commentary by Patrick H. Moore
For the most part, life is pretty calm, even a trace corny in Cannon Beach, a touristy hamlet of around 1,700 souls in the far Northwestern corner of the great state of Oregon. Where else, for example, would you find a town sponsoring an official, annual sand-castle building contest. Perhaps nowhere. It’s one of those places with a quaint downtown, lovely hotels including the SurfsandResort at 148 West Gower Avenue, and its piece de resistance, Haystock Rock, a mighty piece of igneous rock off the coast that measures 235 feet in height and is often accessible by foot at low tide.
Today, however, there’s serious excitement and more than a smidgen of fear and sorrow in Cannon Beach. In fact, there probably hasn’t been this much excitement since a nasty tsunami in 1964 damn near washed the whole place away. [According to Wikipedia, the annual sand-castle building contest was instituted to win back the tourist trade, some (or much) of which had been lost as a result of tsunami which apparently washed away Highway 101.]
A makeshift memorial outside of a Cannon Beach hotel was growing Saturday after a housekeeper found a 2-year-old girl dead and teenager seriously injured there Friday.
It was the first homicide in Cannon Beach in at least 50 years, police said.
Officials were searching for the victims’ mother and her SUV in relation to the incident. Police said the father was working with authorities and was not a suspect.
Ms. Roth reports that the good people of Cannon Beach tethered colorful balloons in the shapes of hearts, stars and Sesame Street characters outside the Surfsand Resort where the victims were discovered by a housekeeper in a third-floor hotel room at 9:40 a.m. Friday.
The toddler was found dead and the 13-year-old girl critically cut, according to Cannon Beach Police Chief Jason Schermerhorn.
The teen was flown by medical helicopter to Doernbecher Children’s Hospital at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland. She came out of surgery on Friday night and although seriously injured, is reportedly stabilized, according to Clatsop County District Attorney Josh Marquis.
There were no cuts on the toddler. An autopsy was scheduled for Sunday.
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There are several details in this case that are very interesting and could possibly ultimately contradict a claim by the authorities that at present, the children’s mother Jessica Smith, 40, of Goldendale, Washington, is merely a person of interest and not a suspect.
At present, Police Chief Schermerhorn has stated that the authorities merely want to make sure that Jessica is OK. In a sense, it’s certainly not hard to understand the Police Chief’s reluctance to view Jessica as a suspect. She’s a young-looking 40-year-old who certainly doesn’t look like the kind of person who would kill her toddler and critically wound her teenage daughter.
If it wasn’t her, however (assuming it’s not the father), it would have had to have been either an unidentified intruder or the 13-year-old daughter who (although it seems unlikely) could conceivably have killed her little sister and then critically wounded herself with a series of knife wounds.
This scenario however, seems somewhat unlikely because if this had happened, the mother Jessica would probably not be MIA somewhere in her white SUV, but rather would have gone immediately to the authorities.
On the other hand, although the police have said that there were no signs of a forced entry, someone Jessica knew could have entered the third floor room, done the dirty work and then abducted Jessica in her white SUV. The advantage of this scenario, assuming the mysterious violent criminal does not kill Jessica, would be that we would not have to once again face the horrible truth that a certain number of mother’s can and will murder their children.
Jessica’s vehicle is a 2007 gold Chevy Suburban with Washington license plate #APX3141.
Jessica reportedly checked into the hotel with her two children on Wednesday.
Police Chief Schermerhorn has stated that Washington State officials have made contact with Smith’s husband, Gregory Smith, and that he is NOT a suspect and IS cooperating with authorities. It must be noted that Jessica and Gregory Smith had separated at some previous point and that according to Clark county records, Jessica Smith had requested a restraining order against Gregory Smith just a few weeks ago on July 17, and that her request WAS DENIED.
Thus, whether we like it or not, we are confronted with the raw materials for a horrible tragedy that COULD go something like this: Mother fears father from whom she is separated. Because she is unable to get a restraining order protecting her and her kids from father whom she fears, she decides to kill the kids to keep them out of father’s clutches.
Tragically, this is the sort of thing that mothers who are at the end of their rope sometimes do. I keep hoping that it’s not so, however, and much prefer the EVIL INTRUDER hypothesis.
Residents of the small community of Goldendale, Washington, which has a population of approximately 3,500, were naturally shocked by the tragedy.
“It’s beyond any of our understanding as to why something like that might happen,” said Goldendale resident Carol Martin.
The Smiths formerly lived in a mobile home several miles outside of town, but neighbors told KGW the family has since moved.
Other than these few details, the Smith’s neighbors said they knew very little about the family and rarely had any interaction with them.
Police asked anyone who has information about Smith or the location the SUV to call Cannon Beach police immediately at 503-436-2811. The Clatsop County Major Crime Team, along with federal agencies, was handling the investigation.
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This is a very dark scenario and I fear that the facts of the case will only become more shocking as the details unfold.
Update:
It was bound to happen and it has. As some point today, the authorities announced that Jessica Smith is no longer merely a “person of interest”; rather, she is now wanted on suspicion of having murdered her two-year-old daughter.
Although she was seriously wounded, it was also announced that her 13-year-old daughter is expected to make a full recovery.