REPORTER CENTRAL KITSAP
AHOY! The tall ships are coming to Bremerton this month Page 11
FRIDAY, AUGUST 8, 2014 | Vol. 29, No. 44 | WWW.CENTRALKITSAPREPORTER.COM | 50¢
Still no sign of missing 6-year-old girl BY SERAINE PAGE AND KEVAN MOORE CENTRAL KITSAP REPORTER
Hundreds of searchers continued Aug. 6 to search the area for Jenise Paulette Wright, the 6-yearold East Bremerton girl reported missing three days earlier. The case is classified as an endangered missing person case with suspicious circumstances surrounding the disappearance. But on Aug. 6 there still were no suspects or a person of interest in the disappearance, according to local authorities. “The issue of urgency continues,” Kitsap County Sheriff ’s spokesman Deputy Scott Wilson said Aug. 5. “The FBI is dedicating all the appropriate resources needed in this joint effort, including an evidence response team; a regional Child Abduction Rapid Deployment team, which helps in all missing children cases, not just in abductions; the Behavioral Analysis Unit from Quantico, Virginia; additional personnel for canvassing the community for information, polygraph examiners, intelligence analysts, and other specialized personnel.” As of Aug. 6, searchers had taken to the wooded area surrounding the Steele Creek Mobile Home Park where the girl lived. Jenise was last seen by her parents in her bed around 10 p.m. Aug. 2. Her parents, after scouring the mobile home park for more than an hour the following night, called authori-
Courtesy photos
Jenise Paulette Wright, 6, was reported missing by her family the evening of Aug. 3. At the time of her disappearance, Jenise lived with her family at the Steele Creek Mobile Home Park in East Bremerton. She is described as 3 feet Seraine Page/staff photo tall, weighing 45 pounds. She has black hair, brown eyes Search and rescue teams receive a briefing Aug. 4 before heading out in search of Jenise and is multi-racial (Caucasian/Native American/Filipino). Paulette Wright, age 6. Ten different agencies joined the search throughout the week. ties at 9:55 p.m. They hadn’t seen the girl all day Aug. 3, but told authorities it was not uncommon for her to wander the neighborhood and check in every few hours. Mary Pelnar, 14, who lives with her mom just around the corner from Jenise’s house, said she thinks of herself as a big sister to the little girl. “No day is complete without seeing her or hearing her voice,” she said, noting that she has spent nights in the Wright home. Pelnar said she was especially
worried about Jenise because the little girl is so gregarious. “She’s a really sweet kid,” she said. “She can get on your nerves, but we love her that way. She’s really friendly. That’s what really concerns me. I don’t know if she would know how to tell someone, ‘No, I don’t want to get in a car with you,’ if they offered to take her to get ice cream or something like that.” Pelnar also talked about how the kids in the community stick together and look out for one
another. “We all love each other like a family,” she said. “We don’t leave anybody behind and [we] travel everywhere in packs. We normally wouldn’t let anyone go home alone, so this is odd. We normally wouldn’t do anything like that.” She added, “I’d like to see my best friend again and I really hope Jenise is OK. I’m really passionate about people I love and things I believe in. I have a lot of love for people. I’m just hoping and praying that this little girl, or little sister,
comes home soon and is safe.” For a time, the search expanded outward from the park in all directions, and rescue crews used specialized FBI dogs to help canvass the surrounding areas, Wilson said. Sex offenders and transients in the vicinity were interviewed throughout the week by authorities. A Homeland Security helicopter circled the area for a time. “We consider her a daughter of SEE JENISE, A9
Hauge, Robinson advance in county prosecutor race Prosecuting Attorney Russ Hauge and criminal defense attorney Tina Robinson are the apparent top vote-getters in the Aug. 5 primary and advance to the general election in the race for Kitsap County prosecuting attorney. And in Bremerton, residents voted 3,211 to 1,036 to continue for six years a property tax levy of up to 50 cents per $1,000 of assessed property valuation to support EMS service. According to the Kitsap County Auditor Elections
Office website, 154,069 ballots were mailed out; 41,080 were received as of election night, for a turnout thus far of 26.7 percent. The elections office reported 198 precincts counted of 209, so the turnout – and, in one race, the final result – could change. As of 8:10 p.m., Hauge had 15,187 votes to Robinson’s 12,979. In Washington’s primary system, the top two vote-getters regardless of party advance to the general election. Hauge is a Democrat, Robinson is a
Republican. Former Bainbridge Island City Council member Bob Scales, a Democrat, received 6,042 votes. Independent Bruce Danielson, a lawyer and arbitrator, received 5,428. Republican Phil Cook, a residential mortgage lender, and Democrat Paul Andrews, a data analyst for Kitsap County and former project manager for Pierce County Assessor’s Office, held narrow leads in the race for Kitsap County assessor.
As of 8:10 p.m., Cook had 12,208 votes, Andrews had 10,036. Democrat Garry Sobeck, who worked for 15 years as a property tax appraiser for San Diego County, had 9,392. With ballots counted from only 198 of 209 precincts, the race between Sobeck and Andrews may not be over. Republican W. Sean Smith, a mortgage banker, finished fourth with 6,820 votes. Democrat Derek Kilmer and Republican Marty McClendon advanced in the
race for 6th Congressional District representative. As of 8:10 p.m., Kilmer led with 23,908 votes, followed by McClendon, 14,422; W. “Graybeard” McPherson, no party preference, 1,259; and Douglas Milholland, Green, 950. Kilmer, a former state senator and management consultant, is seeking a second term in the U.S. House of Representatives. He’s a member of the Armed Services Committee and the Science, Space and Technology Committee. He
voted for the No Budget, No Pay law, which suspended the debt ceiling but also placed temporary restrictions on congressional salaries. H e returned his salary See full during the gov- story on the website ernment shutdown.