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Boy's drowning suspicious

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Boy's drowning suspicious

By Susan Gilmore

Seattle Times staff reporter

Questions about whether a 10-year-old Thurston County boy drowned in a tragic fishing accident or was murdered by his father for insurance money have prompted the Mason County Sheriff's Office to reopen an investigation into his death.

"The insurance companies raised flags," said Mason County sheriff's detective Mike Frank. "This was a child recently adopted and they don't normally see a $650,000 insurance policy on something like that."

Frank said the boy's adoption had just been finalized when the father took him and a 10-year-old friend on a fishing trip Oct. 9 on Brown's Creek near Shelton.

The boy's father had told deputies that his son slipped under the water while they were fishing, and that he had a hard time flagging down a driver with a cell phone after pulling the boy from the creek and trying to revive him. Mason County officials initially ruled the death an accident.

The boy had a head injury, Mason County Sheriff Steve Whybark said. Forensic experts looked into how that was caused, but the county has not released the results.

Frank said the insurance companies raised questions and contacted police to see whether they had investigated the death.

"We hadn't done anything because the death was ruled accidental," said Frank.

Mason and Thurston County deputies searched the Lacey home of the boy's parents Wednesday.

Among items they seized were a truck, computers and financial paperwork, said Frank, adding that the $650,000 insurance policy was issued through two companies and has not been paid.

Public records show the boy's parents had filed for bankruptcy twice - in 1991 and 1997 - both times in Pierce County.

Mason County deputies began investigating the death as suspicious about six weeks ago, said Whybark, declining to discuss specifics.

Frank, too, said he couldn't talk about details of the case. But he said the issue of the insurance policies "and circumstances around the adoption and (the parents') behavior raised some red flags."

He said the insurance companies were getting close to paying out the money on the policies. "As the insurance company gave us information, we started digging into it," Frank said. "We're in a real paper chase right now, going through documents and ledgers and computers." He said an arrest is not imminent.

He said the sheriff's office is looking at requesting a coroner's inquest, at which a panel can consider evidence and decide whether there is enough cause to rule a death suspicious. Frank said the body can't be exhumed because it was cremated.

Meanwhile, neighbors said they were shocked when police arrived Wednesday to search the family home. One neighbor, who asked not to be identified, said it's much too soon to know whether the father was responsible for his son's death.

The drowning was horrible, she said, "but it's much worse to suggest the parents had anything to do with."

"Believe me, they're not horrible people. They're not monsters," she said. She also wondered why police would suspect the father, when he had invited a friend along on the fishing trip. "If you murdered your son that day, would you ask a witness to come along?"

She said the family also has a 12-year-old daughter.

2000 Jan 28