reinecker, weeping had only one question, “What could he have said or done that he had to pay with his life.” It doesn’t look like she’ll get an answer. Beatrice Ward starts her short sentence this week.