Fossils thought to be stolen found in Kelso home

SEATTLE – Federal agents have seized more than a dozen fossils and bone fragments from the home of a Kelso man who was seen excavating illegally in Oregon’s John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, according to federal court documents made public Tuesday.

A seasonal employee at the monument called authorities in May after she and her 11-year-old son confronted David Wixon and a woman believed to be his wife as they were chipping fossils out of a blue-claystone slope with a 2-foot-long hammer.

Agents with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management searched the couple’s home and vehicle on Oct. 30. According to an inventory filed with a U.S. magistrate judge in Vancouver, Wash., the items seized included a bag containing 17 fossil specimens; fragments of the “dental end” of a rhinoceros (rhinos roamed North America until about 4.5 million years ago); a prehistoric anthropod called a trilobite; lake shale slabs containing fossils; and an unidentified mammal section.

Gregory Lloyd, a BLM ranger, wrote that the agents also seized computers, CD-ROMs and hard drives, and noted that authorities were interested in any evidence that stolen fossils had been sold.

Wixon, 45, and his wife, Tina Marie Wixon, could not be reached for comment. It was not clear if they had obtained a lawyer; they have not been charged.

John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, in central Oregon, covers 14,000 acres and contains fossils that are more than 100 million years old. Among the remains found there are those of prehistoric camels, rhinos, alligators, and oreodonts, a tusked precursor to modern pigs, hippos and camels that vanished more than 4 million years ago.

According to Lloyd’s affidavit, seasonal worker Michelle Ordway was visiting the park off-duty on May 6 when she and her son heard rock-hammering and decided to investigate.

Past at least two signs warning that disturbance of fossils is prohibited, she saw that two people had excavated a “sizable hole” in the slope. The man told her he had permission to excavate and showed her the 3-inch-long jaw bone of a fossilized animal, adding that he was collecting the fossils for a talk he planned to give to a Boy Scout group in Burns, Ore.

“At this point, Ms. Ordway’s son stepped forward and told the male that collecting fossils in John Day Fossil Beds National Monument was illegal,” Lloyd wrote. “The male listened, then stated he did not think this area was in the national park. … As Ms. Ordway left the area, she was fearful for her and her son’s safety because the illegal fossil collecting appeared deliberate, and the male now appeared to be in a hurry to reach the parking lot before they did.”

Ordway wrote down the SUV’s license plate number and reported the matter. She later identified David Wixon’s photograph, Lloyd wrote.

Two days after the encounter, park paleontologist Matt Smith determined that an oreodont skull had been removed from the site.

“Smith also told me the subjects had at least some knowledge of fossil excavation to remove what appeared to be an oreodont skull mostly intact, because amateurs frequently destroy the entire specimen,” Lloyd wrote.

David Wixon has a criminal record including drug and weapons convictions, he wrote.