DEARDORFF FIRE CONTAINED WITH NO INJURIES, STRUCTURE LOSSES| PAGE A5
Wednesday, July 15, 2020
152nd Year • No. 29 • 16 Pages • $1.50
MyEagleNews.com
Suspect arrested for murder, arson in
2018 deaths of couple in Grant County
Authorities say Connery
committed double murder
before igniting home
By Steven Mitchell
Blue Mountain Eagle
Almost two years after a fire
destroyed a home east of Mt. Vernon, a
suspect has been arrested on two counts
of first-degree murder and arson.
Isaac Connery, 23, was arrested in
Bernalillo County, New Mexico, June
26, according to a July 8 press release
from the Grant County sheriff and dis-
Contributed photo
District Attorney Jim Carpenter
said the 2018 homicides of Terry
and Sharon Smith will be prose-
cuted as soon as social distanc-
ing restrictions are eased and a
grand jury can be summoned.
trict attorney.
Connery is accused of shooting
Terry and Sharon Smith July 17, 2018,
and setting fire to their home on Nans
Rock Road in the Laycock Creek area
between Mt. Vernon and John Day,
according to the release.
“The Grant County Sheriff’s Office
has worked for the past two years in
solving this crime where we have taken
the lead in this case, and our due dil-
igence and hard work never ceased,”
Grant County Sheriff Glenn Palmer
said in the release. “With what we have
in a case like this, and as traumatic (as)
it has been for the families of Terry and
Sharon Smith, hopefully this will be a
step toward understanding what took
place the night of July 17, 2018.”
The fire totally destroyed the home,
but Palmer later discovered partial
human remains at the site, which were
identified through DNA as belonging
to Terry Smith, the release states.
Palmer also discovered other par-
tial remains that could not be identified
but have been accepted as belonging to
Sharon Smith, according to the release.
Evidence was found, including wit-
ness testimony and suspect cellphone
locations, that place Connery and his
mother, Gabrielle Connery, 46, at the
Smith home at the time of the fire,
the release states. The Connerys had
been associated with the Smiths, both
in Hawaii and Oregon, prior to the
incident.
The Smiths’ pickup was later dis-
covered abandoned in the Boise, Idaho,
area after the fire, and follow-up inter-
views with witnesses indicated that
Isaac Connery took the pickup the
night of the fire, the release states. He
was indicted June 23 for unlawful use
of a motor vehicle, and a nationwide
warrant was issued for his arrest.
See Suspect, Page A16
COVID-19
Local physician says there’s
science to support mask use
Betza: ‘Best evidence
comes from the real
world’
Gov. Kate Brown
Face coverings
to be required
outdoors and indoor
gatherings limited
By Steven Mitchell
Blue Mountain Eagle
While wearing a mask has
evolved from a question of personal
protection into a politically divisive
symbol, the consensus among the
medical community is that the sci-
ence behind wearing face cover-
ings to prevent the spread of viral
infection has long been settled.
In March, the Mayo Clinic
reported that experts did not yet
know the extent to which people
with COVID-19 could spread the
virus before symptoms appeared
early in the pandemic. Additionally,
experts did not know that someone
who was seemingly asymptomatic
could spread the virus.
The medical community has a
better understanding of the virus
six months into the pandemic than
they did early on.
The growing consensus, said
Dr. Raffaella Betza, chief of staff
at Blue Mountain Hospital, is that
COVID-19 is spread when people
talk, cough, laugh, sneeze, sing and
eject viral particles into the air.
Betza said the epidemiological
evidence is “ample.” Along with
anecdotal data, she said, wearing a
mask cuts the spread of COVID-19.
A study published in May in
BMJ Global Health showed trans-
mission was cut by roughly 80%
in households where one person
in a family was confirmed to have
COVID-19, and the rest of the
By Gary A. Warner
For the Oregon Capital Bureau
Conversely, she said, if one can-
not taste the bitterness after a min-
ute, then they are cleared to wear
the mask when needed.
She said wearing an N95 mask
that does not fit properly is no more
effective than wearing the lesser
protective cloth or surgical masks.
Betza said surgical masks offer
more protection than cloth masks.
However, she said an actual com-
parative number between the two is
not known.
Face masks must be worn outdoors
when social distancing is not possible,
and private gatherings must be limited
to no more than 10 people, Gov. Kate
Brown announced Monday.
The new rules to fight the COVID-
19 pandemic go into effect July 15,
expanding the directive last week that
face masks be worn at indoor public
places.
In keeping with her long-standing
policy, Brown said she was relying
on public cooperation rather than any
enforcement of the additional rules.
“I am not going to set up the party
police,” Brown said.
State health officials have said the
growth of virus cases in Oregon in
recent weeks has been driven by clus-
ters of social gatherings, often involv-
ing people who are under 40 years of
age.
Dr. Dean Sidelinger, the state’s
top epidemiologist, said at the same
press briefing that the state was on
pace to triple the number of new daily
See Science, Page A16
See Masks, Page A16
Eagle file photo
Blue Mountain Hospital Chief of Medicine Dr. Raffaella Betza in the front lobby of the hospital in May. Betza said
there is ‘ample’ epidemiological data pointing to the effectiveness of face coverings in slowing the spread of the
coronavirus.
family wore masks indoors as a
precaution.
Raina MacIntyre, a co-author
of the study, said the study showed
that wearing a mask protected the
whole family.
Betza pointed to another
instance in Missouri where two
hairstylists who had tested posi-
tive with the virus came into con-
tact with 140 of their clients, but
because both of the stylists wore
a mask, none of the clients tested
positive.
Different types of masks offer
different levels of protection. Sur-
gical-grade N95 respirators are the
most effective in protecting against
the coronavirus, Betza said.
She said it is important to
remember that they need to be fit-
ted to be maximally effective.
“The way we do this in the
health care setting is that you actu-
ally put on an N95 and then a hood,
and they spray a chemical under the
hood that tastes bitter if it makes it
past the mask,” she said. “If you
can taste bitter, then the mask is not
fitted.”
Clarifying contact tracing and quarantine
By Rudy Diaz
Blue Mountain Eagle
Self-quarantine and con-
tact tracing are two promi-
nent phrases in the conver-
sation about COVID-19 and
two points clarified during
last week’s Grant County
Court meeting.
Grant County Health
Administrator
Kimberly
Lindsay explained during
the meeting on July 8 how
contact tracing worked for
somebody who tests posi-
tive for COVID-19 and who
would need to quarantine.
Lindsay said if a person
tests positive for COVID-19,
the health department begins
contact tracing.
The Eagle/Steven Mitchell
Grant County Health Department Administrator Kimberly Lind-
say addresses Grant County Court Wednesday.
“We are going to iden-
tify any close contacts with
them,” Lindsay said.
Close contact is defined
as being within 6 feet of a
person who tested positive
for COVID-19 for 15 min-
utes within the first 48 hours
of symptoms for the person
who tested positive, Lindsay
said.
“If that happens, that per-
son is identified as a close
contact, and they’re told
that they need to self-quar-
antine or self-isolate,” Lind-
say said. “If they want to get
a test, they can... but they
are told to self-quarantine,
and if they don’t, then there
is the public health potential
consequences.”
Lindsay said, if someone
was not identified as a close
contact, then it is unlikely
that person had a significant
risk of exposure.
“If they weren’t con-
tacted, they’re theoreti-
cally, probably OK, but that
doesn’t mean that they might
not want to go get tested,”
Lindsay said.
When the pandemic
began, limited availabil-
ity for testing meant there
were fewer circumstances
in which an individual could
be tested for COVID-19, but
with more tests circulating,
individuals who weren’t con-
tacted but would like a test
can now have that chance.
Lindsay said, when it
comes to contact tracing,
Grant County is in a good
position, thanks to the work
of a contact tracer in the
See Clarifying, Page A16