RECORD SOUTH WHIDBEY
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2011 | Vol. 87, No. 80 | WWW.SOUTHWHIDBEYRECORD.COM | 75¢
INSIDE: Open studio tour, Island Life, A10
Murder suspect gets OK for five-state road trip BY BRIAN KELLY South Whidbey Record
COUPEVILLE — A Superior Court judge has given Peggy Sue Thomas permission to take a fivestate, two-week road trip before the former Langley resident faces arraignment later this month for first-degree murder. Thomas, a former hairdresser and beauty queen who authorities
say helped lure Russel Douglas to his murder the day after Christmas in 2003, was released on bail Sept. 2. Under the conditions of her release, Thomas was required to wear a GPS bracelet and stay in Washington. At a hearing Monday in Island County Superior Court, her attorney Craig Platt asked Judge Michael Moynihan to allow
Thomas to leave Washington for roughly two weeks so she could attend a memorial service for her half sister in Bonner’s Ferry, Idaho, and then take care of personal business in her former home states of Nevada and New Mexico. Platt said Thomas had been an “extremely good person� while out on bail. “Ms. Thomas has performed
extremely well during her release. There have been no issues whatsoever, no violations, no problems of any sort,� Platt said. Thomas, who once worked with the wife of the murder victim at a Langley hair salon before leaving Whidbey Island, worked as a limousine driver in Las Vegas, Nev. until 2006 and moved to Roswell, N.M. after marrying millionaire
thoroughbred horse trainer Mark Allen. Platt said Thomas needed to travel to her homes in Roswell and Clark County, Nev. to retrieve items, including photographs, that she could use in her defense in her first-degree murder trial.
SEE MURDER, A8
Classroom lessons find real-world Oh, snap! use in South Whidbey shop class Exotic turtle discovered
in South Whidbey ditch
BY BEN WATANABE South Whidbey Record
LANGLEY — There are plenty of practical projects at South Whidbey High School’s metalwork and woodwork classes. There are some impractical ones, too. Regardless of the utility, the halffinished engines, the assembled sheds and the Popsicle stick bridges are all part of Chad Felgar’s woodworking and engineering classes. Perhaps the most illuminating project the 22 Advanced Metal Fabrication students have worked on is the Admiralty Head Lighthouse. The elite group was hand picked by Felgar when the project began in February. “They could go work on the trucks, but when it was time for their job, they’d get on it,� Felgar said. “It worked really well.� He had a welding contest in the class to determine his best welders. Each student had a task, including welders, grinders, supervisors and even public relations. “We found their best skills and what they would offer to the project,� Felgar said. “We ran it like a job site; like a business.�
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BY BRIAN KELLY South Whidbey Record
Photo courtesy of Chad Felgar
Cameron Clark cuts through a steel plate to shape a piece of the Admiralty Head Lighthouse during last semester’s Advanced Metal Fabrication class. South Whidbey has built a third of the lantern for the lighthouse at Fort Casey. The restoration project was divided between Whidbey Island’s three high schools. Coupeville High School had the roof, a conical shape. Oak Harbor was in charge of the curved windows and circular viewing area. Both rested on top of the 1-inch thick steel tub — a circular formation 8 feet in diameter that
supports the windows and roof — that South Whidbey finished welding together recently. The work that his students put into the lighthouse left the teacher beaming with pride. “The kids are doing it. We pride SEE LESSONS, A9
Veterinarian David Parent never got a delivery like this before. Just before noon on a recent Tuesday, a Sunlight Shores-area woman walked into Parent’s office in Freeland with a plastic laundry basket. Inside: a turtle. A very big turtle. “It was probably 15 to 20 pounds,� Parent said. And healthy, too. Though he’s encouraged people in the past to bring in any turtles they find — he’s been on the lookout for years for the rare Pacific Pond Turtle, and he’s seen his fair share of Western Painted Turtles — Parent said he wasn’t ready for this reptile. In the basket: an alligator snapping turtle. “This is a new one for me,� he said. “I was surprised. I wasn’t prepared to see this monster.� Alligator snapping turtles are among the largest freshwater turtles in the world, usually found in the southern United States. “This is an exotic species, and
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“Whidbey� the alligator snapping turtle was found last week south of Bayview. they are big enough that they eat anything,� Parent said, including frogs, fish, ducklings. “Anything they can catch.� They grow big, too. “A hundred pounds or more. They get huge,� he said. Parent said people usually bring in seven or eight turtles each year for him to examine. The alligator snapping turtle was the first one he’d ever seen in his 21 years on Whidbey Island. “It was pretty friendly. He didn’t try to bite,� Parent said. SEE TURTLE, A8