Spokane7
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April 2, 2010 in City
Dead man’s mother: ‘meth was his destruction’
Christopher M. Schelling and his mother, Hannah Schelling.
(Full-size photo)(All photos)
Hannah Schelling last heard from her son, Christopher, when he called in November with a plea she’d never before heard.
“He said ‘Mom, I’m in really deep. Can I come home?’” Schelling recalled. She begged her only son to let her pick him up, but he promised he’d be at his parents’ home in southern Pend Oreille County the next day. He never showed up.
Kootenai County Sheriff’s investigators pulled Chris Schelling’s body from the Spokane River, east of Post Falls, last weekend.
A detective determined Schelling entered the water while fleeing a police chase in early December, just weeks after he promised his mother he’d come home. His mother learned of his death on Monday - his 32nd birthday.
“He had an extremely tormented soul and he’s finally at peace,” said Hannah Schelling. “It was meth. Meth was his destruction.”
Investigators think Schelling and another man were high on drugs when they sped away from a Kootenai County Sheriff’s deputy near the Idaho-Washington border late Dec. 3. The men fled on foot after their car crashed at the end of Pleasantview Road near the Spokane River, upstream from where Schelling’s body was found last weekend.
Police found a ski mask and plastic “flex cuffs” in the car, said Post Falls Police Chief Scot Haug.
Schelling’s family reported him missing about a week later. When they didn’t hear from him around Christmas time, they feared the worst.
Apparently others did, too. Someone commented anonymously on an online news story in January about a dead body and predicted it was Schelling’s, and his family heard rumors of revenge-seeking drug dealers.
But investigators found no obvious trauma on his body, and a detective determined Schelling had been in the river since the night of the chase.
“I hate to say it, but it does make me feel better to know that he made a choice,” said Karen Beeman, a family friend who’s known Schelling since he was a boy. Schelling was born in Baltimore but grew up in Eastern Washington. He was a longtime felon who did several stints in juvenile detention and state prisons for drug and property crimes but never could kick his drug addiction, said Hannah Schelling, a veterinarian.
When a police dog helped capture him inside a stranger’s home after he crashed a stolen motorcycle last June, he told the officer he was addicted to drugs, according to court documents.
A bond company helped him post $40,000 bond in November on drug and car-theft charges. Hannah Schelling wonders what would have happened had he stayed in jail, where he was always able to sober up and vow to do better.
She’s saved each letter he’s written to her in the 20 or so years he’s been in and out of police custody.
In them, he promises to carve a better life and kick drugs. Schelling wonders if she should put them together as a book about a person’s demise.
“This is what drugs can do to somebody,” she said.
The family plans to memorialize Schelling this summer with “a celebration of what could have been,” his mother said.
Human trafficking suspects released 
misjustice on April 02 at 7:13 p.m.
A mother’s love knows no limits. Peace to you Hannah and to your son…this is tragic. After the pain, may it be the love that is remembered…
PhiltheBibliophil on April 02 at 7:34 p.m.
Sounds like all his so called friends, family, courts, jails, etc. let this guy down! Didn’t see anything about rehab? RIP
misjustice on April 02 at 8:43 p.m.
I believe it said he was 32. He was an adult & you can’t make an adult go to rehab if they don’t want it.
misjustice on April 02 at 9:03 p.m.
His call to his mom was a plea for help…too bad he died before he could get it. My heart goes out to his mother.
angus2253 on April 02 at 10:40 p.m.
To philbiblio…..what’s with people like you for heavens sake? Nobody let this creep down. Not his mom, courts, jails……NOBODY!!! Why play the blame game. How “bout personal responsibility? He was 32 years old, he let himself down. HIM, HE, HIMSELF was at fault.
Taxpayer funded rehab??? Tsk, tsk, tsk. Nonsense. I wasn’t in any way responsible for his addiction, and I would have been opposed to funding any treatment. Let these addicts fend for themselves.
JusticeForAll on April 06 at 12:48 p.m.
Angus, you might change your tune if these addicts stole from you to fund their addiction. I agree with you on the personal responsibility 100% - but in the interest of protecting ourselves from addicts, if treatments works, and the cost is low compared to the costs their addictions incur on others, why not?
kchinen on April 09 at 10:35 a.m.
Angus~ Everyone is responsible for their own actions. At the same time though some people are afraid to come forward for help in fear of rejection or being judged. Everyone needs to have someone in their corner. We all have made mistakes in life some more severe than others. Unless you have walked step by step in that persons shoes regardless if what they did as bad you will never understand. I was an addict, and did unspeakable things to support my habit. I am sorry to those I did wrong against. It does not justify or will it take back what I did. If it was not for having people believe in me, I wouldn’t be where I am at now. I am sober. I am getting my life back on track . Second chance at life. Even though people may fall or stumble over and over it doesn’t make them a horrible person that should just have to suffer for the rest of their lives. My own opinion that is wrong with todays society is we are greedy. We see a person who needs help and what do we do? Turn away or help with the bare minimum. That isn’t how we should be. If there is not away that a person will benifit from helping others then the heck with them. Its the truth. I thank God for mercy and grace. Without those things I wouldn’t be standing here today.