SINCE 1979 • VOLUME 39, NO. 23
SECTION A
MARCH 9, 2018
$1.00
Christina
Speten's body
was found on
Valentine's
Day 2011. No
one has yet
been charged.
Who
killed
NO. 39
• VOLUME 38,
SINCE 1979
$1.00
JUNE 30, 2017
SECTIO N A
BECOMING
RNEY TO
EPIC JOU GUE BASEBALL
LEAGUER’S
LEA
ER LITTLE ROOKIE IN MAJOR
ONE KEIZ
LD
A 32 YEAR-O
WILEY
By DEREK mes
Of the Keizerti Bibens - Dirkx
Austin
times
six different
warmed up
bullpen before
in the Rangers called to the
he was fi nally
make his Major
in
mound to
on May 17
League debut
Texas.
old rookie,
As a 32-year-
years
11
than
who spent more Bibens-Dirkx
in the minors,
waiting.
was used to
“I had a
smile on my
pretty
face
the
much
whole time,”
Dirkx
Bibens- Dirkx
his
— Austin Bibens-
said of
fi rst appear-
ance in the big
leagues, which of the ninth
top
came in the
lead-
the Rangers
with
inning
was the perfect
ing 9-2. “It
try to give
time. They always when you
you a soft landing and not put
make your debut
pressure situa-
you in a high
take a step back
tion. I had to
pitches off
ng
after my warmup
take everythi
the mound to breath and then
in, take a deep
get back on.”
strike on his
After a called
hit
Bibens-Dirkx
Bibens-Dirkx,
fi rst pitch,
elder ABOVE: Austin
and for-
Phillies outfi
,
McNary graduate
Philadelphia
with his second. a mer Keizer Little Leaguer
Rangers
up
Aaron Altherr
followed
for the Texas
irkx
in
11 seasons
But Bibens-D t on a curveball pitches
more than
with a strikeou elder Michael after minor leagues.
the
aul Moseley
EGRAM/P
the
and got outfi
STAR-TEL
pop out to
Saunders to two outs, third
right,
Bibens-Dirkx,
,
a
catcher. With
hit
RIGHT:
Franco
Roland Herrera's
baseman Maikel eld to score played on
eague Ju-
e people
“ I want to prov you should
say
wrong and
me a chance.”
have given
PAGE A
Chrissy? A9
CHECK
OUT
PAGE
Keizer has only one unsolved murder,
we wanted to know more about the victim
windows to prevent people from
By ERIC A. HOWALD
Not a ‘cold case,’ dormant
opening them from the outside and she
Of the Keizertimes
Editor’s note: We are not using the last
names of the women in this interview to
protect their privacy and because of their fear
of reprisal.
Sharon knew something was wrong
in the days leading up to discovering
her daughter’s body in her Keizer
apartment on Feb. 14, 2011. It was in
plain sight when she looked in the
windows.
“Chrissy had sticks
she put behind
her
checked them every night,” said Sharon.
“When I looked in her window, the
stick was sitting on the window sill.”
Christina “Chrissy” Michelle Speten
was 43 when her mother and one of
Christina’ friends found Christina
dead of blunt force trauma to the
head and under a blanket inside her
apartment on Orchard Court North
in west Keizer. While Keizer Police
Department doesn’t consider her death
a “whodunit,” not enough evidence has
ever presented itself to charge anyone
with her murder.
“There are people who we think
know what happened and those
people don’t want to be
Please see WHO,
Page A8
FOR
BO
GO
By ERIC A. HOWALD
Of the Keizertimes
From the beginning, the murder of Christina
Speten was never a “whodunit,” said Det. Tim
Lathrop, of the Keizer Police Department.
Lathrop said the investigation has led to people
who they were believed involved in the murder,
but never enough concrete evidence leading to
charges.
“The thing is that we need enough probable
cause to charge someone. If we charged someone
and didn’t have that evidence and they go to trial,
we might lose our chance,” Lathrop said. “A lot
of time, time is on our side. People get frustrated
about the time it takes, but if we have the proper
evidence we get a conviction.”
Speten was found dead in her west Keizer
apartment on Feb. 14, 2011. Police were summoned
to the scene after her mother enlisted a friend to
crawl in a window at the apartment and check to
FREE
OFFER
You
think
you
know.
Please see CASE, Page A6
MHS honored for all-in on AVID
By DEREK WILEY
Of the Keizertimes
McNary took a giant step
in becoming the fi rst AVID
National Demonstration High
School in Oregon.
On Feb. 23, Keizer’s high
school was informed it was be-
ing named an AVID School-
wide Site of Distinction, put-
ting it in select company with
only three other high schools
in the state.
“We tell our kids that get-
ting a diploma from McNary
High School means more be-
cause of the experiences that
you get here that you are not
going to get at any other 6A
high school,” principal Erik
Jespersen said. “We are going
to be the fi rst national dem-
onstration school at the high
school level and as a result of
that the things that kids are
going to get as an experience
of going through McNary is
going to be unbelievable.”
MHS submitted metrics
from the 2016-17 school year
to document school-wide
growth and performance in
order to become an AVID site
of distinction.
Sixty percent of teach-
ers must be AVID-trained. At
McNary, that num-
ber is 61 and doesn’t
count the 19 teach-
ers that went to
the AVID summer
institute last year
to bring the total
to over 70 percent.
Another summer
at the institute and
McNary could be at
80 percent.
“Three
years
ago I told our staff
in a meeting in the
choir room, if you
have not ever been
to a summer insti-
tute and you desire
to go, we will fi nd a
way, and we have,”
Jespersen said. “We
haven’t turned away
anyone. We’ve had
a great partnership
with Nike. They’ve
KEIZERTIMES/Derek Wiley
been tremendous. McNary High School AVID students took part in a fi lming project that will be used at other schools in
They’ve helped pay December. The Keizer high school was named an AVID Site of Distinction in February.
for a lot of these
trainings.”
83 percent who use WICOR. at least one course of rigor— shows you’re above the aver-
Seventy percent of teachers
While 100 percent of Mc- AP or dual enrollment. Sev- age school that has AVID and
must routinely use WICOR Nary’s leadership team is enty-two percent of students clearly we are,” said Jespersen,
(Writing, Inquiry, Collabora- on the AVID site team, the took pre-collegiate exams and who is even more proud of
tion, Organization and Read- benchmark is 50 percent. more than 73 percent of se- other numbers that have come
ing) in their classroom in- Nearly 85 percent of McNary niors applied to college.
from McNary using AVID
struction. McNary has nearly juniors and seniors enrolled in
“This is something that
Please see AVID, Page A6
SINCE 1979
• VOLUME 38,
NO. 50
SEPTEMBER
SUV EVENT
15, 2017
$1.00
Skate park wo
rk
breathes w
life
into loc al ne
scene
KEIZERT
our of parks talks with members
of the Keizer IMES/Eric A. Howald
Monday, Sept.
City Council
11.
and
By ERIC A.
HOWALD
Of the Keizerti
the kids doing
mes
tricks like that
Saturday, Sept.
9, is a day in years,” Johnson eagerly
that Robert
told city councilo
rs and
remember for Johnson will board
members during parks
a while.
After overseei
a tour
of parks Monday
,
group of voluntee ng a huge
Johnson stopped Sept. 11.
rs removin
his
wood chips
from the Big g pulled into the parking car and
Toy, watch
the Keizer
lot to
parks supervis
the
was on his way
or use of kids and adults make
past Carlson home driving facility. the newly-rehabbed
Within a few
when somethi Skate Park he was
minutes
outside his car
ng unexpec
happened.
ted with people
taking
using the park
“I saw this head
the fi rst time
for
in a
the ramps when pop up over
“This park while.
someone did
had become
a trick off the
center diamond a scooter park because
It was the fi
. scooters
rst time I've
are the only the
seen
ones
Please
’s actions co
uld end
with deporta
tion of MHS
grad
see SKATE,
By ERIC A.
HOWALD
Of the Keizerti
mes
Page A8
Lady Celts
start 4 -1
PAGE A11
New pastor
PAGE A4
School dist
rict
fears regardin works to quell
g end of DAC
A
SALES
See page B8
for more details
To be
sure,
read
KT
families that
Our stance are concerned.
is that w
Design b
Keizer
3555 River Road N, Keizer
(503) 463 - 4853
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