Long-haul stint reflected Foutz’s spirit

At age 26, Lena Foutz had already explored the far reaches of the United States from a semitruck.

Foutz, an adventurous young woman who loved the time she spent as a long-haul trucker and planned to make it her career, died under mysterious circumstances over the Memorial Day weekend.

Her family remains in shock. They can’t believe Foutz, who navigated New York City in an 18-wheeler, is gone. Foutz was the one who always held the family together, her two older sisters and mother said in a recent interview.

Foutz’s body was found Monday morning in the Spokane Valley garage of a friend. She’d gone out drinking at a bar with Nathaniel Cariss earlier in the evening. Cariss told The Spokesman-Review he dropped Foutz off at her home at the end of the night and then returned to the place where he is living on North Edgerton Road and went to bed.

At some point during the night, Foutz apparently came back to the home on Edgerton Road and entered the garage, which had been converted into a recreation room, according to the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office. An autopsy determined Foutz died of head trauma. Cariss thinks Foutz fell from a loft in the garage sometime during the night.

Foutz’s family said they will wait for the investigation to be completed before coming to any conclusions about what happened. Even as detectives continue to investigate Foutz’s death, her family gathered Thursday to tell stories of the young woman’s life.

Foutz was born in Spokane and grew up near Rathdrum, Idaho. The family is planning a graveside service in nearby Athol on Monday starting at 11 a.m. A celebration of Foutz’s life will follow at the Athol community center.

Foutz loved to sing. She had a sultry voice that her mother, Kathy, describes as being like Janis Joplin. She would often do karaoke and had written a few of her own songs.

“Her singing gave me the chills,” said Kathy Foutz.

Foutz sang last year at the funeral for her father, Charles L. Foutz. He died of congestive heart failure. Foutz had helped care for her father during his illness. She always wanted to help people and make them happy, Kathy Foutz said.

Foutz and her oldest sister, Gina Torrez, had planned to visit their father’s grave Monday. They had spent all day Sunday together, Torrez said. When police said Monday morning that Foutz was dead, Torrez thought, “No way. It can’t be my sister.”

It still hasn’t sunk in, Torrez said in an interview at the family home on Upriver Drive on Thursday.

Kathy Foutz co-piloted an 18-wheeler with Lena Foutz for seven months earlier this year. Mother and daughter put their feet in the Atlantic Ocean together. They drove by old houses and tried to imagine who lived there.

“It was a blast,” Kathy Foutz said.

Foutz had just left a trucking job with Werner Enterprises. She was supposed to begin work driving a flatbed truck soon and was spending time with her family before going back on the road.

Katrina Foutz said she and her younger sister would always share their dreams for the future with each other. Katrina wanted to become famous. Lena wanted to sit in the sun, pet a cat, and wait for her children and husband to come home.

More recently, they’d joked about how they planned to grow old together.

“She was my best friend,” said Katrina Foutz. “I really cherished her.”