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About The Observer. (La Grande, Or.) 1968-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 28, 2021)
INSIDE LA GRANDE SET FOR GREATER OREGON LEAGUE FOOTBALL SHOWDOWN IN BAKER CITY | October 28, 2021 SPORTS, A7 $1.50 THURSDAY EDITION OC T. 27– NO V. 3, 202 1 Cel ebra D te Mu ía de lo ert s os GE 3 WW W.G OE AS TER NO PA Prison INSIDE GET READY FOR HALLOWEEN, IN employees sue over vaccine mandate RE GO N.C OM Rea ‘G d Mr. oodb PA Chip ye, GE s’ 6 Lear O n wo nline rk wri PA GE shop tin g 17 Lis a Ch Britto urc pai hill n/Go! nt spe and Haunt Magaz thi cial eff lights ed Stu ine s 6:3 Friday ects. throug dios 0-9 hou uses 8 p.m p.m and Tour at ww . Tic ., or Saturd the hau t for Su nt nda ay $20 w.c kets at the hur are $15 y fro from chi llba do in m 5:3 or. 0- ker adv anc .co m, or e “T Th he fo eir od an IPAs is fre yo sh ne are else dist , loca lly mak inct 12 ing and sour 19 NW clea ced Was IPAs rly no and hing un .” - t be ton Ye copy lie Av lp -cat va e • Re bl view s of y de La , Be each Craft Live Beer Mu tio sic pub Seating eve websi nts (ch eck more te f inf PAGE 8 ww w.s id ea be Gr an er. de , OR co m lic ious . . Or othe eg r or on nd 97 85 0 ‘SHE IS MY MOTHER’ 4 of 5 plaintiffs work at Powder River Correctional Facility in Baker City By JAYSON JACOBY Baker City Herald BAKER CITY — Five state employees, four of whom work at the Powder River Correctional Facility in Baker City, have fi led a lawsuit challenging Gov. Kate Brown’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate. The lawsuit was fi led Oct. 20 in Baker County Circuit Court. In an Oct. 22 fi ling, Ellen Rosenblum, Oregon attorney gen- eral, said the case is being trans- ferred to U.S. District Court in Pendleton. The plaintiff s are Yeni Arteaga, Shawn D. Delve, James A. Klus- mier and Justin A. Phlaum, all of whom work at Powder River, and Kelcie Cathleen Wiley, who works at the Snake River Correctional Institution in Ontario. Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian The case The plaintiff s contend the governor’s mandate, which she announced in August and which took eff ect for some public employees on Oct. 18, violates both the Oregon and U.S. constitutions. The plaintiff s are asking a judge to issue an injunction barring the state from enforcing the gover- nor’s mandate while the lawsuit is pending. Three of the plaintiff s say they have previously been infected with COVID-19, and thus they have nat- ural immunity even though they’re not vaccinated. The plaintiff s are represented by Jon Jacob Conde, an attorney with the fi rm of Stunz, Fonda, Kiyuna, & Horton, LLP in Nyssa. The lawsuit is the latest of sev- eral legal challenges to Brown’s vaccine mandate. State or federal judges have so far made six rulings rejecting requests for injunctions temporarily stopping the mandate from taking eff ect. None of the challenges has been upheld. Most recently, U.S. Dis- trict Judge Ann Aiken last week rejected a motion from seven state workers, all of whom have been See, Lawsuit/Page A5 Suzanne Timms poses for a portrait alongside a missing person poster for her mother, Patricia Otto, and a collection of documents pertaining to her disappearance at her home in Walla Walla on Tuesday, Oct. 26, 2021. Timms believes Finley Creek Jane Doe, discovered near Elgin in August 1978, is her mother, who went missing in 1976. Walla Walla woman believes Finley Creek Jane Doe is her mom By DICK MASON The Observer WALLA WALLA, Wash. — Suzanne Timms was looking at a Facebook page that lists missing persons when she thought she saw someone familiar — herself. “I said, ‘Why am I there? I’m not a missing person,’” the Walla Walla, Wash- ington, woman said. A moment later Timms became con- vinced that the picture, which she fi rst saw in July, was not of herself but of her mother, Patty Otto, who has been missing since Sept. 1, 1976. What Timms saw was not a photograph but an image created in May by a forensic artist in Massachusetts, Anthony Redgrave, the operator of Redgrave Research Forensic Services. Redgrave was assisting a local group trying to identify a woman found in a shallow grave 10 miles northwest of Elgin in August 1978. The group is led by Melinda Jederberg of La Grande. Timms’ mother, a Lewiston, Idaho, resident whom Suzanne Timms last saw when she was 3 years old, may have been the person discovered in that shallow grave, which was near Finley Creek. She has since become known as the Finley Creek Jane Doe. Timms said the mystery involving the woman’s identify is solved in her mind. “I am certain she is my mother,” she said. Re-creating the face of what Timms believes is that of her mother took some creativity on Redgrave’s part. Red- grave had no actual skull to work with, just the digital copies of the photos the Oregon State medical examiner took of the remains after hunters found her. Timms is sure of Finley Creek Jane Doe’s identity not only because of the forensic image but also the red pants and white blouse a medical examiner’s report photo shows she was wearing. “That was exactly what my mom had on the last time I saw her,” Timms said. A Sept. 8, 1976, story in the Lewis- ton-Morning Tribune also said that Otto was wearing red pants and a white blouse before she disappeared from Lewiston. Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian Suzanne Timms holds up a set of dental X-rays belonging to her mother, Patricia Otto, on Tues- day, Oct. 26, 2021, at her home in Walla Walla. Timms’ mother was last seen on Aug. 31, 1976. Other similarities include the light brown or blond hair the article described, the same color Timms’ mom had. Size is another common characteristic. Finley Creek Jane Doe’s estimated height was 5 feet, 2 inches to 5 feet, 4 inches, the same height as Timms’ mother. Timms now wants to get DNA to verify that Finley Creek Jane Doe is her mother, which might prove challenging — Timms said Finley Creek Jane Doe was cremated in 1990 because her case had been closed by the state. Still, Timms is not giving up hope. She knows precisely where Finley Creek Jane Doe was found because her father-in-law, then a child, was with the two hunters, including his father, when they found her in 1978. He has taken Timms to the precise site and they have searched the area for human bone fragments, but none have been found. She hopes to return later with dogs trained to pick up the scent of human bones. Timms also hopes to be aided by someone trained in the science of scatter analysis who might be able to determine how the bones were spread out. See, Mother/Page A5 Drought conditions hang on despite rain Eastern Oregon will continue to deal with persistent drought until at least 2022, forecasters project By ALEX WITTWER The Observer LA GRANDE — The stub- born drought that hangs over most of Oregon isn’t going away anytime soon. “It’s going to take a season of probably above normal pre- cipitation to start bringing that drought down,” said Joe Solomon, a lead forecaster with the National Weather Service in Pendleton. “We could have a normal precipitation and that might lower the drought a little bit, but we’ll still be in a drought.” On drought maps, a scar of crimson red hangs over Eastern Oregon, dwarfed only by the deep burgundy warning of excep- tional drought that stretches from INDEX Business & Ag.......B1 Classified ...............B2 Comics ....................B5 Community...........A2 Crossword .............B2 See, Drought/Page A5 WEATHER Dear Abby .............B6 Horoscope .............B2 Lottery ....................A2 Obituaries ..............A3 Opinion ..................A4 SATURDAY Records ..................A3 Spiritual Life..........A6 Sports .....................A7 State ..................... A10 Sudoku ...................B5 Alex Wittwer/The Observer Fall colors are in full bloom along the Grande Ronde River at Riverside Park in La Grande on Monday, Oct. 25, 2021. Despite increased rain and wet conditions, drought conditions remain in Eastern Oregon. Full forecast on the back of B section Tonight Friday 53 LOW 57/34 Becoming cloudy Rain and drizzle SATELLITE DEVICES AID SEARCH & RESCUE CONTACT US 541-963-3161 Issue 127 3 sections, 36 pages La Grande, Oregon Email story ideas to news@lagrande observer.com. More contact info on Page 4A. Online at lagrandeobserver.com
