The household of Aron Christensen, a Portland musician who was shot to loss of life alongside along with his pet Buzzo whereas climbing on a distant Washington path in August, is planning to sue the Sheriff’s Workplace that investigated the murder. The household alleges investigators “maliciously broken” the pet’s physique “to be able to sabotage a felony investigation.”
Christensen, on an annual tenting journey with buddies, set out on a solo hike Aug. 19 along with his 4-month-old cattle canine up the Walupt Lake Path in Washington’s Cascades. The 49-year-old avid outdoorsman, who grew up in Klamath Falls, Ore., was anticipated to return to the Lewis County campground the following afternoon.
As an alternative, the following day, a pair of hikers reported discovering a person’s physique close to the path, subsequent to the physique of a small canine.
The investigation into the deaths became a tumultuous, irritating ready sport for Christensen’s household and buddies that lasted greater than seven months.
The Lewis County prosecutor in early April finally concluded there wasn’t sufficient proof to deliver felony manslaughter fees in opposition to the suspect within the deadly capturing.
A 20-year-old Lewis County man named Ethan Asbach admitted he fired a gun on Aug. 19, 2022, within the space the place the our bodies of Christensen and Christensen’s canine have been later discovered, and forensic proof linked the bullet that killed Christensen to Asbach’s gun, in line with the Lewis County Sheriff’s Workplace investigation. Asbach stated he was climbing on the path along with his then-16-year-old girlfriend to fulfill his father on a bear-hunting journey.
However the proof didn’t meet the brink for proving felony recklessness or felony negligence, county prosecutor Jonathan Meyer stated.
“Had the case been absolutely investigated, and from the start been handled like a murder, I don’t know what proof would have been discovered,” Meyer instructed The Oregonian/OregonLive in April. “It’s onerous to say … All I do know is, with the proof we have now now, there’s not sufficient to go ahead.”
Corey Christensen, Aron’s brother, stated the prosecutor met with the household in April and cited incompetence by the Lewis County Sheriff’s Workplace as a key motive he determined to not pursue manslaughter and animal-cruelty fees.
Now, the Christensen household is in search of different avenues for justice.
Lorenzo Leoni, the Olympia lawyer employed by Aron Christensen’s sister Natalie Parker and brother-in-law Raymond Parker on behalf of Christensen’s property, filed the tort declare earlier this month, asking for punitive damages and naming each Lewis County worker who dealt with proof throughout the investigation into the deaths of Christensen and Buzzo.
The tort declare, a formality within the civil-suit course of, was despatched to Lewis County’s risk-management division Could 11, in line with the file supplied by Leoni’s workplace. Tort claims function an official notification of a plan to sue and provides the federal government company an opportunity to settle outdoors of court docket.
The Sheriff’s Workplace and different Lewis County officers didn’t reply to requests for remark.
The tort declare is step one within the case during which the information are growing, Leoni stated. Lewis County has not responded to the submitting. Leoni expects his workplace will file a lawsuit within the U.S. District Courtroom someday this summer season.
“Accidents and damages are nonetheless being accessed at the moment,” the tort declare stated. The doc doesn’t go into any element in regards to the accusation that investigators purposely broken the canine’s physique.
It stays a thriller what precisely occurred to Buzzo. One idea is {that a} single bullet killed each the canine and Aron Christensen.
Amongst a number of errors and missteps within the investigation, a forensic pathologist could have botched Aron Christensen’s post-mortem. When inspecting the bullet wound in Christensen’s chest, pathologist Dr. Megan Quinn discovered canine DNA.
In emails, the case’s lead investigator, Detective Jamey McGinty, requested Quinn if it was attainable the instruments used to examine the canine have been additionally used throughout Christensen’s post-mortem. The identical pathologists examined Christensen and Buzzo, although they didn’t have veterinary certifications.
Quinn stated she was certain the identical devices have been used for each Christensen and the canine.
Finally, she wrote to McGinty that “I’d not say to any diploma of certainty there couldn’t have been DNA switch between gadgets of proof.”
Within the Sheriff’s Workplace’s preliminary referral of fees to the Lewis County prosecutor, McGinty wrote: “Whereas wanting on the angle and exit wound in Buzzo, it matches the approximate peak because the entry wound on Christensen’s physique. With Christensen laying down on the time, it’s attainable for Asbach to have shot Buzzo, with the bullet exiting Buzzo and getting into into Christensen. This might additionally clarify the canine DNA discovered on the bullet faraway from Christensen’s physique.”
It’s apparently nonetheless not sure whether or not a single bullet hit each Buzzo and Christensen.
Whereas the tort declare launches one authorized case from family members, Christensen’s brother, Corey Christensen, a music instructor in Silverton, Ore., is receiving pro-bono authorized illustration from the Pacific Northwest-based legislation agency Lane Powell.
Legal professional Pilar C. French stated she supplied Corey Christensen assist “after studying information studies and private social-media posts from so many members of the Portland neighborhood concerning the unbelievable twists and turns in Aron’s and Buzzo’s case.”
She didn’t say if Corey Christensen plans to file one other lawsuit in regards to the case. In an electronic mail to The Oregonian/OregonLive, French wrote:
“Whereas (Leoni and Aron Christensen’s property) focuses on the tort declare, we’re counseling Corey on further avenues he can pursue to make sure that the State of Washington has accomplished every little thing inside its means to make sure justice for Aron and Buzzo.”
