Arlington Times, July 19, 2014

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 THE NEWSPAPER AT THE HEART & SOUL OF OUR COMMUNITY 

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Herald THE SUNDAY

An Edition of

Bridge work ties up traffic

But not as badly as expected BY KIRK BOXLEITNER kboxleitner@marysvilleglobe.com

Business: Haggens closes store. Page 3

A R L I N G T O N — Motorists crossing the northbound and southbound Stillaguamish River bridges since July 8 have likely noticed that each direction of I-5 has been reduced from three lanes to two. This has caused extended backups. Todd Harrison, assistant regional manager for the state Department of Transportation, explained that this was implemented to allow crossover lanes to be built, north and south of the river, to shift southbound I-5 traffic onto the western lanes of the northbound bridge in time for

the morning commute of Tuesday, July 22. By putting both directions of I-5 onto what was exclusively the northbound bridge, contractor crews working for WSDOT can replace the 81-year-old deck of the southbound bridge. Although traffic already has been reduced from 70 to 55 mph, Harrison reported that the weekend of July 11-13 saw only a 15-minute delay in peak traffic, as opposed to the 35-minute delay that he’d expected. “That’s pretty good, considering that we had regional events like the Arlington Fly-In that weekend, but there’s no guarantee that the delays will remain that

Courtesy Photo

Crews start paving this week on the Stillaguamish River bridge project. brief,” Harrison said. Harrison advised commuters that the best times to cross the bridge remain before 9 a.m. and after 8 p.m., while the worst times are posted on WSDOT’s website at

wsdot.wa.gov/Projects/I5/ StillaguamishBridgeRehab/ TrafficVolumes.htm, and will be updated over the course of the project. In the meantime, slower commutes are coming. Harrison warned drivers to

look for southbound I-5 to be reduced to one lane from 10 p.m. on Monday, July 21, to 5 a.m. the following day, to allow highway crews to re-stripe the interstate and SEE BRIDGE, PAGE 2

She got away with murder for 9 1/2 years

By BRANDON ADAM

Fly-In: Cossacks delight crowd. Page 24.

INDEX CLASSIFIED ADS 18-21 LEGAL NOTICES

11

OPINION

4-5

SPORTS WORSHIP

12-13 8

Vol. 124, No. 52

badam@marysvilleglobe.com

MARYSVILLE — It’s like a crime novel, murdermystery movie or Dateline episode. Only it’s real life, right here in our back yard, between Marysville and Arlington in the hills east of Strawberry Fields. A scorned or abused woman, depending on who you believe, stabs her husband, cuts him up with an axe and knife in her kitchen, then buries the dismembered body under 36 yards of dirt. She says he ran off with a younger, wealthy woman. She collects his money then tells her next husband, who gets some cronies to re-bury the body in concrete. Only after a few years she gets mad at

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Kirk Boxleitner/Staff Photo

Byron Wright’s body was buried here for 9 1/2 years. him for getting a girl pregnant and moving her onto the property. The murder is kept secret for 9 1/2 years, until one of the cronies tells a jail informant. Michele Donohue was arrested Feb. 13 when Byron

Wright’s body pieces were dug up at 8128 Wade Road. She was held on $1 million bail because of the “cold and calculating behavior after the offense, the years of hiding evidence, recruiting others to assist in the cover-

ing up the murder of Byron Wright, and her recent discussion about needing her current husband to disappear and possibly be murdered,” court papers say. Michele pleaded guilty to second-degree murder

July 11 for the killing of Byron, which happened in either August or September of 2004. Prosecutor Cindy Larson said there wasn’t enough evidence to convict Michele of first-degree murder. That would require premeditation and that couldn’t be proved. “No one had any evidence prior to the murder. She hadn’t talked to anyone,” Larson said. “We would’ve liked to get her for murder one.” Michele’s sentencing hearing will be July 29 at 1 p.m., before Superior Court Judge George Bowden. She faces up to 18 years in prison, though a plea deal she made with Larson is for 15 years. SEE MURDER, PAGE 2


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