In brief: Motorcyclist injured in Highway 41 crash

A 61-year-old Spokane man was injured Sunday afternoon in Post Falls after being thrown from his motorcycle when it slid into the back of a car.

George H. Mayo, who was wearing a helmet, was taken to Kootenai Medical Center, where he was in fair condition Sunday night, officials said.

Mayo was headed south on state Highway 41 near the Interstate 90 interchange about 1:30 p.m. when he failed to yield to traffic stopped in front of him, the Idaho State Police said.

Mayo’s 1995 Harley Davidson slid into the back of a 2003 Ford Ranger driven by Kaitlin M. Henderson, 18, of Hayden. Henderson was not injured.

Whitman County

Fund established for missing boy’s family

A memorial fund has been established at Washington Mutual Bank to help the family of a 27-month-old boy who has been missing since March 26.

Avery Blakeley was last seen about 12:30 p.m. that day while his mother and aunt moved items from their trailer home near Pine Creek, about 35 miles south of Spokane in Whitman County.

Sheriff Brett Myers said a piece of the boy’s clothing was found on the creek bank. A Spokane County diver team and helicopters conducted a search along the stream bank but to no avail.

In addition to the fund, a benefit auction will be held at noon on April 25 at Moscow High School gymnasium.

GRAHAM, Wash.

Marital dispute spurred killings, police say

A man who fatally shot his five children and killed himself had just discovered his wife was leaving him for another man, authorities said Sunday.

The children, aged 7 to 16, were found shot to death Saturday in the family’s mobile home in Graham, 15 miles southeast of Tacoma. The father, identified by relatives as James Harrison, was found earlier in the day, dead of a self-inflicted gunshot 18 miles away in Auburn.

The night before, the father and his eldest daughter went in search of the wife, Angela Harrison and found her with another man at a convenience store in Auburn, said Ed Troyer, a spokesman for the Pierce County sheriff.

The woman told her husband she was not coming home, and was leaving him for the man with her at the store. The father and the daughter left, Troyer said. Sometime after the children went to sleep, he mounted a merciless attack on them, shooting each multiple times.

“He wanted the kids dead,” Troyer said. “It wasn’t like he shot a few rounds. He shot several rounds.”

Investigators believe he then returned to the area near the convenience store looking for his wife. His body was found near the store, Troyer said.

“We think he was going to go back to kill the wife,” Troyer said. “He probably didn’t find her and realized the gravity of what he’d done and shot himself.”

From staff and wire reports