GLOBE THE MARYSVILLE
Bowling: He’s coached some of the best. Page 12
WEEKEND EDITION 20, 2014 2014WWW.MARYSVILLEGLOBE.COM WWW.MARYSVILLEGLOBE.COM WEEKEND EDITION JULY JUNE 8TH, 75¢ 75¢
Herald THE SUNDAY
An Edition of
Real murder like a movie Ruling BY BRANDON ADAM badam@arlingtontimes.com
Sports: M’ville goes 2-2 at state. Page 12
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 him for getting a girl preg-
Kirk Boxleitner/Staff Photo
Byron Wright’s body was buried here for 9 1/2 years. nant 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 covering 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
I-5 delays not as long as expected
BY KIRK BOXLEITNER
Outdoors: Kids learn
skills at Cabela’s. Page 13.
INDEX CLASSIFIED ADS 18-21 LEGAL NOTICES
11
OPINION
4-5
SPORTS WORSHIP
12-13 8
Vol. 120, No. 54
kboxleitner@marysvilleglobe.com
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.
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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 been expecting. “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 brief,” Harrison said. Harrison advised commuters that the best times to
Courtesy Photo
Crews pave the Stillaguamish River bridge this week. traverse 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,
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 crews to re-stripe the interstate and guide traffic through the cross over. It’s all weather dependent, of course, he said.
to hike taxes BY STEVE POWELL spowell@marysvilleglobe.com
MARYSVILLE – Taxpayers in the Marysville School District will have to pay more because of a recent ruling by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The ruling says people or businesses that own buildings on tribal trust land no longer have to pay taxes on them. Previously, only those who owned the land avoided such taxes. That ruling affects about 1,400 properties of the Tulalip tribe. As a result, people and businesses who have paid those taxes the past four years are getting rebate checks from Snohomish County. The funds are coming from the Marysville School District budget. “It’s like watching automatic deductions” come out of your home budget, district finance director Jim Baker said. The school district plans to lose $1.6 million from its general fund and more than $560,000 from its debt service. The district will be able to recoup that money, however. Law allows the district to have a refund levy in 2015. Baker does not know how much it will cost the average taxpayer. But for example, if you have property in Marysville valued at $300,000, and the tax rate ends up being 30 cents per thousand, the bill would be $90. SEE TAXES, PAGE 2