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.