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NEWS
Blue Mountain Eagle
Victim
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Washington County warrant
for David Larry Stroh, 51, of
Sheridan.
Stroh had been indicted
by a grand jury for first-de-
gree sodomy, first-degree
sex abuse and second-degree
sex abuse. The FBI office
in Portland issued a warrant
against Stroh in April 1997
for unlawful flight to avoid
prosecution.
“I am extremely thankful
for the help and assistance
of Yolanda McClary and her
team of investigators from
the private sector,” Palmer
said.
Initial discovery
Human remains were ini-
tially found in the Vance
Creek drainage about a mile
and a half west of Highway
395 and south of John Day
by Chad Holliday in 1997.
Holliday was gathering
cattle on horseback near Fall
Mountain in fall 1997 when
he spotted what appeared to
be part of a human skull.
“I’ve seen most every
skull this county has to offer,”
he told the Eagle at the time.
“There is nothing as big as a
human brain.”
He left the skull frag-
ment where he found it and
only briefly scanned the area
for additional remains. He
wasn’t sure he wanted to find
any more.
“It was kind of eerie,” he
said.
Holliday reported his find-
ing to the sheriff’s office, and
the next day he escorted Sher-
iff Fred Reusser, John Day
dentist Curtis Hansford, John
Day Police Chief Swede Lar-
son and Cpl. Julie Armistead
to the site. Officials took
photographs and conducted
a grid search until the effort
was halted by snowfall.
Hansford initially said he
needed to further study the
Wednesday, July 17, 2019
skull fragment to determine
if it was human. The sheriff’s
office at first assessed the
skull as from a bear, but an
anthropological exam con-
firmed it was from a human.
By that time, however, winter
conditions in the area ended
the on-site investigation.
Second discovery
Interest in the case was
renewed seven months later
when Ted Ferrioli discovered
a corpse in the cold rushing
waters of Vance Creek. Fer-
rioli was walking his dog
on the weekend of May 2-3,
1998, when he found the
remains.
The naked body, miss-
ing its head and hands, was
found partially buried and
immersed in Vance Creek,
below a log landing from an
old timber sale and about 100
yards from where Holliday
had found the skull fragment.
It was believed the creek did
not run high enough to move
the body downstream.
The body was semi-mum-
mified after being in Vance
Creek for a time and then fro-
zen through the winter.
The remains were trans-
ported to Driskill Memorial
Chapel and then sent to the
State Medical Examiner’s
Office in Portland for addi-
tional examination.
An autopsy determined
that the deceased white man
was 49-73 years old, about 5
feet 7 inches tall and weighed
about 225 pounds. The foren-
sic lab determined the man
was killed between May and
November 1997. No per-
sonal items, teeth or hair
were found in the area, but
the autopsy determined the
man had severe atheroscle-
rotic coronary artery disease.
Local investigation
Palmer took over the case
in 2000. After gathering all
available information and
reaching a standstill, he
went to the public in 2011
File photo
Grant County Sheriff Glenn Palmer in 2011 sifts through
pictures of the site along Vance Creek where a mummified
body was found.
seeking assistance.
The cause of death was
a homicide, Palmer said
at the time, but he with-
held details on the manner
of death. The sheriff said
the man was either brought
to the site and killed or
killed somewhere else and
dumped there.
A nearby secondary road
was likely used by the sus-
pect, Palmer said. The
remoteness of the area sug-
gested the perpetrator was a
local, but DNA testing had
ruled out leads involving
missing people. He said he
believed the man was from
outside the area.
Palmer noted at the time
that several leads had been
unsubstantiated or dis-
proved. Even psychics had
come forward with opin-
ions, he added.
“We’re still trying to
find his identity,” Palmer
said at the time. “It’s defi-
nitely a homicide, but we
know that somebody doing
this by themselves is highly
unlikely.”
The investigation got
new life with interest by
McClary and her investi-
gative TV show. Palmer
advised the county court
Nov. 28 that investigat-
ing the cold case would
increase expenses for the
sheriff’s office, including
overtime.
“Until we can determine
if this person was shot and
killed here or shot some-
where else and dumped
here, this will be our case
until a crime scene of a dif-
ferent origin can be deter-
mined,” Palmer said.
These types of investi-
gations are time consum-
ing, he said, and if the sher-
iff’s office dedicated one
or two people solely to this
case, other personnel likely
would have to carry the rest
of the office’s work load.
TV justice
“Cold Justice” is a true
crime series produced by
Dick Wolf, who created the
popular “Law and Order”
shows and spinoffs. It was
originally broadcast on TNT
and then moved to the Oxy-
gen network.
The
series
initially
starred Yolanda McClary,
whose career in Las Vegas
inspired the character Cath-
erine Willows on the fic-
tional TV show “CSI,”
and former Harris County,
Texas, prosecutor Kelly
Siegler.
“Cold Justice” kicked off
in September 2013 and ran
Grant
Continued from Page A1
understanding agreements
with Oregon Trail Electri-
cal Cooperative and Oregon
Telephone Corp.
Projects in the scoping
list included (some cost esti-
mates were not available):
• Extending Seventh
Street from Bridge Street
west to Patterson Bridge
Road. The $4.8 million
estimate included utilities,
sidewalks, street lights and
routing Seventh Street far-
ther north should the John
Day River channel be
changed.
• Two new roads con-
necting Seventh Street and
Valley View Drive to Gov-
ernment Entry Road at the
Malheur National Forest
supervisor’s office build-
The Eagle/Richard Hanners
Left to right, Councilor Brandon Smith, City Manager Nick Green, Mayor Ron Lundbom
and Councilors Shannon Adair and Gregg Haberly talk at the conclusion of the July 9 John
Day City Council meeting.
ing. The estimated cost was
$652,363.
• Improvements, park-
ing and utilities for John-
son Drive, the new road
connecting Highway 26 to
the planer shed and green-
houses on the former Ore-
gon Pine mill site.
• An access road and
parking for the new waste-
water treatment plant.
• Expanding utility con-
nections for Iron Triangle
property near Oregon Pine.
• Improvements to the
Charolais Heights intersec-
tion, estimated at $240,000.
• Footbridge and park-
ing access for the new Hill
Family Park along with west
access and parking for the
Seventh Street Complex,
estimated at $471,927.
• Renovation of the foot-
bridge at Oregon Pine, esti-
mated at $75,000.
• Access and parking for
future office space at Ore-
gon Pine.
• Extending the Charo-
lais Heights road east and
then down the hill past the
sports complex to a new
for two seasons. It rebooted
in July 2017 and remains
on the air. The show’s real-
ism extends to its success
rate, as McClary and Siegler
brought evidence to pros-
ecutors and requested that
cold cases be reopened.
As of April 2018, the
“Cold Justice” team helped
to generate 35 arrests and
18 convictions, in addition
to four confessions, three
guilty pleas and three mur-
der convictions.
In October 2018, the
“Cold Justice” team explored
the real events that inspired
Martin McDonagh’s 2017
movie “Three Billboards
Outside Ebbing, Missouri,”
which earned seven Oscar
nominations.
McClary left “Cold Jus-
tice” and moved on to a
new project in 2017 called
“Unknown Doe.” People
can send information to the
show by emailing contact@
unknowndoe.com.
New leads
Prior to last fall, the
Grant County Sheriff’s
Office worked with families
missing relatives, the Ore-
gon State Police Homicide
Investigation Tracking Sys-
tem, the Oregon State Med-
ical Examiner’s Office, the
Oregon Law Enforcement
Data Systems, the National
Crime Information Center,
the National Missing and
Unidentified Persons System
and the University of North
Texas, where a DNA data-
base is collected and stored.
Palmer said he reached
out to at least two private sec-
tor labs in an attempt to com-
pare DNA from the Vance
Creek body with the FBI’s
Combined DNA Index Sys-
tem, which includes DNA
from cold cases and con-
victed offenders.
“However, until most
recently and thankfully with
the help and not only many
man-hours put in by McClary
bridge constructed over the
John Day River connecting
to Third Street.
The last item is an
expensive project that had
been considered for long-
term planning, Green told
the council. Having three
bridges to access the north
side of John Day would
enable major repairs to the
Bridge Street and Patterson
Bridge Road bridges one
at a time while still having
two bridges in service, he
said.
The Charolais Heights
road extension, like the
extensions west to Patterson
Bridge Road, would open up
vacant land for subdivision
development, Green said.
Next steps to complete
the BUILD application
included finalizing mem-
orandum of understanding
agreements with OTEC,
Ortelco, Iron Triangle and
the Holmstrom family,
which owns the land east of
the sports complex, finaliz-
ing cost estimates, seeking
letters of recommendation
and finalizing a narrative,
Green said.
and her team, the financial
obligation this organization
put into this is well into the
thousands and thousands of
dollars,” Palmer said.
Last November, Dr. Nici
Vance, a forensic anthro-
pologist at the Oregon State
Police, joined the state Med-
ical Examiner’s Office in
authorizing McClary and a
private lab to use DNA evi-
dence from the Vance Creek
remains.
Palmer said he and
McClary spent several
months tracking the DNA
with assistance from a
genealogist.
“Several leads and fam-
ily histories were compared,
and over a period of time and
work several people were
excluded,” Palmer said.
They zeroed in on a full
name and birth date in May as
a prospective hit. A potential
family member was found
in Nebraska, who requested
anonymity and was appre-
hensive about providing a
DNA sample.
A DNA match was
made, and the name was put
through the state and national
crime databases. A grand
jury indictment and unlaw-
ful flight warrant for the man
was then found.
“We believe that Mr.
Stroh is a victim of homicidal
violence, and this case is still
being worked as an active
homicide,” Palmer said.
“We have made fairly sig-
nificant steps in the identity
of this person, and with this
we would hope that some-
one with information would
come forward.”
Palmer encouraged any-
one with a missing family
member or relative to submit
their DNA to a private lab for
comparison against a private
sector database. They can
also contact their local sher-
iff, who can arrange to take a
DNA sample and compare it
with government databases,
he said.
Ordinance
Continued from Page A1
setting reasonable timelines
for gathering public input,
involving county officials
throughout the decision pro-
cess, focusing on finding
areas of common interest or
agreement, sharing pros and
cons for actions and deci-
sions, communicating effec-
tively while delving into
complex issues and accept-
ing the limitation of law.
Several people at the
court meeting who also
attended the EOCA meeting
in La Grande expressed deep
concerns about what took
place there. Billy Jo George
said she was “really scared”
because nothing discussed at
the EOCA was about coor-
dination. She described the
discussions at the EOCA
meeting as “disturbing.”
Frances Preston, who
also traveled to La Grande,
said the Forest Service spent
a lot of time dividing people
into groups when “all they
need to do is coordinate.”
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