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LA GRANDE SET FOR GREATER OREGON LEAGUE FOOTBALL SHOWDOWN IN BAKER CITY |
October 28, 2021
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‘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
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Issue 127
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La Grande, Oregon
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