PORTLAND, Ore. – A nationwide search Saturday turned up several tips but no hard leads in the case of a man accused of killing his entire family and dumping their bodies in the Pacific Ocean just before Christmas.
In San Francisco, where 27-year-old Christian Longo was last seen Wednesday, police said citizens called to report seeing a green Dodge sport utility vehicle with Michigan plates.
Authorities say they suspect Longo is driving a car that matches that description, but the tips did not lead to any breakthroughs in the case.
In Oregon, Lincoln County District Attorney Bernice Barnett said Longo could turn up just about anywhere in the United States, but there have been no confirmed sightings since Wednesday.
Barnett decided to issue the warrant Friday after police divers on Thursday pulled the corpses of Longo’s wife, Mary Jane Longo, 35, and 2-year-old daughter, Madison, from a marina near an apartment Longo had rented in Newport.
A week earlier, the bodies of his other two children were retrieved from a coastal inlet 14 miles south of Newport.
Woman charged in mother’s death: A 76-year-old Portland woman who died over the Christmas holiday was brought to an emergency room by her daughter dehydrated, malnourished and covered in feces, according to court papers. Sheila Crosby died Dec. 24 in hospice care. Her daughter, 38-year-old Karla Crosby, was charged Friday with murder by neglect or mistreatment. She is being held in Multnomah County Jail.
Seattle
Judge affirms Mardi Gras murder conviction: A King County judge has refused to throw out the murder conviction of Jerrell Thomas in the beating death of a 20-year-old man in February’s Mardi Gras mayhem. A jury convicted 17-year-old Thomas of second-degree murder last month. Video footage of riots that broke out late on Feb. 27 and early the next morning shows Thomas punching Kristopher Kime several times, knocking him to the ground in Seattle’s Pioneer Square. Witnesses said Kime was pummeled as he tried to help a frightened woman who had fallen in the melee. He died of massive head injuries. Defense attorney Jeff Kradel objected to the jury’s partial re-enactment of the deadly assault during deliberations, saying it injected new facts into the decision-making process. King County Superior Court Judge Anthony Wartnik sided with prosecutors Friday, agreeing that the re-enactment was a proper part of deliberations.
Spokane
Man dies in skiing accident: A 45-year-old man was killed when he struck a light pole head-on Saturday while skiing at the Mount Spokane Ski Resort. The man died at the scene. His name was not immediately released. The Spokane County Sheriff’s Office said the man was skiing on a groomed run when the accident happened at about 1:30 p.m.
Tacoma
Cross restored after damage by vandals: An 8-foot cross vandals sawed off the top of the city’s Slavic Christian Center is back where it belongs. The gold-painted metal cross was hoisted back into place and welded to the top of the church’s cupola on Friday, less than two days after it was vandalized. “Praise the Lord,” said the Rev. Peter Sayenko, senior pastor. The cross and the green cupola it sits on are landmarks of the new $2.2 million, 1,160-seat sanctuary at Slavic Christian Center. Church members believe the cross was sawed off early Thursday. Caretaker Nikolay Ryabchuk said he heard a noise about 4:30 a.m. Vandals apparently used a hand-held saw to cut through the 6-by-6-inch steel pipe, leaving pieces of the blade behind.
Olympia
No death penalty sought: Two Tenino brothers accused of beating a 71-year-old man to death with hammers will not face the death penalty if convicted. Donald Durga, 36, and Terry Durga, 42, pleaded innocent last month to aggravated murder in the death of Smiley E. Farr. Thurston County prosecutors decided not to seek the death penalty after talking to Farr’s family and police, deputy prosecuting attorney Jim Powers said Friday.
Alaska
Bomb threat closes airport: Authorities are investigating an anonymous bomb threat that shut down Ketchikan International Airport for more than an hour Friday. The airport was evacuated while airport police and Alaska State Troopers checked the premises. No explosives were found. Airport manager David Allen said the threat was called in to Ketchikan police about 1:30 p.m. He said police then notified the airport, prompting the evacuation. Allen said he’s not sure how many people were affected. A jet was not due to land until a few hours later, so the building was relatively empty of passengers.
British Columbia
Inmate unrest: Almost 50 inmates at Kent Institution in Agassiz, British Columbia, vandalized their living quarters after refusing to be locked in their cells Friday night. When negotiations failed, the Emergency Response Team was called and forced the inmates back into their cells with tear gas early Saturday morning. The maximum security facility, located in the Fraser Valley, has a total inmate population of 269.
From Herald news services
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