A 60-year-old Laytonville man was found dead of a suspected drug overdose in his home Sunday. An autopsy has been ordered.
Terry Allen Cohen had been scheduled for a mental competency hearing Friday to determine whether he was fit to face a retrial for the 2008 murder of Sean Jason Piper.
Last week Kenneth Rogers, 52, of Westport, was sentenced to a term of 25 years to life in prison for the June 2005 attempted murder for hire of political rival Alan Simon, 53, also of Westport.
Rogers was found convicted by jury trial in July 2009 of conspiracy to commit first degree murder; attempted murder with special findings of willfulness, deliberation, and premeditation.
A pre-trial was set on Monday for one of two men who face charges related to the apparent killing of a Willow Creek man in February. Limmie Greg Curry III, 19, had a pre-trial date set for May 3 at 2 p.
A Laytonville man who apparently tried to kill himself twice during his murder trial has now succeeded.
A Laytonville man who apparently tried to kill himself twice during his murder trial has now succeeded.
Local man jailed after stabbing [Daily Triplicate]
Suspect found walking on Howland Hill Road
A Crescent City man was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder Thursday after a March 29 fight left a man with a stab wound to the face.
The motive for the stabbing is still not known, Del Norte County Sheriff’s Commander Tim Athey said Friday.
Witness recalls night of shooting [Daily Triplicate]
Murder suspect will also face kidnap charge
A 23-year-old local woman recounted her harrowing tale of survival at a preliminary hearing Tuesday for the man accused of killing Crescent City resident Amy Kaufmann.
Austy McCann testified she was with Kaufmann the night she was murdered at a house on P.J. Murphy Memorial Drive in Klamath, and was standing face-to-face with the suspected killer when he turned the murder weapon on her and asked her why he should let her live.
On April 8, 1988, 27-year-old was reported missing to Humboldt County law enforcement. Few leads were founds and Ms. Turpin was never found. In February of 2010 a man now living in North Carolina contacted the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office and said when he was 16 years-old he had witnessed his father murder Ms. Turpin. The man reported that in 1988 his father, Ernest Samuel Christie Jr., murdered Ms. Turpin near their Fieldbrook home. The man was able to provide Sheriff’s Detectives with a map of the location where her body had been disposed of.
During the ensuing investigation, Christie’s son went on to explain that his father was violent and abusive and was a frequent user of methamphetamine. His son – now 38 – explained that in 1988 his father brought Ms. Turpin to their residence in Fieldbrook. Christie held Mr. Turpin at the house for several weeks and killed her after weeks of abuse. After killing Ms. Turpin, Christie made his son help dump her body in a ditch, cover it with tires, douse it in gasoline and set it on fire.
Sheriff’s Detectives, Deputies, and the Sheriff’s Evidence Technician searched the area marked on the maps provided by Christie’s son. The area was a now-overgrown ditch in a wooden area near Fieldbrook. The search yielded teeth, clothing, and charred bones. Yesterday a forensic odontologist positively identified the remains as Lysandra Turpin.
When asked if he remembered if his father had been involved in any other killings, Christie’s son reported that his father once held a woman prisoner inside a Redwood tree stump. She was able to escape and did not report her ordeal to law enforcement. He provided a description of the location and Sheriff’s personnel located the tree stump. Hollowed out, and only accessible by climbing over the top and back down inside of it, Special Services Deputies made access into the stump from the ground with a chainsaw. Inside they found a carpet, plastic jugs, a hypodermic syringe, and clothing. The victim in this incident has since passed away of natural causes.
Christie’s son related other accounts of his father terrorizing women, once taking a woman out to his fishing boat, tying her up and telling her he was going to kill her. She was able to escape when Christie became distracted. Detectives interviewed this victim recently when the case came to light. She confirmed the incident.
Ernest Samuel Christie Jr. died on June 29, 2006. His son, who came forward with the information, Ernest Samuel Christie III, was 16 years-old when his father forced him to witness the murder of Ms. Turpin. He is not facing criminal charges.
Nearly 22 years ago, the body of 27-year-old Lysandra Marie Turpin was dumped in a Fieldbrook ditch and burned in a pile of tires and gasoline. In February, Humboldt County Sheriff’s deputies found Turpin’s remains, just 14 teeth, some bone
A 32-year-old Fort Bragg man who was charged with murder in a February 2009 shooting pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter in the Superior Court of Mendocino County Tuesday afternoon.
A 32-year-old Fort Bragg man who was charged with murder in a February 2009 shooting pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter in the Superior Court of Mendocino County Tuesday afternoon.
The jury trial for James Robert Stanko, who faces charges of murder and armed robbery, was moved to May in a trial confirmation hearing on Monday. Humboldt County public defender Ken Robinson submitted a motion Monday to continue Stanko’s trial,
More than a year after her husband was brutally murdered, Christian Pease still finds herself feeling lost, confronting an empty sadness and a festering anger.
The Daily Journal
A 60-year-old Laytonville man charged with murder in connection with a 2008 shooting in the Laytonville area is scheduled to be in court April 16 to determine if he is competent to stand trial.
‘A small town boy’ [Daily Triplicate]
Family recalls murder victim’s ‘generous soul’
Taylor Powell came back to Del Norte County to stay out of trouble.
While Powell was born at Seaside Hospital in Crescent City in 1988, his parents moved to Tacoma, Wash., when he was about 12. It was a transition they thought would be good for their son, and something that would provide better learning opportunities for him.
But according to his parents and other family members, he never quite acclimated to life in Washington, and after a few years decided to move back to Del Norte County to live with aunts and uncles.
