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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 31, 2017)
61/46 RUSSIA PROBE/9A FIRST GUILTY PLEA, INDICTMENT OF TRUMP AIDES CHRISTMAS TREE PRICES ON THE RISE NORTHWEST/2A TUESDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2017 142nd Year, No. 11 WINNER OF THE 2017 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD Patrolling the paranormal Hermiston trio investigates spirits in old cemetery, homes By PHIL WRIGHT East Oregonian Jamie Gardner’s grave marker at the small abandoned cemetery off Foster Cemetery Road, Stanfi eld, shows the boy died in 1891 at the age of 6. Chris Dacus of Pendleton said that has not stopped Jaime from communicating with him. Dacus, 38, and his wife Ashlee Dacus, 31, and their friend, Karen Durkee, 52, of Hermiston, investigate the otherworldly as the Paranormal Soul Patrol. They said the old cemetery, home to thorn bushes, sage brush trees and crumbling graves more than a 100 years old, is also home to spirits. The team recounted using a digital audio recorder to capture the disem- bodied voice of a little boy at Jaime’s grave saying, “Pow, pow,” and “Vroom, vroom,” as though he were playing with the matchbox-sized toy car they left at the site. “It does raise the hair on the back of your neck,” Chris Dacus said. “I think that’s what the thrill is for me, the adventure of it. And not knowing.” Chris Dacus said he was 10 or 11 years old the fi rst time he encountered some- thing outside the realm of normal understanding. He, his brother and a friend were running through their house on Pendleton’s South Hill, he said. When he bolted into the kitchen, a rag fl ew from the sink and hit him, and a voice whispered “Stop.” The freaky experience opened the young Dacus to an otherworld of possibilities. “I’m into Bigfoot, I’m into UFOs, I’m into anything out of the ordinary,” he said. Ashlee Dacus said the Soul Patrol would look into all of the above. The trio formed in February after Chris Dacus and Durkee met in anther local paranormal outfi t. The Soul Patrol has since investigated the Dacus’s home in Pend- leton, where ghostly activity seems to center around Ashlee Dacus, mother of three. She said someone tugged on the back of her shirt and uttered “Mom,” but she turned around to fi nd no one there. The couple also said they have seen shadowy fi gures moving about the place. “I’ve experienced it myself,” Ashlee Dacus said. “It’s interesting to learn more about it.” See PARANORMAL/10A One dollar HERMISTON Teenager stable after tree accident By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN East Oregonian Staff photo by E.J. Harris Ashlee and Chris Dacus of Pendleton and Karen Durkee of Hermiston make up the paranormal investigative team the Paranormal Soul Patrol. “I’m into Bigfoot, I’m into UFOs, I’m into anything out of the ordinary.” — Chris Dacus, member of the Paranormal Soul Patrol More online For a short interview with Chris Dacus visit eastoregonian.com Community members are raising money for a Herm- iston girl who was hit and injured by a falling tree. Jordan Larson, a 15-year-old Hermiston High School sophomore, was taken to Kadlec Regional Medical Center, Richland on Friday afternoon after a tree fell on her. She was then transported to Seattle for further medical treatment, where she remained as of Monday. Ivy Coons, Larson’s mother, said her daughter is doing better after two surgeries immediately after the accident. “They’ve been able to remove the tubes from her throat,” Coons said. “She had to have two blood clots removed from her head. They have removed the drain tube from her chest.” Coons said her daughter’s eyes were swollen shut, and she initially had to be restrained to prevent her from touching her face and head. Larson was in and out of consciousness. She said doctors told her that her daughter may be moved out of intensive care by the end of the week. Coons said her daughter was taken to Good Shepherd Medical Center, Hermiston, and immediately fl own to Richland for treatment on Friday. From there she was taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. “The fi rst surgery she had, I was on the road,” Coons said, adding that it took place within an hour of her daughter arriving at the hospital and was to remove a blood clot in her brain. That surgery, she said, revealed a second blood clot which required a second surgery. Coons said her daughter is now responsive and recog- nized her. “She just asked me for root beer,” Coons said by phone on Monday afternoon, from her daughter’s hospital room in Seattle. A friend of the family has set up a GoFundMe page for the family, to help them with medical and utility bills. See TREE/10A Tribes in Columbia River Gorge hit by White House decision Hundred living in substandard housing By ANDREW SELSKY Associated Press SALEM — The Trump adminis- tration is neglecting the U.S. govern- ment’s obligation to build new homes for Indians whose original abodes were submerged by dams along the Columbia River, members of Congressional delegations from Oregon and Washington state said. The hundreds of tribal members are living in dilapidated trailers and other substandard housing along the Columbia River. The promised new homes haven’t been built yet even though decades have passed since the dams were built. Now a funding decision by the White House’s Offi ce of Management and Budget has put even the preparation work on hold. In a letter, the politicians told Mick Mulvaney, director Offi ce of Management and Budget, that “the federal government has a legal and moral responsibility” to maintain the funding. They urged him to recon- sider his decision. The letter, dated Friday and released to the media on Monday, was signed by Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell of Washington, Sens. Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden of Oregon, and Rep. Earl Blumenauer of Oregon. All of the lawmakers are Democrats. When the dams were built, starting with the Bonneville Dam in 1938 and then hydroelectric dams See TRIBES/8A AP Photo/Gosia Wozniacka, fi le This 2014 fi le photo shows one of the Native American homes at the Lone Pine fi shing site near The Dalles.
