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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

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Cops: Cocaine Rager Killed Teacher

A man who said the crack cocaine he was smoking "brought the devil out in him" was looking for a woman to abduct and kill before he strangled a school teacher who happened to jog near him in Montana, a prosecutor said in a sworn statement. The first public details about how authorities believe that Sherry Arnold, 43, was kidnapped, slain and buried in a shallow grave, emerged in an affidavit filed in state court on Friday by Richland County, Montana, prosecutor Mike Weber. Most of the account, Weber wrote, stemmed from a confession obtained from the younger of two men charged with kidnapping the woman, whom they encountered along a truck route on the outskirts of the northeastern Montana community of Sidney. Arnold, a high school math instructor, vanished after setting out on January 7 for a predawn run, and authorities are still searching for her body/Laura Zuckerman, Reuters. More here. (AP file photo of accused murderer Michael Keith Spell)

Question: Does the randomness of this murder cause you to reconsider where you jog or walk -- and whether you do so alone?



D.F. Oliveria
D.F. (Dave) Oliveria joined The Spokesman-Review in 1984. He currently is a columnist and compiles the Huckleberries Online blog and writes about North Idaho in his Huckleberries column.

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