A6
NEWS
Blue Mountain Eagle
Two teens killed in Bend
By GARRETT ANDREWS
and BRYCE DOLE
The Bulletin
BEND — A young couple was
found dead in a southwest Bend home,
and a local man with a history of trou-
bling behavior is in custody on suspi-
cion of aggravated murder.
The bodies of Angela Alexus Pas-
torino, 18, and Alfredo P. Hernandez,
18, were found in the garage of the
home at 20081 Mount Faith Place.
Bend police said they were killed
sometime after an argument Tuesday
evening, but their bodies were not dis-
covered until Wednesday night. Wes-
ley Abel Brady, 41, is being held at
the Deschutes County Jail following
his arrest late Wednesday on suspicion
of aggravated murder, sodomy, sexual
abuse, abuse of a corpse, strangulation
and tampering with evidence.
Pastorino’s mother, Jennifer Grigg,
of Bend, told The Bulletin two detec-
tives arrived at her home Thursday
morning, along with a chaplain. She
doesn’t recall exactly what they said.
“I just heard ‘deceased,’ and I just
kind of lost it,” she said.
Standing next to caution tape out-
side the home midday Thursday, Bend
police spokeswoman Sheila Miller pro-
vided an initial overview of the killings.
“Brady and Hernandez were
involved in an altercation, and then
Brady killed both the victims,” Miller
said. “We don’t know what the moti-
vation was. Obviously, there is a long
investigation ahead.”
On Tuesday, Pastorino, Hernan-
dez and Brady were at the house work-
ing on home improvement projects for
the owner, Miller said. County prop-
erty records list the home’s owner as
Melissa Adams, 49.
Grigg said Adams is the mother of
one of Pastorino’s friends. Grigg said
Adams told her that she was allowing
Brady to live in her home.
When Pastorino and Hernandez fin-
ished their work, they stuck around the
home “drinking and partying,” Miller
said.
At some point, there was a physical
altercation that police believe led to the
killings.
At around 11:15 p.m. Wednesday,
Adams found a body in her garage
and called 911. Police arrived and dis-
covered a second body. As police pro-
cessed the scene, Brady returned to
the neighborhood and was arrested at
11:53 p.m., Miller said.
When police visited Grigg, she
asked if she could see her daughter.
“They told me that I might want to
rethink that,” she said.
Submitted Photo
Alfredo P. Hernandez and Angela
Alexus Pastorino
Court records show Brady has a
history of behavior tied to a decline in
mental health.
In November 2018, he was arrested
for starting several “ritualistic” fires
inside a historic home at 440 NW Con-
gress, the Thomas McCann House.
Investigators noted “cult-type ceremo-
nial activity: trinkets among the ashes,
pentagrams scrawled on surfaces and
dolls arrayed in sexually violent poses.”
The arson case led sheriff’s deputies
to a home in Deschutes River Woods
that Brady shared with his father,
Roger, and his 17-year-old son. Detec-
tives discovered evidence of animal
abuse shortly after entering the prop-
erty, including a dead half-skinned dog
and dead rabbits.
Roger Brady said his son was
attempting to breed dogs. He said Wes-
ley Brady had strangled several pup-
pies and killed their mothers after just
two litters.
He had also prepared several still-
born puppies in a Crock Pot and served
them to their mother, Roger Brady later
told The Bulletin.
More allegations of animal abuse
and other bizarre and concerning
behavior are contained in documents
from Brady’s 2017 divorce.
Brady and Kathryn Zancanella mar-
ried in 2015.
Over the course of their relation-
ship, “he flitted from one outlandish
idea to another, proposing unrealistic
and fanciful business ideas, like farm-
ing oxygen by placing a dome over a
grove of trees,” Zancanella wrote in a
2021 memo requesting the court fur-
ther restrict Brady’s parental rights.
According to his ex-wife, Brady
claimed he was a prophet and the end
of the world was near. He said he could
hear people crying and screaming who
no one else could hear. He kept on him
a vial and he asked his children for
samples of blood to go in it.
Zancanella said during their mar-
riage, she saw Brady treat a number
of animals “deplorably.” He had up to
seven dogs at one time, kept in cramped
and dirty cages. He’d often take dogs to
a family property in Christmas Valley,
and the animals would never be seen
again, Zancanella wrote.
“Though (Brady) had moments
of lucidity, where he seemed to have
a better grasp of reality, those periods
were short-lived,” she wrote.
In June 2017, Zancanella received a
restraining order against Brady in Ben-
ton County Circuit Court. She filed for
divorce later that month.
Reached by phone Thursday, Zan-
canella said friends had been texting
her since news broke of Brady’s arrest.
She declined to comment.
The Thomas McCann House case
was ultimately resolved when Brady
pleaded no contest to burglary and
arson. His probation included require-
ments that he comply with mental
health treatment and not own or have
unsupervised contact with animals.
Brady has one child with Zan-
canella and two older children with
another woman.
Police received warrants to search
the Mount Faith Place home, as well as
two vehicles owned by Brady and the
property he owns in Christmas Valley.
No cause of death was released.
Autopsies were expected to be con-
ducted Thursday.
“Essentially, every detective in our
department is working on this,” Miller
said. “A lot of resources go into some-
thing like this. Thankfully, this kind of
thing doesn’t happen that often, but we
take it superseriously.”
By midafternoon Thursday, the
county major incident team and inves-
tigators with Bend Police and Oregon
State Police were on scene.
“It’s kind of hard to comprehend
that something like that could happen
so close to home,” said Joan Lindblom,
a retired speech pathologist who lives
several houses from the crime scene.
Pastorino attended Bend High
School, and Hernandez attended Mar-
shall High School. They’d dated for
around a year, according to Grigg.
Grigg said her daughter had
recently obtained her GED diploma
and that Hernandez was one program
away from earning his. She said Pas-
torino was planning to apply next week
to a certified nursing assistant program.
Grigg said that her daughter and
Hernandez were fun and loving, “good-
hearted people.” A GoFundMe for the
family and the funeral expenses has
already raised more than $3,600.
Wednesday, August 24, 2022
Baker County deems section
of Pine Creek Road public
By SAMANTHA O’CONNER
and JAYSON JACOBY
Baker City Herald
BAKER CITY — The Baker
County Board of Commission-
ers voted 3-0 on Wednesday morn-
ing, Aug. 17, to approve a resolution
designating a section of Pine Creek
Road, which is the subject of two cur-
rent civil lawsuits, as a county road
open to the public.
Commissioners approved the res-
olution after a brief public hearing at
the courthouse.
There was applause and cheering
from the audience of about 20, which
included several people who live in
the Pine Creek area.
Some of those residents urged
commissioners, during an April
19 public hearing, to take action to
ensure the public can travel the road.
The resolution states, in part,
that “all private gates, structures,
and obstructions” on the section of
road surveyed last year “are hereby
ordered to be removed.”
Commissioner Mark Bennett
emphasized that although commis-
sioners’ vote was “certainly a step
forward,” the process under state law
includes a 60-day appeal period.
Bennett said he wants residents to
understand that the gate that property
owner David McCarty installed in
2020 won’t be unlocked or removed
immediately, and he cautioned peo-
ple to avoid taking any action on their
own.
Bennett said he didn’t want to
downplay the significance of com-
missioners’ action, however. He
noted that they were spurred by resi-
dents who have had access to the road
for many decades.
“I think that this is based on exten-
sive public input,” Bennett said.
“We’ve had numerous public hear-
ings with opportunities for the pub-
lic and for Mr. McCarty to make
comments and to submit testimony,
information, documents, and also
research.”
Process started more
than a year ago
Wednesday’s vote culminates
a process commissioners started in
June 2021, when they passed a reso-
lution “declaring the necessity for the
legalization of Pine Creek Lane.”
The resolution deals with the sec-
tion of road that starts at the eastern
edge of McCarty’s property and ends
at the junction with another road lead-
ing to the Baisley Elkhorn mine. The
resolution also covers a section of the
Baisley Elkhorn mine road.
The Pine Creek Road itself contin-
ues another 2 miles or so beyond the
junction, leading to Pine Creek Reser-
voir, which is on national forest land,
and beyond.
The county’s road legalization
process was prompted by a lawsuit
that David McCarty, who owns a
1,560-acre property through which
the road runs for about 2 1/2 miles,
filed against the county on April 30,
2021.
McCarty is asking for either a
declaration that the disputed section
of the Pine Creek Road crossing his
property is not a public right-of-way,
or, if a jury concludes there is legal
public access, that the limits of that
access be defined and that the county
pay him $730,000 to compensate for
the lost value of the land based on the
legal public access and for other costs
he has incurred as a result of the coun-
ty’s actions.
He bought the land in September
2020, and not long after he installed
a gate that has at times been locked.
Joelleen Linstrom, who lives
with McCarty, has said previously
that McCarty didn’t object to peo-
ple walking along the road, but that
he was concerned about people
in vehicles posing a potential fire
danger.
Linstrom repeated that concern
during Wednesday’s meeting, say-
ing she had “observed a lot of people
being careless during fire season.”
Cindy Birko, who lives near
Pine Creek, told commissioners on
Wednesday that she believes the fire
risk is lower when the road is open
and more people are using it, and
thus in the area to potentially see and
report smoke.
“I do not view that as a liability,
but I see that as an asset to protect us
all,” Birko said.
Tom Lager, who owns property
that is surrounded by McCarty’s land,
echoed Birko’s thoughts.
Lager and his wife, Betty Ann, are
the plaintiffs, along with James and
Sharen Sanders, in a recently filed
lawsuit naming McCarty and Lin-
strom as defendants.
The Lagers and Sanderses are
each seeking monetary damages of at
least $250,000, claiming McCarty’s
installation of the gate has deprived
them of access to and enjoyment of
their properties.
Both that lawsuit, and the suit
McCarty filed against the county in
April 2021, are pending.
MT. VERNON
PRESBYTERIAN
Community Church
SUNDAY SERVICE..............9 am
SUNDAY SERVICE ..9 am
541-932-4800
EVERYONE WELCOME
St. Thomas
Episcopal
Church
Join us on Facebook
live Sunday 10am
Like us on Facebook!
Redeemer
Lutheran Church
Come Worship with us at
Grace Chapel (EMC )
154 E. Williams St.
Prairie City, Oregon
541 820-4437
Pastor Robert Perkins
Sunday School (all ages)
9:30-10:30
Sunday Worship
10:45-12:00
John Day Valley
Mennonite
Church
Meeting every Sunday
at Mt. Vernon Grange Hall
Sunday School ................................ 9:30 a.m.
Sunday Morning Worship ............. 10:50 a.m.
Pastor Leland Smucker
Everyone Welcome • 541-932-2861
2 Corinthians 5:17
Every Sunday in the L.C.
Community Center
(Corner of Second & Allen)
Contact Pastor Ed Studtmann at
541-421-3888 • Begins at 4:00pm
JOHN DAY
UNITED
METHODIST
CHURCH
Sunday Worship • 9AM
(541) 575-1326
johndayUMC@gmail.com
126 NW Canton, John Day
Food Pantry Friday 3-4PM
Like us on Facebook!
24/7 Inspirational Christian
Broadcasting
Tune into KSPL 98.1 FM
For more information,
call 541 620-0340
CHURCH OF THE
NAZARENE
Sunday School ............................9:30 am
Sunday Worship Service.......... 10:45 am
Sunday Evening Service ............ 6:00 pm
Children & Teen Activities
SMALL GROUPS CALL FOR MORE INFO
627 SE Hillcrest, John Day
59357 Hwy 26 Mt. Vernon
1 st Sunday Worship/Communion ...................10am
3 rd Sunday Worship/Communion/Potluck .....4:30pm
2 nd , 4 th & 5 th Sunday Worship ..........................10am
Sunday Bible Study .....................................8:45am
Celebration of Worship
For information: 541-575-2348
Midweek Service
FIRST CHRISTIAN
CHURCH
Sunday School ..................... 9:45 am
Sunday Worship ...................... 11 am
Fox Community Church ............. 3 pm
Sunday Evening Bible Talk ......... 6 pm
Saturday Men’s Study ............... 6 pm
Weekdays: Sonshine Christian Schoo l
Full Gospel- Come Grow With Us
Pastor Randy Johnson
521 E. Main • John Day • 541-575-1895
www.johndaynazarene.com
541-575-1202 Church
311 NE Dayton St, John Day
Pastor Al Altnow
Sundays 5:30pm
Youth: 0-6th Grade
Thursdays 6:30pm
Youth: 0-6th Grade
Jr./Sr. High
Youth Connection
Wednesdays at 6:30pm
Overcomer’s Outreach
Mondays at 6pm at
LWCC
A Christ-Centered, 12-Step
Recovery Support Group
Pastor Sharon Miller
541-932-4910
www.livingwordcc.com