Brutal Attack Leaves Three Women Hurt Police Looking For Attacker Who Used Bat, Knife
Unpublished correction: The suspect’s first name is misspelled in this story. In subsequent stories, his name is listed as Dwayne Woods.
Three women were severely injured in a Saturday morning attack by a man wielding a baseball bat and a knife.
The man, who had not been found late Saturday, reportedly used shoelaces to tie up one of his victims at a west Spokane Valley mobile home. All of the victims suffered skull fractures, Spokane County sheriff’s deputies said.
One of the women, Jade Moore, 18, was reported in very critical condition late Saturday at Deaconess Medical Center, police reported. Telisha Shaver, 22, was in critical condition at Deaconess. Her sister, Venus Shaver, 19, was in serious condition at Sacred Heart Medical Center.
In addition to suffering skull fractures, Venus Shaver and Moore also may have been stabbed.
The Shaver sisters, West Valley High School graduates, were house-sitting for their aunt at 105 S. Coleman. At 7:30 a.m. Saturday, Venus Shaver was the only one home when Moore dropped by to visit. Moore, also a West Valley graduate, was then confronted and attacked by a man, sheriff’s Lt. David Wiyrick said. Telisha Shaver came home at 10 a.m., and also was attacked and tied up.
When the sisters failed to show up for work Saturday morning at The Coeur d’Alene Resort golf course, their mother, Sheryl, came to the mobile home to see what was wrong.
When she arrived, the attacker ran out a back door, heading north toward Sprague Avenue. Wiyrick said the mother described the attacker as a black man in his mid-20s, about 5-foot-6 with short hair. He was wearing a white T-shirt, black pants and tennis shoes.
Other witnesses reported a man matching that description running west on Sprague. That man had ripped jeans, Sheriff John Goldman said.
Deputies were searching for a “person of interest” in the case, identified as Michael A. Smith, alias Duane Woods.
The 26-year-old man had not been located late Saturday.
Wiyrick said it’s not clear if the victims knew their attacker, or what motivated the assaults.
Investigators blocked off both the yard and the stretch of road in front of the white and brown mobile home. Neighbors and friends gathered next door to watch the commotion.
After arriving on the scene shortly after 11 a.m., deputies found items strewn about the house. “Whether that indicates a robbery or not, at this point we don’t really know,” Goldman said.
Deputies found a knife and baseball bat at the mobile home.
Wiyrick said the victims were hurt so badly that getting further information from them late Saturday was not possible.
Tony Polione, who lives across the street from the mobile home, didn’t hear anything unusual in the neighborhood. He didn’t know anything had happened until deputies arrived.
The mobile home had been a noisy place until about a year ago, Polione said, with a lot of cars coming and going. But he thinks that was before the Shavers’ aunt, Dena Florence, moved in. “It’s quiet now,” he said.
Relatives could not reach Florence, who is in Tonasket, Wash., with her husband and daughter. Florence rents the mobile home from a neighbor who also knows the Shaver girls.
“They’re nice girls …they’re good people,” said the neighbor, who didn’t want her name used.
, DataTimes