A2
THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, JANUARY 4, 2022
IN BRIEF
Crash damages walkway in Seaside
SEASIDE — A Warrenton man was charged
after a single-vehicle crash Thursday night caused
property damage to the city boardwalk area on the
south side of First Avenue near the Seaside Civic
and Convention Center.
Joshua Bell, 33, was arrested for driving under
the infl uence of intoxicants, reckless driving and
criminal mischief.
The city does not have an estimate yet of the
damages.
“We will be looking at hiring a subcontractor to
rebuild the sidewalk and walkway,” Dale McDow-
ell, the city’s public works director, said.
Transit district seeking volunteers
for budget committee
The Sunset Empire Transportation District is
looking for volunteers who would like to serve on
the budget committee.
The committee, which is made up of seven dis-
trict board members and seven residents who serve
three-year terms, has fi ve vacant community posi-
tions, with one being a two-year fulfi llment of a
term.
The committee typically meets once a year
in the spring, but can hold additional meetings if
needed.
Interested volunteers should send a letter of
interest, which can be emailed to jeff @ridethe-
bus.org, dropped off at the Astoria Transit Center
or mailed to Sunset Empire Transportation District,
900 Marine Drive, Astoria, OR., 97103.
— The Astorian
Oregon begins tracking
homeless deaths with new law
For the last decade, only one Oregon county has
tracked the deaths of people experiencing home-
lessness. That’s about to change with a new law that
took eff ect Jan. 1.
The law requires death reports to indicate if
someone was homeless at their time of death, simi-
lar to the way Multnomah County has tracked deaths
through its “Domicile Unknown” report since
2011.
When compiling a report, state medical examin-
ers would check a box called “domicile unknown”
if they determined a person was homeless when
they died. The examiner could also report the dece-
dent’s last known address.
— Oregon Public Broadcasting
DEATHS
Jan. 1, 2022
Deaths
HAMILTON,
Amy
Elizabeth, 46, of Seaside,
died in Seaside. Ocean
View Funeral & Cre-
mation Service of Asto-
ria is in charge of the
arrangements.
HOYER,
Lois
Blanche, 95, of Seaside,
died in Seaside. Caldwell’s
Luce-Layton Mortuary of
Astoria is in charge of the
arrangements.
KAINO,
Ronald
Edward, 89, of Ham-
mond, died in Hammond.
Caldwell’s
Luce-Lay-
ton Mortuary of Asto-
ria is in charge of the
arrangements.
PURO, Darlene Ellen,
82, of Astoria, died in
Warrenton.
Caldwell’s
Luce-Layton Mortuary of
Astoria is in charge of the
arrangements.
Dec. 30, 2021
CAPPS, John Les-
ter, 71, of Astoria, died
in Astoria. Caldwell’s
Luce-Layton Mortuary of
Astoria is in charge of the
arrangements.
Dec. 29, 2021
CRAM,
Benedine
Mary, 77, of Seaside, died
in Seaside. Ocean View
Funeral & Cremation Ser-
vice of Astoria is in charge
of the arrangements.
Dec. 24, 2021
KELLY,
Roberta
Cheryl, 64, of Seaside,
died in Portland. Cald-
well’s Luce-Layton Mor-
tuary in Astoria is in charge
of the arrangements.
ON THE RECORD
Criminal trespass
On
Record
• Keith the
Alan Byman,
33, of Warrenton, was arrested
Friday at Fred Meyer in Warrenton for criminal tres-
pass in the fi rst degree.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
TUESDAY
Clatsop County Fair Board, 5:30 p.m., 92937 Walluski
Loop, Astoria.
Cannon Beach City Council, 6 p.m., City Hall, 163 E.
Gower St.
WEDNESDAY
Clatsop County Board of Commissioners, 10 a.m., work
session, (electronic meeting).
Clatsop Community College Board, 2 p.m., work session,
(electronic meeting).
Knappa School District Board, 5:30 p.m., work session,
Knappa High School Library, 41535 Old U.S. Highway 30.
Gearhart City Council, 7 p.m., (electronic meeting).
PUBLIC MEETINGS
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NEW YEAR’S
SUNSET
Lydia Ely/The Astorian
People spend the last few moments of light on New Year’s Day at Cannon Beach.
No charges against driver in fatal
crash near Warrenton in 2020
By ERICK BENGEL
The Astorian
A woman who police say
caused a double-fatal traffi c
crash south of Warrenton in
2020 will not be charged with
a crime, the Clatsop County
District Attorney’s Offi ce
said.
On Nov. 4, 2020, then-
26-year-old Rachael Eliza-
beth Forrest, heading north
on U.S. Highway 101 in a
Lincoln Navigator, missed
a curve and struck a south-
bound Toyota RAV4, which
careened into the northbound
lane and collided with an
Oregon Department of Trans-
portation vehicle.
The Toyota’s occupants
— Ilwaco, Washington, resi-
dents Randall Jack Shine, 63,
and Patricia Ann Shine, 71
— died. A dog in the car was
also killed.
The transportation depart-
ment employees went to
the hospital. Forrest was
uninjured.
Forrest was initially
arrested for driving under the
infl uence of intoxicants and
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reviewed the case, wrote:
“I agree with the assess-
ment that Ms. Forrest caused
this horrible tragedy, that she
is responsible, but I do not
believe we would be able
to establish, beyond a rea-
sonable doubt, that a crime
occurred.”
McCracken wrote that
the decision not to prosecute
Forrest was a diffi cult one,
“reached through consulta-
tion and conversation with
others.”
“It was certainly an awful
case,” Brown said.
Hope: ‘He was just trying to fi gure out what to do’
Continued from Page A1
tour, he fi nished out his last
months in California before
returning to Seaside.
“He was just trying to
fi gure out what to do, and
struggling,” Fairless said.
“He felt civilian life was
just not for him. He gave
up trying. He would say all
the time, ‘The only thing I
know how to do is kill.’ So
he ended up going back into
the military.”
He enlisted in the Oregon
National Guard and served
as a sergeant with American
forces in Afghanistan.
“He was trying to reas-
sure me that I didn’t need
to worry, that somehow
occupation with the Army
National Guard is a lot
safer than invasion with the
Marine Corps,” she said.
“He was telling me, ‘There’s
a Starbucks and I’m going
shopping.’”
He was in Afghanistan
for about a year, but recur-
ring injuries prevented him
from joining his platoon
on their next assignment in
Africa. He returned home.
“That was a hard blow,”
Fairless said. “He was just
trying to fi gure out what to
do and struggling.”
Her brother felt “weird”
about his medals — a Pur-
ple Heart for valor, a
National Defense Service
Medal, Army Service Rib-
bon, Overseas Service Rib-
bon, Sea Service Deploy-
ment Ribbon, NATO Medal
and more.
“He felt like he didn’t
deserve them,” she said.
“We spent most of our lives
feeling so extremely hope-
less because of the economy
and our eff orts to be pro-
ductive citizens. We did not
have a good start. We were
intelligent enough to be
aware of why we struggled
but not seemingly, at least in
his regard, capable of over-
coming it. Being aware that
you have a mental health
problem, does not fi x it.”
Curtis Fairless on military duty.
In December 2018 Fair-
less was working at a restau-
rant in Astoria when she
learned her brother had killed
himself at a home owned by
his aunt in Warrenton.
“He didn’t leave a note,
but he did leave a message,”
she said. “And that message
was a stack of books next to
his head splattered with his
blood. The top book is ‘On
Killing: The Psychological
Cost of Learning to Kill in
War and Society.’ Oh, my
God.”
‘Productive
processing’
When Curtis Fairless
returned home from Afghan-
istan, he brought rubies,
jade and other gems bought
at a market where he was
stationed, intended as an
investment for his family
and loved ones.
The gemstones were
made into dog-tags for fam-
ily and loved ones in his
memory at the funeral. His
sister kept one remaining
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reckless driving. But a series
of tests — fi eld sobriety tests,
a drug recognition evaluation,
a B reathalyzer test, blood and
urine tests — failed to estab-
lish that she was impaired.
Oregon State Police deter-
mined that Forrest caused the
crash. However, “none of
the tests that were done cap-
tured any kind of controlled
substance,” District Attorney
Ron Brown said.
In a letter to one of the
victim’s families, Scott
McCracken, the senior dep-
uty district attorney who
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ruby in her possession.
She decided to tie the
drawing to Veterans Day in
her brother’s honor because
she sees an impact not only
for Afghan people, but for
America’s military veterans
trying to reenter society.
The fi nal ruby is a “pro-
ductive processing” of her
pain and refl ects the kind of
service member her brother
wanted to be, she said.
“His memory to me is
one of self-sacrifi ce,” she
said. “He was also sending a
message that we’re doing it
wrong — in regard to men-
tal health, houselessness,
foreign policy, literally
almost everything. We’ve
been doing it wrong, and we
need help. And we are the
only ones that can help our-
selves. That’s what his life
said. But that’s especially
what his death said.
“We look at the Ameri-
can soldier, and Marines in
particular, as the strongest
human being there is,” she
continued. “But he was just
a sad, broken, abused little
boy that was pimped out by
our government and then
not helped enough by his
community.”
Fairless, a writer, orga-
nizer and youth advocate
who ran unsuccessfully
for Seaside mayor in 2014,
lives in Rainier with her
son, Ruben Saucedo. She is
back in Portland fi nishing
her bachelor’s degree in sci-
ence and social work with a
minor in confl ict resolution .
The winner of the ruby
drawing held in December
was Lee James, of Coupe-
ville, Washington, an A rmy
veteran himself.
“My wife and I will trea-
sure the ruby,” James wrote
to Fairless. “Receiving it
is like a sign that ‘pay-
ing it forward’ is truly the
way. We are so blessed. The
blessing wants to grow for
others.”
With her support of the
Afghan refugee eff ort, Fair-
less said she hopes people
confront their internalized
fear about immigrants —
not just refugees .
“I would suggest, I would
hope, that the people of my
hometown start to really ask
themselves hard questions
about themselves,” she said.
“‘Do I have any uncon-
scious biases?’ ‘Where are
my blind spot biases?’ ‘Am
I unintentionally racist and
sexist and just don’t know
it?’
“‘Is war a bigger problem
that I should care about?’
The answers are ‘yes.’”