LOCAL
TUESDAY, APRIL 21, 2020
THE OBSERVER — 5A
MYSTERY
OPEN
Continued from Page 1A
Continued from Page 1A
woman wore. The report
also points out police found
a 4-foot-long piece of nylon
cord and an approximately
2-foot-long radio cord with
the remains.
Dale Mammen of La
Grande remembers the
scene well. He was the
county’s district attorney
then.
“I could probably go
to the spot,” he said. “It’s
one of those things that’s
embedded in your mind.”
The grave was about
100 feet off a road, across
the dry bed of Finley, up
an small embankment and
under a log.
Two hunters noticed
bones, he said, which ani-
mals had savaged. The
hunters realized the bones
were human.
Nothing indicated the
woman was local, he said,
and no one could fi nd any
reports of missing people
here. Mammen said he fi g-
ured she was a loner or had
her own network of rela-
tionships. He also said he
and his offi ce suspected
she may have been a victim
of one of the most prolifi c
serial killers of the Pacifi c
Northwest.
“My theory on that at
the time,” he said, “and
still is, it was about the
time the Green River Killer
was active.”
Gary Leon Ridgway
is serving life in prison at
Washington State Peniten-
tiary, Walla Walla, for mur-
dering 49 women, although
he has confessed to almost
twice that many.
But Jederberg and team-
mate Kether Senn of Pend-
leton have their own the-
ories. They said there are
similarities with the Lewis
for testing needed to be
in place before lessening
restrictions.
Wallowa County phy-
sician Dr. Ron Polk also
expressed concerns about
the availability of testing
and personal protective gear
and the consequent risk to
health care workers as well
as citizens. He said the only
way to know if there is sub-
stantial risk is to have test
results from an appropriate
sampling of residents for
COVID-19 infection using
a test with suffi cient sensi-
tivity and specifi city.
“If we knew there were
25 or 50 residents who are
currently infected but who
are asymptomatic, would
the county commissioners
still want business to
reopen on May 1?” he said.
Photo contributed by Oregon State Police
Hunters in late August 1978 found these remains in a shallow grave about 18 miles
north of La Grande. Now, local Melinda Jederberg is working with others to identify
the Jane Doe in the case.
Clark Valley murders, a
cluster of unsolved killings
and disappearances that
occurred in northern Idaho
between 1979-82.
“I feel like there might
be a connection with that,”
Senn said.
She came across Jeder-
berg’s work via the Face-
book page in 2019. Senn
said true crime already was
an interest, and the local
case caught her.
“I got really interested
in it,” she said. “It kind of
hit home to me, especially
seeing she was pregnant.
How could this happen?”
Between caring for
three children, Senn said
she has devoted a “lot of
time on this late at night
reading articles” to help
crack the mystery. She and
Jederberg also have their
eyes on Harry Hantman as
a suspect.
Harry Anthony
Hantman was 44 when
the law caught up to him
in 1993 outside a motel
in Lewiston, Idaho. He
escaped on Christmas
Day 1973 from St. Eliza-
beth’s Hospital in the Dis-
trict of Columbia, the same
mental hospital where John
W. Hinckley was incarcer-
ated after he shot President
Ronald Reagan in 1981.
Hantman was 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
girl in Washington, D.C.,
according to the Lewiston
Tribune.
After escaping,
Hantman made his way
west, Jederberg said, and
hid out near Joseph under
the alias Andrew Dorian.
He was even married and
took classes at EOU.
When federal mar-
shals caught Hantman, he
had a warrant in Oregon
on charges of kidnapping,
raping and sodomizing a
Japanese exchange student.
PARADE
Continued from Page 1A
of goodwill.
“That tickled everyone,”
the Central principal said.
Some families were
so anxious to say hello
to teachers and staff that
they drove through the line
more than once.
“It provided (the
teachers and staff) with a
much-needed connection
with their kids,” Mayes
said.
Central secretary
Connie Ingerson was
among the many who
embraced this opportunity.
“We miss them ter-
ribly,” she said.
Many students had
not seen their teachers
in person in more than
a month. Communica-
tion has been limited to
social media platforms as
part of a distance learning
program the La Grande
School District has put
in place. Communicating
virtually, in the eyes of
many educators, pales in
comparison.
“It is hard when you see
each other only on video,”
Mayes noted.
The principal said many
SENIORS
Continued from Page 1A
they appear to be on the
exterior of the library’s win-
dows, but they are indeed
on the interior of the win-
dows. This was done to pre-
vent vandalism, Malone
said.
Senior Nicholas
DuVernay said he is
impressed with the time and
effort LHS’s staff put into
the project.
“They gave a lot of time
in the middle of the day to
recognize us,” DuVernay
said.
Senior Alyssa Schelin
seconds what DuVernay
said.
“They went out of their
way to make us feel spe-
cial,” she noted.
Senior Katelyn Wil-
liams said one of the things
she likes about the display
is that it is designed in a
way that creates a sense of
togetherness.
Senior Kenzie Wil-
liams also is delighted her
class is being saluted in this
Photo contributed by Calandra Johnson
Staff from Central Elementary School in La Grande line
the campus Friday during a drive-by-and-wave parade.
of Central’s staff long
to return to face-to-face
teaching.
“Our true purpose in
manner.
“It is a cool way to rec-
ognize it,’’ she said.
Members of the window
display team, Malone said,
were worried at fi rst there
would not be enough space
available for the names of
the graduates, but it turned
out they had space to spare.
LHS’s traditional grad-
uation had been scheduled
for May 30 but it appears
increasingly unlikely such
a commencement exercise
will occur.
LHS assistant principal
Brett Smith said if the grad-
uation ceremony is not
allowed, many other steps
will be taken to salute the
class of 2020.
“We will make it memo-
rable and fun,” said Smith,
noting that a committee of
community members, par-
ents, school staff and stu-
dents will determine how
the seniors will be saluted.
Smith said the graduates
are worthy of much credit.
“They deserve to be rec-
ognized because they have
accomplished a lot in 13
years,” Smith said.
life has been taken away
from us,” she said.
About 150 students
pick up lunches and break-
Jederberg said Hantman
checks a lot of boxes in
this case. Senn said some-
thing in her gut “just keeps
pointing to him.”
But for Jederberg,
catching any killer would
be the cherry on top.
She said the real work
is about identifying the
young woman and fi nding
her remains. State police
shipped the remains to
a crematorium in Walla
Walla, she said, but
after that no one has any
paperwork.
“I want to fi nd her fi nal
site. I’m just not quite
there,” she said.
Jederberg also said the
woman had to have family
— there has to be people
who knew her. If she could
fi nd the remains, maybe
she could give them to Jane
Doe’s relatives.
“She deserves her
name,” Jederberg said. “It’s
really about getting her
name for her and laying her
to rest.”
fasts on weekdays at Cen-
tral. Many of the students
receiving meals knew of
the plans for the parade
from seeing messages on
Facebook.
“They were giggly,”
Mayes said of the students.
“They were so happy
(to see the teachers and
staff).”
Monica West, Central’s
assistant principal, came
up with the idea for the
spirit and wave parade.
West did not need to spend
any time persuading staff
members to participate.
“Everyone jumped on
board,” Mayes said.
All the staff members
who participated in the
parade stayed for all 90
minutes. Mayes had feared
that some would have to
leave early because of
other responsibilities, dis-
appointing the students
who arrived later.
“Nobody left,” Mayes
said.
“It was awesome.”
The principal said she is
proud of how her teachers
and the school’s staff are
responding to the profes-
sional challenges posed by
the pandemic.
“They have a good atti-
tude,” she said.
COURTS
Continued from Page 1A
Department of Justice later
(Monday).
Non-unanimous juries
have been part of Oregon’s
Constitution since 1934,
when voters adopted the
practice. Legal scholars
argue non-unanimous juries
are rooted in discrimina-
tion, and that Oregon’s law
was originally intended to
silence the voices of Cath-
olic and Jewish immigrants
in the state.
In Louisiana, the law
was directly tied to Jim
Crow laws and aimed to
make it easier to convict
black defendants so white
landowners could maintain
a cheap, post-slavery labor
force. In November 2018,
Louisiana voters scrubbed
non-unanimous juries from
“If we had no positive test
results in an adequate sam-
pling, and had a strategy to
prevent or identify reintro-
duction of the virus, then
a phased reopening might
present an acceptable risk.”
The letter states, in part:
“Our businesses are strug-
gling as are others, and the
longer the restrictions are
in place the more it is dam-
aging their fi nancial well-
being. Small businesses
can’t survive much longer
under these rules, and we
hope you can weigh the
public health considerations
in our counties and the dire
economic circumstances
our citizens face. We are
isolated out here so social or
physical distancing is pretty
normal. As you know, every
business in these areas is
considered ‘essential’ to us.
We need and want them all
back to work soon, prefer-
ably by May 1st.”
their state’s Constitution.
But that didn’t prevent
the Supreme Court from
agreeing to hear a case that
directly dealt with the issue
of non-unanimous juries.
In recent years in
Oregon, there’s been a
growing recognition about
the state’s racist and dis-
criminatory past, as well as
an understanding among
many state lawmakers and
elected offi cials — even
the state’s district attorneys
— that there should be no
doubt among jurors when
convicting a defendant of a
crime.
Oregon legal experts
have disagreed on how best
to adopt unanimous juries
without overturning many
past convictions.
———
Observer reporter
Sabrina Thompson contrib-
uted to this article.
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Grande Ronde Hospital and Clinics proudly welcomes:
Kim Myers, AGACNP-BC, FNP-BC
To the Grande Ronde Hospital team as a Hospitalist
Kim Myers, dual-certified nurse practitioner, joins the GRH Hospitalist team from Altamonte
Springs, Florida, where she worked as a nursing instructor and simulation coordinator for the
Cambridge Institute of Allied Health & Technology. She completed her Master's Degree at the
University of South Alabama, and her undergraduate degree at Adventist University of Health
Sciences. In the future, Kim hopes to complete her doctor of
nursing practice degree. Kim has interests in whole person, patient-
centered care, with special interests in inpatient, critical care, and
palliative care medicine. Outside of work, Kim enjoys spending time
with her husband, four children, and Labrador retriever. She has
interests in travel, reading, cooking, scuba diving, sailing, hiking,
running, and horseback riding.
Grande Ronde Hospital
Kim Myers, AGACNP-BC, FNP-BC
900 Sunset Drive, La Grande • 541.963.8421
Learn more about Kim in our online
Provider Directory at www.grh.org today!