In brief: Man arrested in woman’s death
A 30-year-old Spokane man has been arrested for the homicide of a Stevens County woman.
Robert C. Wirtz is charged with first-degree murder and first-degree robbery for the death of 62-year-old Narleen Campton, who was found dead in her home in Northport near the Canadian border on Nov. 26.
A neighbor called police about 2:40 p.m. and reported finding Campton dead in her home after not hearing from her for a few days, authorities say.
Wirtz was arrested on Thursday, and detectives seized a vehicle in Spokane County that belongs to him, according to the Stevens County Sheriff’s Office.
Detectives believe other people were involved in the homicide and are continuing their investigation.
Wirtz appeared in Stevens County Superior Court in Colville on Friday at 11 a.m. He’s being held at the Stevens County Jail on $750,000 bond. His next court appearance is Dec. 20.
Burned home’s owner near arrest
WASHOUGAL, Wash. – The owner of a southwest Washington home that burned in a deadly fire and shooting this week was under investigation for multiple sex crimes.
The Clark County Sheriff’s Office said Steven D. Stanbary was supposed to turn himself in to Washougal detectives on Thursday. Instead, his house caught fire the day before. A man inside fired gunshots to keep neighbors and firefighters away.
Investigators discovered two bodies in the charred rubble but have yet to identify them. Stanbary lived at the home with his wife and her identical twin sister.
It was apparently the same Stanbary who was involved in incidents in Bonner County in the 1990s.
In 1994, sheriff’s deputies confiscated six AK-47 assault rifles and more than 20 other rifles, three handguns, several shotguns, a flak jacket, a grenade launcher, gas masks and thousands of rounds of ammunition from the home of Steven Douglas Stanbary after he threatened to kill his wife and children.
In 1995, Stanbary was sentenced to three months in jail for simple assault in Bonner County.
Megaloads halted after collision
MOSCOW, Idaho – The Idaho Transportation Department is suspending shipments of Imperial Oil refinery equipment from the Port of Lewiston after a collision involving one of the equipment modules.
The suspension includes three shipments that were scheduled to travel on Wednesday, department spokesman Adam Rush said in an emailed statement.
Idaho State Police Capt. Lonnie Richardson said Tuesday’s collision involved one of three shipments that left the port Tuesday night. The shipments were supposed to stop at a staging area on U.S. Highway 95 before traveling through Moscow in a convoy, but one driver tried to leave before southbound traffic was released, Richardson told the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.
The module hit a van causing severe damage and pushed that van into another vehicle. No one was injured, Richardson said.
“The driver did not follow the approved safety plan,” Richardson said. “This was clearly driver error.”