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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

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Prison kidnap sentence pleases local woman

Michaelle Dierich of Coeur d’Alene was kidnapped, held captive and sexually tortured for a week in 1988. Both men who abducted her are now serving prison sentences. (Kathy Plonka/SR file photo)
Michaelle Dierich of Coeur d’Alene was kidnapped, held captive and sexually tortured for a week in 1988. Both men who abducted her are now serving prison sentences. (Kathy Plonka/SR file photo)

A Coeur d’Alene woman was in an Oregon courtroom this week for the sentencing of a man who kidnapped, raped and tortured her in the 1980s and spent over two decades as a fugitive. “I think it sends a good message to survivors everywhere to come forward. That’s my mission,” said Michaelle Dierich, who first told her story to The Spokesman-Review in 2007. Paul Erven Jackson, 46, pleaded guilty last week to a long list of charges in the 1988 abduction of Dierich and a similar assault on another woman. He committed the crimes with his half-brother Vance Roberts, who has been in prison the past 10 years. Jackson will spend 18 years in prison/Scott Maben, SR. More here.



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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