Chris Cram
10-15-2009, 09:44
RIP Frank Means... :(
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/10/portland_woman_wonders_why_her.html
By Stuart Tomlinson, The Oregonian
October 15, 2009, 7:25AM
In most of the family photographs stacked on his widow's coffee table, Frank Means is either on the water fishing, or out in the woods hunting.
The avid sportsman was equally passionate about his family, his wife Jackie said, and pleased and excited about his yet to-be-born, seventh grandchild: A boy due in December.
But a week after he died in a remote hunting camp along the John Day River of multiple gunshot wounds, family and friends are confounded by a maze of unanswered questions.
This much is known: The 61-year-old father of four and grandfather of six left his Northeast Portland home on Oct. 2 for a weeklong deer hunting trip in Wheeler County, where he camped at an area known as Priest Hole. It's about 10 miles west of the Twickenham Bridge.
Tony Means, Frank's 38-year-old son, said he visited his dad's camp on Monday, Oct. 5, and showed him where deer were hiding nearby. Tony and a friend then returned to their camp about an hour away. Two days later, Frank Means bagged his buck.
"The last picture on his camera was taken at about 12:30 Wednesday afternoon," Tony Means said. "It was a picture of his buck."
That night, Frank Means apparently packed his small trailer with most of his gear before a planned return to Portland the next morning.
He never made it. At around 7 p.m., Means was shot and killed in his camp during what Wheeler County Sheriff Robert Hudspeth has characterized as a confrontation with several other people from the Portland area.
Dr. Clifford Nelson of the state medical examiner's office said Means died of multiple gunshot wounds.
"It was clear that he was shot by someone," Nelson said. But he also said he knew few circumstances of the shooting, and admitted that he usually gets more details about homicide cases. He has ruled the shooting a homicide.
So far, no arrests have been made, but Wheeler County district attorney Dan Ousley said Wednesday afternoon his office had just received the autopsy report and he expects to get the investigating officers' reports by the end of this week or early next week.
"I expect we will have some more answers by then," Ousley said.
Lt. Gregg Hastings, spokesman for the Oregon State Police, said state police officials offered to assist in the investigation, "but we are not providing any assistance at this time."
That apparent refusal by the three-man Wheeler County Sheriff's Office to accept help from a larger, experienced agency, and other questions have left Frank Means' family dismayed and confused.
"I want some answers, but everybody has been so tight-lipped," Jackie Means said Wednesday as a steady stream of relatives came by her house, still decorated for Halloween. "We want to know what happened."
Jackie Means said her husband's shooting wasn't reported until two hours after he was shot, and his camp was broken down and packed away by 1 a.m. the following morning -- just four hours after his shooting was reported.
His Ford pickup truck and utility trailer were taken away a short time later by a nearby towing company. As far as she can tell, Jackie Means said, the only item sheriff's officials kept was Means' 9 mm pistol.
She said sheriff's officials told her the person or people involved in the shootings were allowed to leave shortly after the shooting.
"Why weren't they detained?" she wondered. "Why was the camp broken down so quickly?"
When she demanded answers, she said Wheeler County Sheriff's officials were "rude" and evasive, she said.
Contacted by The Oregonian Wednesday, a deputy with the Wheeler County Sheriff's Office declined to comment on the case. But county officials said Means' death was only the second homicide in the 1,800-square-mile county in the past 20 years.
Meanwhile, rumors abound on hunting and fishing internet forums and in the small towns of Mitchell and Fossil.
"We've heard that someone came into his camp and there was some kind of confrontation," Jackie Means said. "Frank could be hot-headed, but he would never hurt anybody."
At that time of the evening, she said, her husband normally would have been relaxing in a tent with one of the three books he took along. He read "everything," she said, but most often non-fiction history books.
Tony Means said police forgot to take the deer Frank Means left hanging in a tree at his camp following their investigation. When they returned, the deer was gone, he said.
Tony Means, who believes his father fired at least one shot before he died, also wonders how thorough the Wheeler County investigation could have been if it was conducted in the dark, and if investigators left the scene in four hours.
"The pain of my father's death has gone away, and all that's left is anger," Tony Means said. "One sheriff and two deputies? Why would they refuse the state police's help? It's too late now; the crime scene is contaminated."
Frank's brother, Steve Means, said the family was so frustrated with the lack of information that he called the Oregon Attorney General's office Wednesday morning.
"They told me not to get angry, and to have questions written out to have answered," Means said. He and other family members plan to travel to Fossil Friday to get those questions answered.
"We're like a bunch of lost sheep," Steve Means said. "Any news would be better than what we've got."
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/10/portland_woman_wonders_why_her.html
By Stuart Tomlinson, The Oregonian
October 15, 2009, 7:25AM
In most of the family photographs stacked on his widow's coffee table, Frank Means is either on the water fishing, or out in the woods hunting.
The avid sportsman was equally passionate about his family, his wife Jackie said, and pleased and excited about his yet to-be-born, seventh grandchild: A boy due in December.
But a week after he died in a remote hunting camp along the John Day River of multiple gunshot wounds, family and friends are confounded by a maze of unanswered questions.
This much is known: The 61-year-old father of four and grandfather of six left his Northeast Portland home on Oct. 2 for a weeklong deer hunting trip in Wheeler County, where he camped at an area known as Priest Hole. It's about 10 miles west of the Twickenham Bridge.
Tony Means, Frank's 38-year-old son, said he visited his dad's camp on Monday, Oct. 5, and showed him where deer were hiding nearby. Tony and a friend then returned to their camp about an hour away. Two days later, Frank Means bagged his buck.
"The last picture on his camera was taken at about 12:30 Wednesday afternoon," Tony Means said. "It was a picture of his buck."
That night, Frank Means apparently packed his small trailer with most of his gear before a planned return to Portland the next morning.
He never made it. At around 7 p.m., Means was shot and killed in his camp during what Wheeler County Sheriff Robert Hudspeth has characterized as a confrontation with several other people from the Portland area.
Dr. Clifford Nelson of the state medical examiner's office said Means died of multiple gunshot wounds.
"It was clear that he was shot by someone," Nelson said. But he also said he knew few circumstances of the shooting, and admitted that he usually gets more details about homicide cases. He has ruled the shooting a homicide.
So far, no arrests have been made, but Wheeler County district attorney Dan Ousley said Wednesday afternoon his office had just received the autopsy report and he expects to get the investigating officers' reports by the end of this week or early next week.
"I expect we will have some more answers by then," Ousley said.
Lt. Gregg Hastings, spokesman for the Oregon State Police, said state police officials offered to assist in the investigation, "but we are not providing any assistance at this time."
That apparent refusal by the three-man Wheeler County Sheriff's Office to accept help from a larger, experienced agency, and other questions have left Frank Means' family dismayed and confused.
"I want some answers, but everybody has been so tight-lipped," Jackie Means said Wednesday as a steady stream of relatives came by her house, still decorated for Halloween. "We want to know what happened."
Jackie Means said her husband's shooting wasn't reported until two hours after he was shot, and his camp was broken down and packed away by 1 a.m. the following morning -- just four hours after his shooting was reported.
His Ford pickup truck and utility trailer were taken away a short time later by a nearby towing company. As far as she can tell, Jackie Means said, the only item sheriff's officials kept was Means' 9 mm pistol.
She said sheriff's officials told her the person or people involved in the shootings were allowed to leave shortly after the shooting.
"Why weren't they detained?" she wondered. "Why was the camp broken down so quickly?"
When she demanded answers, she said Wheeler County Sheriff's officials were "rude" and evasive, she said.
Contacted by The Oregonian Wednesday, a deputy with the Wheeler County Sheriff's Office declined to comment on the case. But county officials said Means' death was only the second homicide in the 1,800-square-mile county in the past 20 years.
Meanwhile, rumors abound on hunting and fishing internet forums and in the small towns of Mitchell and Fossil.
"We've heard that someone came into his camp and there was some kind of confrontation," Jackie Means said. "Frank could be hot-headed, but he would never hurt anybody."
At that time of the evening, she said, her husband normally would have been relaxing in a tent with one of the three books he took along. He read "everything," she said, but most often non-fiction history books.
Tony Means said police forgot to take the deer Frank Means left hanging in a tree at his camp following their investigation. When they returned, the deer was gone, he said.
Tony Means, who believes his father fired at least one shot before he died, also wonders how thorough the Wheeler County investigation could have been if it was conducted in the dark, and if investigators left the scene in four hours.
"The pain of my father's death has gone away, and all that's left is anger," Tony Means said. "One sheriff and two deputies? Why would they refuse the state police's help? It's too late now; the crime scene is contaminated."
Frank's brother, Steve Means, said the family was so frustrated with the lack of information that he called the Oregon Attorney General's office Wednesday morning.
"They told me not to get angry, and to have questions written out to have answered," Means said. He and other family members plan to travel to Fossil Friday to get those questions answered.
"We're like a bunch of lost sheep," Steve Means said. "Any news would be better than what we've got."