(He was back in Idaho by early December.) She got him a life coach, connected him with a doctor, and bought him boots and a hardhat for a job at a local mill that he enthusiastically held for a short period. “He wanted to come back here and start again,” Murray says. “Being on medication those two years [in the hospital] and then being released, that was the most stable he’s been.” But it wasn’t to last. When Ethan was home, he wasn’t on any medication — his doctor didn’t feel like he needed medication at the time. In late February, while Murray was in Los Angeles for a weekend to attend the Oscars, Ethan sold his snowboard and bought meth. By the time she got back, he was in a “full-blown attack.” Ethan ended up walking along Highway 2 in frigid sub-zero winter temperatures with Murray and Bonner County Sheriff’s deputies in tow. (He hadn’t committed a crime at that point, so law enforcement wouldn’t detain him.)
“Being on medication those two years [in the hospital] and then being released, that was the most stable he’s been.” After staying out all night, he ended up back at Murray’s house, where she found methamphetamine. She called the Sheriff’s Office again — in an attempt to keep him safe — and they arrested Ethan. Deputies found more meth on him when they booked him, and tacked on prison contraband felony charge. But yet again, as had happened so many times before, he was quickly turned back out onto the streets to fend for himself. Ethan was ordered released on March 13 with required weekly drug testing. (Murray says Ethan never was seen by a psychiatric professional while held in the Bonner County Jail.) Eventually he ended up in Spokane, where he had more run-ins with the law: On March 22 he was cited for trespassing on a railroad track near Browne’s Addition and booked for an existing warrant out of Bonner County, per court records — only to be released. Ethan, Murray says, was “just squeezed through the system over and over again.” Murray intends to keep pursuing the documentary about Ethan while she monitors the investigation into his death. (She also has plans to spread his ashes in places like Yosemite National Park and Illinois, where he was born.) The Spokane Police Department is leading the investigation into what happened, and the deputy who shot Murray, Joseph Wallace, has been placed on administrative leave. “There’s other moms, other people that need help,” she says. “I don’t think there will ever be closure because there just isn’t. So I’m just turning it into advocating.” n joshk@inlander.com JAN, THE TOY LADY, AND THE PAW PATROL ARE ON THE ROLL TO SUMMER FUN: Paws ome!
River Park Square (509) 456-TOYS MAY 23, 2019 INLANDER 15