A camper made a grisly discovery on Sunday during her morning walk: a human jawbone. The jawbone was in the middle of a trail on the west side of the Cuneo Creek Horse Camp, an equestrian site in Humboldt Redwoods State Park just off of Bull Creek Road. The camper, who requested anonymity, immediately returned […]
crime
Posted inNews
No More Late Night Jail Releases, Says Grand Jury
The Humboldt County Grand jury is calling for Sheriff Mike Downey to enact changes to the county jail’s release policies, including a recommendation to end late-night and early-morning releases. “The people of Humboldt County would be better served if Humboldt County Correctional Facility stopped releasing inmates between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m.,” reads a report […]
Posted inNews
Crime in Eureka
The Eureka Police Department is releasing quarterly crime reports of data and trends in order to, as an EPD news release says, “drive a greater awareness of crime and demonstrate [the department’s] desire to work with the community.” Here’s the latest data: Some of the trends noted by the EPD, between January 2013 and June 2014, […]
Posted inNews
The Escalation of ‘Wild Bill’
It was about 2:45 p.m. on May 6, when a Humboldt County Sheriff’s deputy and a sergeant arrived at a residence on Shelter Cove’s Kelly Road, where 55-year-old William Lloyd Nelson was living. Several weeks earlier, Nelson’s girlfriend of 15 years, and the mother of his son, filed a request for a domestic violence restraining […]
Posted inNews
Unsealed
Two young people gunned down in the middle of the night at a house party in Arcata. A beloved priest tortured and bludgeoned to death in his Eureka rectory. Two men killed execution-style in a home in a nice, quiet neighborhood of Eureka. Each of these crimes stilled the local community, capturing waves of media […]
Posted inNews
A Capital Question
As the race to become Humboldt County’s next district attorney hits full stride, a trial quietly looms in the background — the first local death penalty case in decades — with the potential to bring the issue of capital punishment front and center in the campaign. With little attention or fanfare, Humboldt County District Attorney […]
Posted inNews
Free to Go
If you’re let out of jail in the middle of the night 50 miles from home, who do you call? For some, it’s Hoopa resident Brad Marshall’s elderly mom. That’s something Marshall would like to see change. Before a crowd of 100 people last week, he asked the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office to reassess its […]
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Prairie Creek Scenic Byway Will Close Nights to Prevent Burl Piracy
File under: This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things. Newton B. Drury Parkway, that languorous, serpentine, redwood-lined scenic bypass through Prairie Creek State Park, will now be closed dusk ’til dawn because of burl-raiding nincompoops. California State Parks announced the closure — effective Saturday at sundown — as a measure to keep people from […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Pot POW
“I lived in Humboldt County. I grew marijuana. And I sold pot.” So went Brett McFarland’s recent confession in the Journal office last week, days before he would be sentenced to five years in federal prison on marijuana charges. McFarland pleaded guilty Feb. 24 to conspiring to distribute marijuana he grew between 2008 and 2011, […]
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Sheriff, Eureka Chief to Talk Late-Night Jail Release Policy
The county’s top law enforcement officers and church leaders will meet Wednesday, Feb. 26 to discuss the Humboldt County jail’s policy of releasing inmates late at night, when few services are available to them. The jail’s policy came into question after the high-profile killing of Father Eric Freed and was addressed in the Journal’s cover […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Ben Kelsey: Arcata Founding Father, Trail Builder, Indian Killer
Last summer, when I first encountered the Kelsey National Recreation Trail which runs east-west across the north side of the Marble Mountains, I thought, “I just hope this isn’t the same murdering scoundrel Kelsey who helped found Arcata.” Hope on. The trail is indeed named for Ben Kelsey, one of the leaders of the infamous […]
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Conflicting Reports
Shortly after Sandra Lingle moved to Eureka from San Diego 32 years ago, something made an impression. “I saw somebody walking their dog at 11 o’clock at night — a woman — and I was thrilled,” she recalled last week. To Lingle, the sight reinforced that she’d moved to a safe place, a community where […]