WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2017
Former Hermiston
resident found dead
in Lincoln City
By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN
STAFF WRITER
Jeana Beck wore many hats, as an autism
advocate, a Board of Realtors member and
a friend to many in Hermiston. But accord-
ing to her son, one role really stood out.
“She was ‘mom’ to all my friends, she was
friends with all my friends,” said her son
Jesse Smith. “Exactly what you’d want out
of a mom.”
Beck was found dead in Lincoln City
on Friday, after her son, Jacob Smith,
reported her missing the night before.
There were no visible marks on her when
she was found, and the cause of death has
yet to be determined. The
circumstances surround-
ing her death are still
unclear, and family and
friends are searching for
answers. According to the
Lincoln City News Guard,
she went out to have a cig-
Jeana Beck
arette on Thursday eve-
ning, and did not return to
the Rodeway Inn where she and her son
were staying. She was found in a canal
behind the motel.
Smith said his mother was in Lin-
coln City accompanying Jacob to a job
conference.
“We’ve heard multiple things,” Smith
said. “We’ve heard everything you can
think of. The truth is, we don’t know.”
Lincoln City Police Chief Keith Kilian
said the circumstances of Beck’s death are
still under investigation, and that they are
waiting for the results of the autopsy report
from the medical examiner’s offi ce.
“Foul play is not suspected at this
time,” Kilian said. “We are chasing down
some leads as to where she could have
gone before her death.”
Kilian said he hopes to receive the
report by this week.
Smith said they don’t know much
about the events that preceded his moth-
er’s death, but they know she visited a bar
that evening. He said someone did see her
at the bar, but he’s not sure who.
Smith said his father, Darrell Smith,
was the one who found his mother after
getting a call that she was missing. Smith
said his father spotted her body in the canal
and called the police.
Beck had lived in Hermiston until June
of this year, when she moved to Gresham.
Two of her children, her son Jacob and
daughter Julianna, lived with her in
Gresham.
While in Hermiston, Beck became
known for her work as an autism advo-
cate. Jacob has autism and Beck founded
a non-profi t organization called Unlock-
ing Autism. Last December, she donated
Christmas gifts and a visit from Santa for
autistic students at West Park Elementary,
raising money through her membership
with the Hermiston board of Realtors.
She was also active in helping Jacob
go to a national zookeeper’s conference
by making and selling jambalaya in the
community.
Smith said he spoke to his mother a few
hours before she went missing.
“She was excited to be at the coast,” he
said. “Her friend was about to go there, and
she was happy to spend time with Jacob.”
A family friend has set up a GoFundMe
page to raise money for funeral expenses,
and to help support Beck’s four children,
ages 23, 21 and 18.
HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A3
NEWS
DANGEROUS CROSSING
STAFF PHOTOS BY E.J. HARRIS
Angie Connell, Heidi Carver, Blair Larsen, Steve McCoy, Kim Guzman, Bennett Christianson and Ilah Munro, holding her daughter Kimber, 3,
are all concerned citizens that want a four-way stop installed at the intersection of Feedville Road and Edwards Road due to the high volume
of vehicle accidents at that intersection.
Residents make case for four-way stop at Feedville and Edwards
By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN
STAFF WRITER
R
esidents on Feedville and South
Edwards roads are growing
more anxious about the inter-
section where those roads meet,
after a crash earlier this month
sent two teenagers with serious inju-
ries to the hospital.
The four-way intersection is in rural
Umatilla County between Hermiston
and Stanfi eld. South Edwards Road
has a stop sign, but Feedville Road
does not.
The intersection has been the site
of several collisions over the past few
years, including fatal ones in March
2014 and September 2016.
Heidi Carver, who lives in the
area, said she has been trying to talk
to county offi cials for years, but so far
has had no success in getting a four-
way stop put in at the intersection.
Carver’s husband, Dustin Scott,
still remembers the events that led
to his accident in September 2016.
Scott, driving a Ford pickup west on
Feedville Road, T-boned a Chevro-
let Impala heading south on South
Edwards. The driver of the Impala, a
55-year-old woman, died at the scene.
The passenger, a 58-year-old man, was
seriously injured.
Scott suffered a shattered tibia and
several lacerations.
“I was driving into town, it was
about 7:45, not quite dark,” he said. “I
kind of saw the car coming from the
right, and it looked like they had their
tail lights on and were stopping.”
But the car, which was supposed to
stop at South Edwards, didn’t. Blow-
ing through the sign, they drove out
in front of Scott’s car before he could
brake.
Pieces of wrecked vehicles, accident
reconstruction paint, and a deep rut
in the dirt are the remaining evidence
of a two vehicle crash that injured
two people November 9, 2017, at the
intersection of Edwards Road and
Feedville Road south of Hermiston.
“I remember thinking, ‘Are you
kidding me?’” Scott said. “Where we
ended up is where all the little graves
are.”
Angela Ditchen, who also lives
near the intersection, said her husband,
Darren, and her sons were involved in
a crash in March 2014 where an elderly
woman passenger died, and the driver
of the car was taken to the hospital.
Ditchen said her husband’s car fl ipped,
he tore a muscle in his hand, and her
youngest son had a seatbelt burn. But
other than that, they had few injuries.
“They were lucky,” Ditchen said. “I
don’t know how my boys are alive.”
Residents don’t understand why
county offi cials haven’t added another
stop sign at the intersection.
“We have fi ve boys and (the Ditch-
ens) have three kids getting close to
driving age,” Carver said. “As people
who live out there, we want to know
— why hasn’t there been a traffi c revi-
sion out there?”
Sheriff Terry Rowan said they had
been looking at the intersection, and
comparing it to others in the area.
“The intersection at Loop and South
Edwards, that’s a four-way stop sign,”
Rowan said. “And there have been no
fatalities there.”
Rowan said that off the top of his
head, he couldn’t think of an inter-
section in the county that had seen as
many accidents as the Feedville and
Edwards intersection.
According to Umatilla County Sher-
iff’s Offi ce records, since 2012 there
have been 11 crashes at that intersec-
tion. Two were fatal, two have resulted
in major injuries, three yielded minor
injuries and four were non-injury acci-
dents. One resulted in a DUII arrest.
County commissioner Bill Elfer-
ing said he is aware of the problems
at the intersection and that commis-
sioners have discussed it before and
will do so again at their board meeting
Wednesday.
He said drivers don’t seem to heed
the stop sign that’s already there —
even after a larger one was installed
recently — making him question if
they would pay attention to another
one.
“We’ll take testimony from the
sheriff, from public works about what
works and what doesn’t,” Elfering
said.
There are several potential solu-
tions to that stop — a four-way stop, a
blinking light or a blinking stop sign,
as some intersections in Hermiston
have.
But he said the commission is con-
cerned that a blinking light would
become an object of target practice in
a more rural area.
“One shot to those, they cost $1,500
apiece,” he said.
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