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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Cause of death named in Stevens County case

Hayward (The Spokesman-Review)

The woman found dead in the Stevens County backcountry Tuesday died of a stab wound to the throat, according to an autopsy.

Family reported 28-year-old Cheryl Lynn Hayward missing on July 14. Her ex-boyfriend, Preston Lee Rogers, Jr., 42, led investigators to her body in a wooded area south of Springdale on Tuesday.

A hunting knife was recovered with the body, said John Troberg, Stevens County deputy prosecutor.

Troberg outlined the case against Rogers in court Wednesday, detailing the man’s suicide attempts and his recent stint at a mental hospital.

Rogers remains in the Stevens County Jail on $1 million bond.

His public defender, Paul Wasson, said his client will plead not guilty by reason of insanity, Troberg said.

Meghann M. Cuniff

Kootenai County

Man injured in road grader accident

A Post Falls man operating a road grader suffered critical injuries Wednesday when the machine rolled in a crash and pinned him.

A resident found Jay D. Peterson, 53, unconscious and without a pulse about 4:10 p.m. on Mellick Road, about 2  1/2 miles south of Schilling Loop near Post Falls, according to the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Department.

A MedStar helicopter took him to Kootenai Medical Center, where he was listed in critical condition. He was later flown to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

Authorities believe Peterson may have been test-driving the road grader, which was for sale.

Meghann M. Cuniff

Bonner County

Fuhrman’s home damaged by fire

Author and former conservative talk show host Mark Fuhrman’s North Idaho home will require extensive renovation after a fire ripped through the first-floor walls Tuesday, according to fire officials.

Fuhrman, the retired Los Angeles police detective famous for his role in O.J. Simpson’s 1995 double-murder trial, and his wife were alerted to the blaze by smoke detectors, said Sagle Fire Chief Rob Goodyear.

Crews from the Sandpoint Fire Department and the Sagle Fire District arrived at the home near Dufort Road west of Highway 95 in Sagle about 1:25 a.m. The fire, which appears to have started in an electrical control box in a crawl space beneath the first floor, damaged about 35 percent of the first-floor’s structure and caused extensive smoke damage throughout, making it uninhabitable, Goodyear said. He estimated the damage at $150,000. One firefighter was treated and released for smoke inhalation at Bonner General Hospital, Goodyear said, but otherwise there were no injuries.

Meghann M. Cuniff