144TH YEAR, NO. 5
DailyAstorian.com // THURSDAY, JULY 7, 2016
ONE DOLLAR
COAST WEEKEND: ‘ONCE UPON A MATTRESS’ INSIDE
Lawyers
display
Smith
murder
evidence
Pretrial hearings
highlight core of the case
By KYLE SPURR
The Daily Astorian
Photos by Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
David Hinton, Elks Lodge 180 exalted ruler, stands for a portrait in front of photos of past exalted rulers on June 23 in Astoria.
North Coast
groups face
demographic,
culture shifts
By ELI STILLMAN
The Daily Astorian
The morning after Jessica Smith allegedly
murdered her infant and slashed her teenager
in a Cannon Beach resort, she abandoned her
hotel room and left a note saying she was
“opting out of life.”
She had reportedly
drugged and drowned
her 2-year-old, Isabella
Smith, and attempted
to kill 13-year-old
Alana Smith on July
31, 2014.
Housekeeping staff
could hear Alana slip-
ping and falling in the
hotel room, and called
Jessica
911 to report a disori-
Smith
ented female.
Cannon Beach Police Chief Jason Scher-
merhorn and Cannon Beach Assistant Fire
Chief Frank Swedenborg were the fi rst to
respond. They stood by as a maintenance
See TRIAL, Page 10A
he Loyal Order of Moose was once
a large organization among fraternal
societies of the Oregon Coast. Make
no mistake, the group is still very active in
the community with social events, as well as
fundraisers, but the number of engaged mem-
bers who put on these events has diminished.
The Moose Lodge isn’t the lone organization
struggling with membership in the last decade.
In a national trend refl ected locally, many societ-
ies are failing to recruit young members.
Some fraternities offer cash prizes to
members who can recruit, while others are
trying activities aimed at a younger demo-
graphic. Some worry, if they are unable to
attract younger members, the lodges’ futures
will be uncertain.
The Moose, which was created in the
1800s, originally served as a gentleman’s
social club. It was reinvented to become
a group that would build a better society
through charitable fundraisers and eventually
create Mooseheart, a 1,000-acre campus close
to Chicago that cares for children in need and
provides a complete education free of charge.
It runs entirely off of private donations and
has taken in over 12,000 kids since 1913.
Jim Hutchens was the governor of the
local Moose Lodge in 2015 and has a mem-
bership card that was issued in 1978.
Born and raised in Astoria, Hutchens has
seen the changes in fraternal organizations on
the coast throughout his life. He’s also been
a part of four of them: the Moose, American
Legion, Elks and the Eagles share members
as none have restrictions on dual enrollment.
In its heyday, Lodge 408 had almost 700
members, Hutchens said. Today, that number
has dropped below 500. National memberships
have dropped almost 70 percent in 10 years.
See SOCIETIES, Page 10A
Kent Johnson holds the door open for other Moose Lodge members as they enter
for breakfast on a recent Sunday morning. The Astoria Moose Lodge serves break-
fast every Sunday.
Too risky
to talk?
Cities try
text-to-911
By MICHAEL BALSAMO
Associated Press
Astoria Moose Lodge Administrator Doug Flesey chats with Moose Lodge Governor
Steve Huff during breakfast at the lodge on a recent Sunday morning in Astoria.
NEW YORK — With gunshots ring-
ing out just feet away, Eddie Justice hid in a
bathroom in the Pulse nightclub in Orlando,
Florida, and frantically texted his mother for
help.
“Call police,” he wrote. “I’m gonna
die.”
Moments later, he texted again: “Call
them mommy. Now. He’s coming.”
Justice, who would later be confi rmed
among the 49 people killed in last month’s
attack, was among several victims who tex-
ted relatives to call 911, fearing they would
draw too much attention by making voice
calls.
None of them could text 911 directly
because Orlando is among the vast majority
of U.S. cities that don’t have that capability.
Amid a cluster of deadly mass shootings,
police departments are exploring technology
See TEXT-TO-911, Page 7A
Town and country offer differing realities
This story is part of
Divided America, AP’s ongo-
ing exploration of the eco-
nomic, social and political
divisions in American society.
By NICHOLAS
RICCARDI
Associated Press
ROCKY FORD, Colo.
— Peggy Sheahan’s rural
Otero County is steadily los-
ing population. Middle-class
jobs vanished years ago as
pickling and packing plants
closed. She’s had to cut back
on her business repairing bro-
ken windshields to help nurse
her husband after a series of
farm accidents, culminating
in his breaking his neck fall-
ing from a bale of hay.
She collects newspaper
clippings on stabbings and
killings in the area — one
woman’s body was found in a
fi eld near Sheahan’s farm —
as heroin use rises.
“We are so worse off, it’s
unbelievable,” said Sheahan,
65, who plans to vote for Don-
ald Trump.
In Denver, 175 miles to the
northwest, things are going
better for Andrea Pacheco.
Thanks to the Supreme Court,
the 36-year-old could fi nally
marry her partner, Jen Win-
ters, in June. After months
navigating Denver’s super-
heated housing market, they
snapped up a bungalow at the
edge of town. Pacheco sup-
ports Hillary Clinton to build
on President Barack Obama’s
legacy.
“There’s a lot of posi-
tive things that happened —
obviously the upswing in the
economy,” said Pacheco, a
36-year-old fundraiser for
nonprofi ts. “We were in a
pretty rough place when he
started out and I don’t know
anyone who isn’t better off
eight years later.”
See DIVIDED, Page 7A
AP Photo/Brennan Linsley
Navy veteran and out of work chef Bill Hendren talks with
his dog in a cottage on the property of a landowner who
is allowing him to stay rent-free for a year in exchange for
work, outside Manzanola, Colo., in Otero County. Hendren,
55, once worked in Texas nightclubs but there’s nothing
comparable in Otero County, where the largest town has a
population of 6,900.