Page 13 - Flathead Beacon // 7.23.14

FLATHEADBEACON.COM NEWS JULY 23, 2014 | 13 Days After Woman Dies, Two More
Young boy falls into McDonald Creek an hour before four people flip a raft on the North Fork
By JUSTIN FRANZ of the Beacon
Just three days after a woman drowned in Glacier National Park, rang- ers responded to two more water-re- lated accidents just an hour apart from each other on July 15.
In one incident, a young boy was playing near a creek when he fell in and was rushed downstream. In the other, a raft carrying a family from California flipped on the North Fork Flathead Riv- er. No one was injured in either incident.
National Park Service officials said the two incidents are a reminder that many of the lakes, rivers and streams in the park are still running high and that drowning is one of the leading causes of death in the park.
Shortly after noon on July 15, a young boy whose family was on a Red Bus tour was playing on a log at Red Rock Point when he slipped and fell into McDonald Creek. Witnesses said the boy was swept down the creek about 20 yards before another visitor jumped in and brought the boy to shore.
While that incident was safely wrap- ping up, park dispatch received another
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Water Rescues in Glacier Park
County dismisses charges against Kalispell man who allegedly plotted to kill his wife from jail
By JUSTIN FRANZ of the Beacon
Just moments before a Kalispell man was set to go on trial last week for allegedly soliciting his cellmate to kill his ex-wife, prosecutors dropped the charges and dismissed the case.
Flathead County Attorney Ed Cor- rigan said in the days before the matter was to go to trial on July 14 he did not be- lieve prosecutors had enough evidence to win their case against Matthew Wil- liam Heuer.
“There were a number of problems with the case and as we were preparing for it we came to the conclusion that we didn’t have enough evidence for a con- viction,” Corrigan said. “We are ethical- ly bound not to proceed with a case if we don’t have enough to convict.”
In February, Heuer, 38, was convict- ed of felony criminal endangerment for
firing a gun at his neighbors and was sen- tenced to five years in the custody of the Department of Corrections. According to court documents, while Heuer was in jail he allegedly asked his cellmate, Noah Powell, to kill his ex-wife, Tarsha Heuer, and Flathead County Victim Ad- vocate Janiece Hamilton, in exchange for a Toyota pickup truck and money. According to an order of protection filed by Tarsha, the two men discussed using meth in a needle to kill the two women.
After Heuer had asked him to kill his wife, Powell told police, who in turn had him wear a wire on two different occa- sions, to try and record Heuer’s alleged murder-for-hire request. According to Corrigan, the recordings are where the case failed.
Corrigan said the quality of the first recording was so bad that even after the Federal Bureau of Investigation en- hanced it, prosecutors couldn’t decipher it enough to get a clear transcript of what was said. When Powell recorded Heuer a second time he didn’t explicitly say he wanted his ex-wife murdered.
The county attorney also said that the two officers who overheard the con-
versations also couldn’t remember if Heuer actually said he wanted his ex- wife murdered.
“All we had were the informant statements,” Corrigan said. “Because we didn’t have the recording and the of- ficers couldn’t recall everything Heuer said there was nothing stopping him from standing up during his trial and saying ‘I did not say those things’ and we’d have no way to prove otherwise.”
Later the judge also ruled that the prosecutor, Deputy County Attorney Kenneth Park, could not introduce evi- dence from past conflicts Heuer had with his wife, with whom he has two children, ages 8 and 11.
“The case just fell apart,” Corrigan said.
After the case against Heuer was dropped, his ex-wife filed for a restrain- ing order that was granted soon after. In it, Tarsha Heuer wrote, “He is being re- leased and he will kill me.”
Heuer is currently serving his sen- tence with the Department of Correc- tions and is being transferred to the Missoula area for an assessment.
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People take pictures from a walk bridge over McDonald Creek in Glacier National Park. BEACON FILE PHOTO
report of a raft accident. At about 1:30 p.m., a raft carrying a family of four from California flipped on the North Fork of the Flathead River about 12 miles north of Columbia Falls.
Park rangers, Flathead County sher- iff deputies, Two Bear Helicopter and members of North Valley Search and Rescue all responded to the accident. Soon after the search began, the crew on the Two Bear helicopter spotted the family on the bank of the river, cold but alive. A boat was dispatched to pick up
the family and take them back to their car.
The accidents come just three days after a Washington woman drowned in McDonald Creek. Abigail Sylvester, 33, was visiting the park with her husband on July 12 when she slipped and fell in the creek. Park rangers found the wom- an a half-mile downstream and she was airlifted to Kalispell but was later pro- nounced dead at the hospital.
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County Attorney: Murder-For-Hire Case ‘Fell Apart’