THE BULLETIN • SATURDAY, MAY 21, 2022 A7
Veteran
Clay Web-
ster, a U.S.
Marine Corps
veteran, re-
moves a ro-
tor blade tie
down from
a Robinson
R-44 helicop-
ter Thursday
at Bend Mu-
nicipal Air-
port.
Continued from A1
Webster wanted to find a solution.
His hint came in the comments be-
low Osborne’s Facebook post, which
veterans had filled with their names
and phone numbers, in case another
veteran needed someone to talk to.
Webster, however, knew someone
in the throes of crisis would need a
quicker, easier way to seek help and
likely wouldn’t think to log on to so-
cial media.
That’s how Webster got the idea
of an app he is building for veterans
needing help while contemplating
suicide. The free app, called LifeLine
Find, allows veterans to type in their
ZIP code and search for other vet-
erans in their area who can counsel
them in a time of need, providing a
path past the red tape that often im-
pedes the process of getting help.
“The whole idea is to get the story
out there that this is something that
could have been prevented,” he said.
“It’s a story that is all too common.”
The app, Webster said, will be
available 24 hours a day, seven days
a week, which Webster stresses is
essential because too often men-
tal health crises spurred by trauma
occur outside the normal working
hours that mental health facilities are
open.
He said veterans will even be able
to use a filter to find people of cer-
tain branches of the armed forces. He
plans to launch the app next month,
he said.
Webster is quick to describe the
statistics behind what he sees as a
Babysitter
Continued from A1
The injury was the kind
of “high-energy” accelera-
tion-deceleration injury that
doctors told police detectives
could never occur in a short
fall. More likely, they said, it
was abusive head trauma.
Three months later, after
medical and digital foren-
sics results were returned,
Linschied was charged with
first-degree assault and crim-
inal mistreatment, crimes
that carry up to eight years in
prison. Linschied has stren-
uously maintained her inno-
cence.
Last week, her jury trial be-
gan in the courtroom of De-
schutes County Circuit Judge
Bethany Flint. Prosecutors in-
tend to prove that beneath her
wholesome exterior, Linschied
harbored a sadistic urge to
harm children. In addition to
graphic medical testimony,
jurors have heard evidence in
the form of Linschied’s inter-
net search history, which con-
tains queries like, “how long
does a 1-year-old go without
air before it dies?” and “want-
ing to hit babies for no rea-
son.”
Trishelle Linschied
In photos on her blog, the
Hotmess Hobo, Linschied
has soft features and a gen-
tle smile. She’s worn to court
floral shawls with big jewelry,
joined each day by a band of
up to a dozen supportive fam-
ily members and friends.
Linschied trained to be a
Montessori educator through
Bethany Global University.
Her background includes vol-
unteer work at an orphanage
and a mission trip to Turkey.
Linschied has no prior
criminal convictions and pros-
ecutors concede she’s never
been accused of anything like
this before.
That Linschied hasn’t been
allowed around children while
awaiting trial for nearly four
years has been a considerable
hardship to her, Linschied’s
attorney wrote in court docu-
ments seeking supervised con-
tact with minors.
The references of several
character witnesses who speak
to Linschied’s kindness and
affection for children were in-
cluded in the court motion.
“I would not be writing
Dean Guernsey/
Bulletin photos
Veteran Clay Webster is using programs
at Central Oregon Community College
to design an app specifically for veter-
ans with PTSD, contemplating suicide.
stigmatized problem that can lead to
tragedy among service members. De-
partment of Defense data show sui-
cide rates among active-duty service
members increased by more than
40% from 2015 to 2020, as reported
by the New York Times.
In all, 30,177 active-duty military
personnel and veterans who have
served since the Sept. 11, 2001, ter-
rorism attacks have died by suicide,
according to a Brown University
study. That’s more than four times
as high as service members killed in
combat during that time period, the
study found.
Webster said he believes mental
health issues among service mem-
bers often go uncared for “more than
any place.”
you this letter if I did not be-
lieve with every bone in my
body that Trish is a trusted
and warm person and I have
no concerns regarding her
spending time with children,”
wrote Cindy Kubista, an Army
veteran who met Linschied
working at Costco in 2014.
Before she stopped updat-
ing her blog in late 2020, Lin-
schied wrote how she’s filled
her days since the case be-
gan: her, her dog, Hank, and
her 2008 Honda CR-V — a
“weekend nomad, adventure
junkie, and peak bagger.”
“In October 2018, my life
changed forever,” she wrote on
her blog. “I wish I could give
you more details as to what
transpired on that date. If it
were up to me I would gladly
tell you the whole story. Until
that’s possible, I’ll tell you what
I can. An accident occurred.
Not only was the accident it-
self traumatic, but the events
that followed began to unravel
into the worst nightmare of
my life.”
Jackson Sykes is the first
child of her parents, Brittany
Duncan and Braden Sykes.
On Wednesday, day two
of the trial, Jackson’s parents
were called as witnesses.
In her first year of life, the
girl was happy and almost un-
usually healthy, they testified.
Outside of regular checkups,
they took her to a doctor only
once, for what turned out to
be a bad cough.
Duncan worked at PetsMart
and Skyes is an aircraft me-
chanic. The 20-something
couple was living in Redmond
and commuting to Bend at
the time.
In late 2018, Duncan
needed the income from a
second job. Her mother in La
Pine had watched Jackson, but
a more reliable solution was
needed.
The couple found Linschied
through Craigslist. They met
her at a coffee shop in Bend
and thought she was “sweet,”
Sykes said. She watched sev-
eral other kids during the
day. They followed her to her
apartment and saw nothing
concerning.
“She seemed normal. We
decided to let her watch Jack-
son while we work,” Skyes
said. “In Bend, it’s hard to find
people to watch your kid.”
The parents testified Jack-
son was often happy when
“The stigma around it is that it’s a
sign of weakness, which it’s not,” he
said. “But that’s the way that a lot of
people view it. It’s hard for them to
seek help because they don’t want to
be viewed as someone who needs it.”
Osborne’s death inspired Webster
to build this app to help other strug-
gling veterans. He said he received
approval from Osborne’s fiancee to
feature the Marine’s story in its ad-
vertisements.
When he created a GoFundMe to
raise money to build the app, Web-
ster said Osborne’s fiancee was the
first person to donate. So far, he has
raised about $700, and the rest of the
funds for the app Webster is paying
out of pocket.
Webster served as a Marine in
they picked her up. And she
was sometimes cranky about
being dropped off, which they
chalked up to her being that
way.
The day
On Halloween 2018, they
both received calls from para-
medics telling them some-
thing had happened to Jack-
son and she was being taken
by ambulance to St. Charles
Bend.
Duncan got to the apart-
ment in time and rode in the
ambulance with her daughter.
Sykes missed them by a few
seconds.
“It was probably the most
scary thing that I’ve experi-
enced,” Duncan said.
In the emergency depart-
ment of St. Charles, Dr. Kevin
Jones was concerned when
paramedics told him his lat-
est patient had a head injury
and showed signs of an altered
mental status.
“That’s a huge red flag for
us, because that can signify
significant injury,” Jones said.
Also concerning was that
she’d vomited and seemed un-
able to move her head to the
right.
Jones ordered a CT scan to
look at the child’s brain. With
small children, physicians take
the prospect of a CT scan ex-
tremely seriously, Jones said,
because the chemicals given
to irradiate the blood for the
scan can increase a child’s can-
cer risk for life.
But Jackson’s altered mental
status left doctors no choice,
Jones testified.
“She immediately war-
ranted imaging. There was
really no question about it,”
Jones said.
She was transferred by he-
licopter to a pediatric neuro-
surgeon at Legacy Emanuel in
Portland.
Prosecutors have called sev-
eral medical expert witnesses
who examined Jackson di-
rectly, including Dr. Catherine
Wagoner, who was resolute:
The girl’s head injury was the
result of abusive head trauma
and not a fall.
“She didn’t do this to her-
self,” she said, indicating a
color illustration of Jackson’s
CT scans. “I have never seen it
in a short fall.”
Bend Police officer Russell
Skelton testified he remem-
bered the day in 2018 well.
Japan, Thailand and in South Ko-
rea during then-President Donald
Trump’s summit with Kim Jong Un
in 2018. Born and raised in a small
town in Southern Illinois, he attends
COCC’s aviation program with the
hopes of being a helicopter pilot.
Webster clarified that, at this point,
although the app is intended for vet-
erans, anyone who either needs help
or wants to help others can use it.
To make it more accessible than
current mental health help avail-
able for veterans, there will not be
a screening process or background
check to ensure the user is a veteran.
Webster said he’s confident that vet-
erans will know quickly whether
they’re talking to another veteran or
not.
It was Halloween and he’d
planned to take his kids trick
or treating after his shift. But
late in the afternoon, a super-
visor told him something had
come up and to put his plans
on hold.
Skelton interviewed Lin-
schied in her apartment and
later at the station.
While testifying, Skelton
was questioned about his
friendly demeanor with Lin-
schied.
“It’s just building rapport,”
he said. “I’ve found if you
don’t have that, an investiga-
tion can become a little more
difficult.”
Skelton asked her if she’d
turn over her phone and other
devices to police. She agreed.
“We’re not looking in your
cellphone to look through
your life. We’re looking as of
just today, this afternoon. Cur-
rent.”
Internet searches
The third day of the trial,
Thursday, began with jurors
hearing potentially damning
evidence: Linschied’s internet
search history from the weeks
before Jackson’s injury.
“What makes me want to
hit people?” she allegedly goo-
█
Reporter: 541-660-9844,
bdole@bendbulletin.com
gled Sept. 27, 2018.
Later that day, she allegedly
searched, “wanting to hit ran-
dom babies for no reason,” fol-
lowed by the similar, “adults
wanting to hit random babies
for no reason.”
On Oct. 10, 2018, she al-
legedly searched, “What hap-
pens to a 1-year-old when
they keep getting their oxygen
cut off?” Later that day, she al-
legedly searched, “How long
does a 1-year-old go without
being able to breath before it
dies.”
“Why do i want to hurt
defenseless people?” she
searched on the morning Oct.
16, 2018.
“Psychology behind abusing
babies,” she allegedly searched
that day, followed by, “Do
1-year-olds remember being
abused?”
Linschied’s attorney, Todd
Grover, fought trial to ex-
clude Linschied’s internet
searches as evidence. And in
his questioning of witnesses,
he’s downplayed them, noting
police combed through 3,000
unique searches on Linschied’s
phone.
“We’re talking about a very
small, select few searches that
were of interest to your inves-
tigation, is that correct?” Gro-
ver asked Bend Police digital
forensic analyst James Poole,
who conducted the search of
Linschied’s phone. “The vast
majority of these searches are
what you’d term benign or
non-interesting. Is that cor-
rect?”
Poole agreed.
Grover asked Poole if any
evidence was found Linschied
visited “sadomasochistic” sites
or the dark web.
Poole said there was not.
Grover asked Poole to con-
firm that after searching, Lin-
schied often clicked on men-
tal health websites or serious
news outlets like the BBC.
Grover inquired about
the other topics Linschied
searched. Poole said they in-
clude cooking recipes, travel
to Slovenia, exercise, shows on
Netflix and watercolor paint-
ing.
Trial was off Friday and will
resume Tuesday with more
witnesses for the state.
The case is scheduled to
conclude next week.
Grover has said Linschied
intends to testify in her de-
fense.
█
Reporter: 541-383-0325,
gandrews@bendbulletin.com
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Webster said that the lack of
in-person mental health appoint-
ments during the pandemic may
have increased the burden on veter-
ans, heightening the importance for
resources like the app.
As Webster shared his story at the
community college on Wednesday,
he wore on his wrist a black memo-
rial band with the Marine Corps
insignia and the American flag. In-
scribed on the band is the name of
his good friend from high school,
the friend with whom he used to talk
enthusiastically about serving in the
armed forces.
Grant Hodge was 18.
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