REGION
Tuesday, November 9, 2021
East Oregonian
A3
Pendleton woman dies, daughter found alive after getting stranded in Idaho
By ALAYNA SHULMAN
Spokane Spokesman-Review
COEUR D’ALENE — A Pendleton woman
died venturing into the Panhandle National
Forest in Idaho for help after getting confused
by her vehicle’s navigation system and wind-
ing up stuck there, according to the Kootenai
County Sheriff ’s Offi ce.
The elderly woman’s adult daughter was
found alive Friday, Nov. 5.
Pendleton Police Chief Chuck Byram called
the situation tragic.
“Obviously they got way off the road and
way up into the national forest,” he said. “Not
an outcome we were looking for.”
Dorothy “Kae” Turner and her daughter
Heidi Turner left Pendleton on Nov. 3 heading
for Utah. Byram said his department received
the call they were missing that day.
“So we were working hard to try and locate
them,” he said, including working with banks,
cellphone providers and law enforcement
throughout Oregon.
Pendleton police then received notice that a
license plate reader on Intestate 90 in northern
Idaho pinged with the plate of the vehicle the
Turners were in.
Fire blazes in abandonded home
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — Fire
erupted early Saturday, Nov.
6, in an abandoned house in
Pendleton.
Capt. Dan Hergert of
the Pendleton Fire Depart-
ment said the callout for
the blaze came at approx-
imately 5:30 a.m. Crews
arrived to fi nd the second
story at 241 S.E. Third St.
totally engulfed in flames
and smoke, he said.
Firefi ghters took a defen-
sive approach to contain
the fi re, Hergert said, and
protected su r rou nding
homes and other buildings.
There were no injuries
or fatalities, and fi refi ght-
ers found no one in the
house, he said, but there was
evidence of people staying
there. The cause of the fi re
is under investigation.
Phil Wright/East Oregonian
A Pendleton fi refi ghter scales a ladder Saturday morn-
ing, Nov. 6, 2021, where a fi re a couple hours before ripped
through the second story of the abandoned house at 241 S.E.
Third St., Pendleton.
Pendleton sent at least
two fire engines and an
ambulance to the emer-
gency, and the Pilot Rock
Ru ral Fi re Protection
District also responded with
an engine and crew. Pend-
leton’s streets were all but
empty when the fi re depart-
ment rushed to the scene,
Hergert said, so crews only
ran emergency lights but no
sirens.
Firefighters were pack-
ing up and taking off at about
8:30 a.m.
The house has been vacant
and rundown for some time.
Hergert also said this house
has had previous fi res.
WALLA WALLA — Two
Hermiston residents were
injured Saturday morning,
Nov. 6, in a crash in Walla
Walla County.
The Washington State
Patrol in a press release
reported the crash occurred
at about 10:23 a.m. on High-
way 12 about 26 miles west
of Walla Walla.
Julian V. Gutierrez, 47,
driver, and Francis J. Kontur,
85, passenger, both of Herm-
iston, were in a 1998 Dodge
Ram 3500 pickup behind a
2004 Honda Pilot heading
west on Highway 12 when
the Honda then stopped in
the road and started to back
up, colliding with the Dodge.
Gutierrez and Kontur
were injured in the crash,
according to Washington
State Patrol. An ambulance
took Kontur to Providence
St. Mary Medical Center,
Walla Walla, and Gutierrez
went to the hospital as well
but in a private vehicle.
Kaziputalimba E. Joshua,
62, of Walla Walla, was driv-
ing the Honda Pilot. He and
his passenger, Stephen E.
Hammond, 65, of Sterling,
Virginia, also was injured in
the crash. Ambulances took
both men to Providence St.
Mary.
The crash also totaled
both vehicles.
Washington State Patrol
reported neither drugs nor
alcohol were involved in the
crash, and all four men were
wearing seat belts. WSP
also reported Joshua faces a
charge of improper backing.
—EO Media Group
to have gotten confused when following their
vehicle’s navigation device and wound up in
the Northern Idaho forest by accident. Then
their vehicle broke down. The mother ventured
out for help but appears to have died from
exposure to the elements, deputies said.
The daughter, whom deputies said is
mentally disabled, stayed with the vehicle.
While the incident doesn’t appear to be
suspicious, deputies said it is under investi-
gation.
———
East Oregonian news editor Phil Wright
contributed to this article.
Hermiston High hosts vaccination clinic last week
Shots off ered Nov. 3 include
COVID-19 vaccines
By ERICK PETERSON
East Oregonian
LOCAL BRIEFING
Two Hermiston
men injured in
Washington crash
Law enforcement concentrated its eff orts
to fi nd them in that area, but there was no cell-
phone service and just a single hit on the use
of a bank card at a mini mart in Idaho, Bryam
said,
Around 11:45 a.m. Nov. 5, a hunter reported
fi nding a woman’s body in the Solitaire Saddle
area of the forest, according to a news release
from the Kootenai County Sheriff ’s Offi ce.
When deputies responded, the hunter led
them to the woman’s body, and they also found
a broken-down vehicle with another woman
alive, deputies said.
The sheriff ’s offi ce said the women appeared
HERMISTON — Umatilla County
Public Health held an immunization clinic
at Hermiston High School, Wednesday,
Nov. 3. The clinic, which included COVID-
19 vaccinations, was during the school’s
Student-Led Conferences.
Though immunization clinics had been
held at the school in the past, Nov. 3 was the
fi rst time COVID-19 shots were available
at one of the HHS school clinics, Principal
Tom Spoo said. He added that he approved
the clinic after Hermiston School District
nurses approached him on the subject.
“As a principal, my focus is on doing
everything I can to keep kids in school,”
Spoo said. He said he had not heard much
from the kids themselves about their feel-
ings about the COVID-19 vaccinations,
which has become politicized.
The shots, which have been approved for
ages 5 and up, were available for kids 12 and
up at the school on Nov. 3.
Spoo said he has been seeing “fewer
and fewer” COVID-19 cases among his
students, as of late, with maybe four or fi ve
cases in the previous two weeks.
COVID-19 has aff ected his students,
Spoo said, though he had not heard of any
COVID-19 deaths among is students. He
said he had, however, known people who
have gotten sick or died of the disease, and
he is worried for his students. He expressed
concerned both for their physical health and
their development.
Being in school is better than not being in
school, he said, and he expressed gratitude
for having Umatilla County Public Health
workers such as Alisha Lundgren.
As she was processing children for shots,
Lundgren, the deputy director of the county
health department, explained the vaccina-
tions being off ered Wednesday. These shots,
available to kids 12 to 17, included the Pfi zer
and Moderna COVID-19 shots, Lundgren
said. She added also she had Johnson &
Johnson shots, “if they were needed.”
Lundgren said she was at the school
primarily to help with school exclusion
shots, not COVID-19 shots, though. Those
shots include tetanus, polio and hepatitis,
according to the deputy director.
Working from behind a curtain at the
clinic, other nurses put shots, including the
COVID-19 vaccinations, into arms. Those
nurses included Kelsi Reyes of Umatilla
County Public Health.
Reyes said this was a well-attended
clinic, and there was a possibility of doing
more clinics at the school in the future.
When she and other nurses start vaccinat-
ing very young children, however, she said
they most likely will deliver those in a regu-
lar clinic.
“We think with that population, as you
can tell with the tears, those are easier to do
in a clinic setting,” she said.
While she was talking, young children
were crying from the vaccinations they
received.
Fresh from getting a COVID-19 shot,
16-year-old junior Kade Thomas said it was
his second Pfi zer shot.
“I’m religious, and my prophet said to
get it,” Thomas said. “That’s why I got it.”
Thomas, a member of The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said he
was not very worried about getting the
disease. If he had come down with it, he did
not notice, he said. Also, he was unaware if
any of his friends became sick with COVID-
19.
Patricia and Celso Koetz were at the
clinic. They stood in line with their 8-year-
old son, Carlos Koetz, for his vaccinations.
Once completed with other immuniza-
tions, they walked away and commented
on whether they would have their son get a
COVID-19 shots once they have an oppor-
tunity.
“Probably,” they said.
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