Spokane student killed in Montana

A Spokane teenager is dead, and one of her boyfriend’s pals is in custody for what Montana authorities are describing as a strangulation murder.

The body of Tasheena Craft, 18, was found Tuesday dumped on a road southwest of Arlee, Mont., said Lake County Undersheriff Jay Doyle. Craft had been beaten in the head, but an autopsy later determined the cause of death was strangulation, Doyle said.

Since the beginning of the school year last fall, Craft had been attending Spokane’s Havermale High School, according to Spokane Public School officials and her half brother, Shonto Pete, who was shot in the head in February by off-duty Spokane police Officer James “Jay” Olsen.

“She was just about to get done. She was going to complete the 11th grade,” said Pete, who has recovered from his own wounds. He and Craft have the same mother.

Pete, 27, said he helped pay for Craft to travel by bus on Saturday from Spokane to Montana to visit her boyfriend, who was home on leave from Iraq.

“The family is pretty sad and shocked,” Pete said.

Arrested in connection with the killing was 19-year-old Kelly Burmingham, who is also known as Kelly Stanfield.

While Lake County deputies were taking him to jail in Polson, Mont., Burmingham kicked out the back window and jumped out of the patrol vehicle as it was moving about 35 mph on U.S. Highway 93, Doyle said.

Burmingham was taken to St. Patrick Hospital for treatment of the injuries he sustained when he landed on the pavement, Doyle said.

Craft’s mother, Diana Cote, told The Spokesman-Review that the killer entered her home near Pablo, Mont., by breaking a window about 3 a.m. The killer attacked her daughter, pulled her out of the home and drove off with the girl in a pickup, Cote said.

Cote is an enrolled member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribe, and she lives on the Flathead Reservation. Cote said she believes her daughter’s killing was racially motivated.

Law enforcement officials continue to search for a motive in the killing but would not confirm Cote’s allegation of racism.

“We’re not ruling it out, but we have no motive yet,” said Craige Couture, who is the Salish and Kootenai tribal police chief.

Couture added that Burmingham is refusing to talk with detectives. He is being held on murder and attempted escape charges.

Authorities focused on Burmingham as a suspect after a witness told investigators that they saw someone fitting Burmingham’s description pulling Craft from her house. Tribal officers responded and found blood in the house.

At 6:25 that same morning, officers arrested Burmingham at his mother’s house north of Evaro. They took Burmingham to Arlee, where he refused to say where Craft was or if she was alive, Doyle said.

While investigating what they thought was a kidnapping, tribal officers searched an area where Burmingham’s father was believed to own property on South Couture Loop. The officers followed fresh tracks in dew and located Craft’s body.

Pete said he doesn’t know Burmingham but said he understands that the suspect is an acquaintance of his sister’s boyfriend. Burmingham’s father, Wayne Stanfield, of Arlee, died in a motorcycle crash Saturday on Interstate 90 near Missoula.

Pete said his sister was struggling in school in Montana, so he arranged last fall for Craft to live with him in Spokane.

“I told her to come over here, and I’ll take care of you,” Pete said. “Her grades improved. They were twice as good.”

But she was excited to get back home to see her boyfriend, who just received a short leave from his service in the war in Iraq, Pete said.

“That was the main reason she wanted to go back was because he was on leave,” he said.

The boyfriend, whom Pete identified as Tyler Vale, could not immediately be reached for comment Wednesday.

When Craft left on the bus, Pete gave her instructions to call when she got to Montana so that he would know she was safe.

“When my mother picked her up, she called me from there,” Pete said. “The last thing I said was, ‘I love you.’ “