EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first of a two-part series. The second article will be published Monday.
Shortly before her death one year ago today, Forest Service Officer Kristine Fairbanks was her typical cheerful self.
A few minutes before she approached her would-be killer’s 1978 red Chevrolet van, she chatted casually with Justin Rivet of Port Angeles about their dogs and her family.
“She was in a great mood, upbeat and happy,” Rivet said last week.
The topic that prompted their conversation wasthe van across a short bridge that spans the Dungeness River at the Dungeness Forks Campground off Palo Alto Road southeast of Sequim.
“She asked if I knew the van,” said Rivet, a 24-year-old cabinetmaker who was hiking in the area.
If the 21-year Forest Service veteran was aware of any danger, she didn’t show it, he said.
A few minutes later, she was dead — shot, police say, by Shawn Roe of Everett, who was living in the van.
Later, Roe killed Sequim retiree, Richard Ziegler, 59, and stole his truck.
Roe was gunned down that night by Clallam County sheriff’s deputies at the Longhouse Market & Deli in Blyn.
Report released last week
Fairbanks’ encounter with Rivet was mentioned in a 31-page FBI report on the investigation into Fairbanks’ death that was released by the Clallam County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office on Sept. 14, in response to a public records act request the Peninsula Daily News filed on Aug. 12.
The report is dated April 19, and is stamped as having been received by the county prosecuting attorney on July 9.
Some information was redacted. Among the information marked out, said Mark Nichols, chief deputy prosecuting attorney, was one of the FBI’s conclusions . . . “the nondisclosure of which is essential to effective law enforcement.”
Also redacted was a quote taken from a letter from Roe to his mother to avoid violating “Roe’s and/or his mother’s right to privacy. . .”
Some autopsy information, both from that of Roe and Fairbanks, also was redacted.
Van spotted several times
The suspicious van — which Roe had purchased for $1,000 from Tyson Motors in Sequim on Aug. 25, 2008 — had been seen near the campground by Forest Service employees and Fairbanks herself several times since Sept. 5, the FBI report said.
Each time it had been seen, its owner was nowhere to be found.
That was not the case on Sept. 20.
After her conversation with Rivet, Fairbanks drove past the van and made a U-turn, likely after seeing Roe, the FBI report said.
Less than five minutes later, at about 2:35 p.m., Rivet — who had continued his hike — heard someone yell, possibly Fairbanks, in the distance.
That was followed by a popping sound that could have been small-caliber gunfire or a car backfiring, he said.
About 20 minutes later, he returned to the area with his miniature husky.
He saw the lights on Fairbanks’ sport utility vehicle flashing, but no sign of Roe, his van or the dog that he had with him.
“I was cautious, I didn’t see her right away,” he said.
“Then the sheriff [deputy] came flying down.
“He gets out of his car …. He ran into the woods, then back to the road.
“She was near the road.
“I looked away. I didn’t want to see that.”
Roe had dragged her body behind a tree, Clallam County Sheriff Bill Benedict said.
Trooper in shock
A few minutes later, State Patrol Trooper Keith Nestor arrived.
With a yellow body cover in his hands, Nestor stood over her, silent, in shock, for up to 30 seconds, Rivet said.
Meanwhile, Fairbanks’ K9 partner, Radar, was inside her vehicle where she had left him.
“It was going nuts,” Rivet said.
Fairbanks — a 51-year-old mother who lived in Forks with her now 16-year-old daughter, Whitney, and her husband, state Fish and Wildlife Officer Brian Fairbanks — was pronounced dead at the scene.
Roe shot her once in the side of the head with a .22 caliber revolver. She likely died instantly, Benedict said.
Memorial a year later
On Saturday, a year later, a memorial wreath and bouquet of flowers had been placed where she lost her life.
Fairbanks was the second law enforcement officer to be shot and killed on the North Olympic Peninsula while on duty. The first was Clallam County Sheriff’s Deputy Wally Davis, who was killed in August 2000.
The FBI report showed that Fairbanks may not have known how much of a threat Roe was until it was too late.
A transcript of her three-minute call to State Patrol dispatchers, in which she read Roe’s driver’s license information, shows that Fairbanks was told that he was a convicted felon, with a temporary protection order and under state Department of Corrections supervision.
Roe was convicted of abusing his then wife Mary C. White of Shelton in 2006 and had spent four years in jail. The two had a young daughter together.
Benedict said Roe, possibly believing that he had a warrant for his arrest for violating conditions of his parole, probably shot Fairbanks as she was getting out of her vehicle.
Fairbanks may have left her trusted canine companion in the vehicle because of the presence of a chocolate Labrador, Jake, in Roe’s car, the FBI report said.
The short time line between contact and the shooting also suggests that Roe was outside of the van with the dog, which he had taken from his brother, when Fairbanks approached him, the FBI report said.
Trigger device
Fairbanks perhaps could have used a trigger-device that K9 officers use to remotely open their car doors to let their dog partners out, if it had been functioning.
Fairbanks had one, but knew that the device didn’t work, Benedict said. Since she was getting a new patrol vehicle within a few weeks, the Forest Service had not replaced it.
Even had it been operating, Benedict said he doesn’t think it would have made a difference, since there is no reason to believe, based on the FBI report, that Fairbanks had time to defend herself.
There was no evidence of a struggle, the FBI report said.
Roe made several references in the 89-page diary that he kept while living in the woods that he would shoot anyone who got in his way, out of fear of returning to jail.
He also wrote that he intended to die in a gunfight like Bonnie and Clyde.
“I hate to sit in one spot to [sic] long, or I will certainly run into authorities, game wardens, etc.!!,” he wrote.
“Then this will end in gunplay.”
‘Self-destruct mode’
Roe’s unidentified brother was aware of his intentions, and in a voice message left with the Department of Corrections on Sept. 9, 2008, he said that Roe was in “self-destruct mode.”
“Shawn was planning to go and live in the woods, and he threatened that if anyone came after him, they would get it,” he said in the message, according to the FBI report.
Roe’s friends and family told the FBI that he frequently threatened suicide, but was too afraid to do it himself.
During the multi-agency search that followed, which involved authorities from as far away as Hoquiam, a store clerk at the Longhouse Market & Deli in Blyn recognized Roe from a flyer with his photograph.
Roe was buying Crown Royal Whiskey and Pepsi at 9:16 p.m.
Three minutes the later, two Clallam County sheriff’s deputies stopped him as he left the store.
Roe pulled a handgun — later found to be Fairbanks’ firearm — from his waistline. He pointed the gun at the deputies and shot once, missing both of them.
The deputies fired five shots. Roe was killed.
Law enforcement officers then found that Roe had killed more than once that day.
After dumping the van six miles north of the campground, and removing its plates, Roe followed a trail to a garage, which he attempted to break into, in a gated community at 4:30 p.m., the FBI report said.
Carrying his 30-30 rifle, he moved on after failing to break into the garage and came across Ziegler’s residence at 83 Jonrey Lane across the road from the gated community.
The FBI report says Roe shot Ziegler, 59 — who retired as a corrections officer in California in May 2008 — three times while he was tending to his garden between 4:20 p.m. and 5 p.m. At least one of those shots came from the rifle.
Law enforcement officers found Ziegler shortly after the Longhouse shooting deceased and covered with a blanket. He was lying in the foundation of the home he was building for his retirement.
After donning clothes from Ziegler’s mobile home and stealing his Ford F350 truck, Roe probably drove past officers parked near the intersection of Louella Road and U.S. Highway 101 who were looking for the red van, Benedict said.
From there, he went to Sequim where he purchased three cheeseburgers and a chocolate milkshake from McDonald’s at 8:40 p.m.
Benedict said Roe was able to make it past police because his photograph had not been distributed, and police officers were still looking for the van.
Roe’s next known stop was the Longhouse Market & Deli.
The FBI report said that Roe probably would have driven from there to Shelton to kill his ex-wife, which is something that he fantasized about while in the forest.
“It does tempt me sometimes to go rain destruction on Shelton,” he wrote in his diary.
So Fairbanks’ death may have saved the life of another.
On Monday: Shawn Roe’s final days, as told in the FBI’s report.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.