Mysteries remain unsolved

After filing a Freedom of Information request with the FBI in the early 1990s, the Yakima Herald-Republic compiled federal reports on a string of 13 mysterious deaths on the Yakama reservation, all involving women and spanning more than a decade. Below are brief descriptions of those deaths, followed by a list of missing-persons cases and more recent homicides that remain unsolved on the reservation:

* Sheila Pearl Lewis, 33, of Yakima.

Her battered body was found Aug. 3, 1980, near Parker Dam south of Union Gap. She died of massive internal injuries, possibly as a result of being hit by a car or truck. She had been living in Yakima and worked for the state Department of Social and Health Services.

* Lesora Yvette Eli, 19.

A farmer found her fully clothed body facedown in a drainage ditch along Parton Road near Toppenish on Feb. 2, 1982. While the Yakima County Coroner's Office listed the death as accidental drowning, FBI investigators in a memo that year described it as a possible homicide.

* Celestine Spencer, 21, of Wapato.

Spencer went missing for about two weeks before her body was found Nov. 11, 1982, at the bottom of a gully in a field off McCullough Road along the north slope of Ahtanum Ridge.

* Clydell Alice Sampson, 25, of Klickitat.

Her skeletal remains were found by hunters Dec. 28, 1986, below Hambre Butte south of Granger. An autopsy conducted by the King County Medical Examiner's Office determined she died of a shotgun blast to the head. She was last seen two years earlier.

* Babette Crystall Greene, 26, of Toppenish.

A member of the Warm Springs tribe in Oregon, her skeletal remains were found during the summer of 1987 off North Track Road near Wapato. Coroner's records listed her death as "homicidal violence," meaning that her death is surrounded by mysterious circumstances.

* Teresa R. Stahi, 25.

Her fully clothed body was pulled from a fish screen in a diversion canal off Toppenish Creek south of Granger on July 7, 1987. An autopsy concluded she drowned and had been in the water less than 12 hours. The Yakima County Sheriff's Office said it ruled out foul play. However, an FBI memo listed Stahi's case as a "mysterious death matter."

* Jenece Marie Wilson, 20, of Toppenish.

Her partially clothed body was found Aug. 8, 1987, in a remote area near Cherry Hill. She died of a severe blow to the head, and most of her clothes were strewn about the site. She was last seen four days earlier leaving a party near Granger to hitchhike to Sunnyside.

* Theresa Suezanne Brandscomb, 20, of Yakima.

Her stabbed body was found Feb. 8, 1987, in an orchard near Parker. Known as a "street person" with two prostitution arrests, she was last seen the night before at the now-demolished Stockman's Tavern in Yakima.

* Bertha Cantu, 26, of Yakima.

Her nude body was found June 30, 1987, along the banks of the Yakima River near Parker. She suffered multiple stab wounds to the neck and throat and was believed to have been killed elsewhere, and then her body dumped at the site. She was last seen at the now-demolished Yakima Hotel the previous morning.

* Skeletal remains of an unidentified American Indian woman believed to be in her late 20s or early 30s were found Feb. 16, 1988, near Parker Dam. No cause of death has ever been determined, but the Yakima County Sheriff's Office considered it a homicide.

* Rozelia Lou (Tulee) Sohappy, 31, of Brownstown.

Her partially clothed body was found March 13, 1989, in a remote ravine along the south slope of Ahtanum Ridge north of Brownstown. She was identified through dental records, and an autopsy concluded she had been strangled. She was last seen New Year's Eve 1988.

* JoAnne Betty (Wyman) John, 44, of Wapato.

Her skull and bone fragments were found Feb. 2, 1991, near Mill Creek southwest of White Swan. She was identified through dental records. The mother of 11 children, she had been listed as missing since Aug. 1, 1988. Coroner's records list cause of death as "homicidal violence."

* Shari Dee Sampson Elwell, 30, of Wapato.

Her sexually mutilated body was found Dec. 30, 1992, by a group of hunters northwest of White Swan in the closed and remote area of the Yakama reservation. Autopsy reports indicate she had been strangled. Elwell's family reported not seeing her for weeks.

Unsolved missing-person cases:

* Daisy Tallman, 29, went missing Oct. 29, 1987, and seven years later was presumed dead by the Yakima County Coroner's Office.

* Karen Johnley, reported missing sometime in 1987. While her name was on a reward list circulated by a local group called Yakamas for Justice and by tribal police, the coroner's office has no information about her.

* Darryl Keith Celestine, reported missing Sept. 25, 1988. Coroner's office has no information about him.

* Donnie Sampson, 71, of Wapato, went missing Oct. 30, 1994, after leaving to go hunting near Mount Adams. Seven years later, he was presumed dead by the coroner's office.

More recent cases believed to be homicides that remain unsolved:

* Triple homicide: Charmaine Sanchey, 47, Toni Marie Green, 43, and Steve Alvarado, 52. Their beaten and stabbed bodies were found in a small trailer outside Toppenish on Jan. 16, 2003. Charmaine Sanchey's brother, Arthur Joseph Sanchey, was the only prime suspect in the slayings, but was acquitted of charges in July 2004.

* Barbara Celestine, 44, died Sept. 5, 2005, from a blunt trauma to the head while at a house in the Apas Goudy housing project in Wapato.

* Marvin Bryan, 46, was found strangled in his Toppenish trailer April 19, 2003.

* Alice Ida Looney, 39, was reported missing Aug. 16, 2004. A hunter found her body Nov. 30, 2005, wedged under a tree on a small island in Satus Creek, about 12 miles southwest of Toppenish.