INSIDE
ST. HELENS SPIRIT OF
Citizen North Coast
Columbia Pacific Get Ready Guide 2019-2020
HALLOWEENTOWN
The Chronicle
Obituaries A2-3 • Opinions A4 • Out & About A5 • Community Events A5 •TV Guide A7 • Classified Ads A8 • Public Notices A9 • Sports A11
Wednesday, September 25, 2019
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Masked man assaults retired teacher JULIE THOMPSON chronicle1@countrymedia.net
Courtesy photo
David Wendelschaferm 44, of Scappoose
Walmart flasher arrested JULIE THOMPSON chronicle1@countrymedia.net
A Scappoose man was arrested on Friday for flashing customers at Walmart in St. Helens. Officers with the St. Helens Police Department (SHPD) responded to Walmart on the report of a man exposing himself to multiple customers at approximately 6:59 p.m. on Sept. 20 where David Wendelschafer, 44, was already awaiting their arrival after reportedly being herded out of the store by several customers intent on seeing him held accountable for his actions inside. Local Cassandra Barros, one of the customers Wendelschafer exposed himself to, ran into the man on the bread aisle. She said while she was texting on her phone, he came over and stood to her left. “He was wearing basketball shorts and he pulled his penis out over the top of his shorts and started playing with himself,” Barros said. “I said, ‘get away from me, you’re sick’ and he just smiled at me and walked away. So, I went looking for an employee when I heard a dad yelling that he’d flashed his daughter.” That dad was local Jereme Hall. He and his 21-year-old daughter had gone to Walmart to look for something she needed before heading off to college. They were walking towards the front of the store down the kitchen aisle when they ran into Wendelschafer. “I noticed this guy standing really still in that intermediate aisle from clothing towards the kids’ toys, and he had his hand down at his hip, so the first thought I had was ‘does he have a gun?’” Hall said. “Then I realized he’s got these basketball shorts pulled up exposing himself completely.” Local Ashley Egyed witnessed the second exposure. She and her fiancé and son had gone to Walmart looking for a waffle maker to satisfy a craving when they spotted Wendelschafer on the silverware aisle.
See FLASHER Page A9
A retired St. Helens High School teacher was attacked at his residence by an unknown suspect on Friday, Sept. 20. The St. Helens Police Department (SHPD) responded to the report of an assault on Park Street at approximately 2:09 p.m. that day. When officers arrived on scene, they found the victim, David Schmor, of St. Helens, injured inside his residence. Schmor reported an assault by an unidentified suspect who used a knife in the attack and fled the scene prior to the SHPD’s arrival. The attacker was described as being male, wearing dark clothing and a mask that hid his face. According to police, the “mask” was actually sunglasses and a bandana. A K9 unit was deployed to track the suspect, but he was not found. Schmor was transported to a Portland area hospital with non-lifethreatening injuries to his head and stomach area. Despite the strange circumstances surrounding the masked attacker, police said the public is not in immediate danger. “Based on information that we
have received that we are not releasing at this time due to this being an active investigation, investigators do not have a reason to believe that there is an active public safety threat,” Detective Dustin King said. King said the department pulled multiple resources from multiple agencies, including the Oregon State Police crime lab and reconstruction unit, which helped reconstruct the crime scene. The Columbia County Sheriff’s Office also assisted in the initial response to the scene. The SHPD is currently following up on multiple leads, according to King, and continue to actively investigate the case. As the investigation is ongoing, The Chronicle will update this story as new information becomes available. Anyone with any information regarding the assault is asked to contact the SHPD at 503-397-1521.
Body found at Firlok Park JULIE THOMPSON chronicle1@countrymedia.net
A body was discovered on Tuesday afternoon in a Firlok Park creek behind the Columbia Veterinary Clinic. According to the St. Helens Police Department (SHPD), the corpse is too decomposed to determine sex or identity, as of yet. An initial investigation based on injuries to the
body shows this was likely an accidental death, according to SHPD Sgt. Jose Castilleja. This is a developing story and will be updated at thechronicleonline.com as new information becomes available. If anyone has any information related to the discovery of the body, especially associated with possible missing persons from recent months, they are asked to call Officer Seann Luedke at 503-397-1521.
Julie Thompson/The Chronicle
When firefighters really do try to save the cat – and the deer
Courtesy photo
Courtesy photo
JULIE THOMPSON chronicle1@countrymedia.net
We’re all familiar with the old trope of firefighters saving cats from trees, but in reality, due to prioritizing medical and fire calls in busy stations, it’s a rare sight. But recently, our local firefighters at Columbia River Fire & Rescue (CRFR) did just that, and days later they had a deer to contend with. The cat rescue took place a couple of weeks ago, though no one is precisely sure of the date because these firefighters didn’t want to brag. CRFR public information officer and volunteer coordinator Jennifer Motherway said neither she nor her chief had heard about the incident and was as surprised as anyone when local Lisa Rockdaschel shared the story on social media. “I live up on Nob Hill and we walk our dog around the Boise parking lot. I kept hearing this cat crying so my son showed me where the gate is right there by the treatment plant, and I could hear the cat just
screaming,” Rockdaschel said. When her son told her that he’d heard the cat crying the day before as well, she was beside herself. She spotted a man near the building and sent her son to fetch him, so she could speak with him. “My mom’s crying and she hears a cat outside,” the boy told the man. When the man came over, he could hear the cat too, and after standing on the grate, could see a large gray cat stuck in the sewer – but said there was no way to get the feline out. “He said we couldn’t open it up and go down there, that you’d have to put a person on a harness and lower them down,” Rockdaschel said. So, Rockdaschel called the fire department. There was a manhole cover across the street and they determined they could attempt to lower a cage down. Rockdaschel borrowed a trap cage from a neighbor and met the firefighters at the manhole. It didn’t take them long to arrive, Rockdaschel said, and of course,
though the cat had been crying for 20 minutes at this point, as soon as firefighters arrived, it didn’t make another peep. Firefighters Croft and Ridinger spent a good 45 minutes attempting to rescue the cat. “We tried to lower a trap down the manhole but were unsuccessful, and we ended up leaving a can of cat food in hopes that it would coax its way out,” one of them told Motherway via text to relay to The Chronicle. Rockdaschel said the hole was unusually deep. Generally, they’re around 12 to 15 feet deep, they told her, but this one was 30 feet. Also, the space was too small to fit the cage as the door kept shutting automatically when they tried to lower it. “It was so sweet of them to come and they tried so hard. I was super sad, but then they made me feel better because they said we hadn’t heard it since they’d been there, so we didn’t know if it was still there,” Rockdaschel said. “They said if it got in there, it can get out. They did
a super awesome job. They came right out even though it was a cat and I just wanted to give them some kudos and put it online.” Later, on Sept. 22, firefighters found themselves tangling with a deer caught in “the most awkward of predicaments.” Around 7:34 a.m. that morning, Lieutenant Davis and firefighter Booth responded to the St. Helens water treatment plant for a deer trapped in their contact tank. Although it’s difficult to see from the photos, the deer only had one small area where it could stand. The rest of the tank is about 25 feet deep and full of “water.” Motherway said they don’t know how the deer got into the tank, but it was likely the same way she got out, but without the use of a ladder. “The firefighters that were on scene were super creative and were able to tie pallets to their ladder and were able to put it in an area to
See RESCUE Page A5
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