In brief: Chuck Hennessey, 80, dies of cancer
Chuck Hennessey, one of Spokane’s best-known funeral directors, died Saturday after a nine-year battle with cancer. He was 80.
“We’ve gotten a couple hundred phone calls. The outpouring of support has been overwhelming,” said Jim Asper, manager of Hennessey Funeral Homes and Crematories.
Hennessey, a third-generation funeral director, averaged more than 300 funerals a year and worked up until just a few weeks ago.
He was a familiar face at funerals, especially Catholic ones, where fellow Gonzaga University graduates would joke that the next week, he might be burying them.
His funeral Mass will be at 10 a.m. Monday at St. Aloysius Church, 330 E. Boone Ave.
Help sought over body in river
Police on Tuesday asked for the public’s help to determine how a 40-year-old man ended up dead in the Spokane River on Friday.
Keith A. Millheim’s body was pulled from the Spokane River after being spotted under the Sandifur Bridge in People’s Park about 5:12 p.m.
Millheim’s body was pinned by a log “in a particularly treacherous and fast-moving section of the river,” according to the Spokane Fire Department.
Police say Millheim was released from Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center on July 25. Investigators are trying to determine where he was and who he stayed with in the days after his release.
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Check at (509) 456-2233.
Man in bunny suit frightens children
IDAHO FALLS, Idaho – Police in Idaho Falls have told a 34-year-old man to stop wearing his bunny suit in public because it was annoying his neighbors and frightening their children.
A police report says officers responded Monday after a resident reported her son had been frightened by William Falkingham wearing a black bunny costume and hiding behind a tree pointing his finger at the boy like it was a gun.
The officer spoke with other neighbors, who were also disturbed by Falkingham wearing the bunny suit. They also reported he occasionally wears a tutu with the costume.
The report says Falkingham told officers he enjoys wearing the suit, but understood his neighbors’ concerns.
Wildfire threat ‘high’ in region
The threat of wildfire danger will increase to “high” today in Spokane County and parts of Lincoln and Stevens counties.
Hot temperatures and dry conditions are curing grass and other fine fuels that help wildfires spread, said Cody Rohrbach, fire control unit forester for the Department of Natural Resources.
A statewide burn ban remains in effect for all DNR-protected lands in Washington, which includes all forestlands except for federal lands.
Hate-crime charge filed in dispute
An ongoing dispute has resulted in a rare hate-crime charge against a 49-year-old Spokane man who police say targeted a neighbor because of his race.
Page Lloyd Wrencher was charged with malicious harassment – Washington’s hate-crime law – after his downstairs neighbor at 2303 W. Mallon Ave., Joseph D. Landry, said Wrencher called him a racial epithet, repeatedly threatened him and followed him for about two blocks while threatening to kill him on June 3. Landry is black.
Spokane police said Wrencher was “extremely intoxicated” when they contacted him, according to court documents.
He was allowed to stay out of jail pending trial but was arrested July 24 after another dispute with Landry in which witnesses told police Wrencher held a large rock to Landry’s head as if he was going to assault him.
Wrencher remains in Spokane County Jail on $8,000 bond for the assault charge and $25,000 for the hate crime.
Booking search uncovers drugs
A Spokane woman set to serve four months in jail for money laundering has been charged with another felony after corrections deputies found drugs during a strip search.
Rebecca Suzanne Townley, 33, had pills and suspected marijuana concealed in a condom when a corrections deputy searched her during booking on July 27, according to the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office.
Another deputy also saw the contraband during the search, according to court documents.
Townley later admitted to investigators that she’d smuggled the drugs into the jail, documents say.
She appeared in Superior Court on Friday on a charge of being a prisoner in possession of a controlled substance.
Police quickly nab robbery suspect
A Spokane man robbed a downtown hotel at gunpoint on Saturday, police say.
Alexander Feliciano, 44, is accused of stealing a money after threatening a clerk at the Days Inn Hotel, 120 W. Third Ave., with a gun about 6:15 p.m., according to police.
The robber first asked about the price of a room before walking around the counter while holding the gun in both hands and saying “Why don’t you just show me where the money is at? Get on the ground so you don’t get hurt,” according to a probable cause affidavit.
The robber fled east on Third Avenue in a silver Pontiac Vibe, which police spotted a short while later. They arrested Feliciano and recovered $246.
The suspect was booked on a first-degree robbery charge at the Spokane County Jail, where he remains on $40,000 bond.