Head Shot by Burl Barer Page A

dumped the leftover bag of concrete and the carpet the body was wrapped in about twenty yards away. When we got home and opened up the bucket, [we] saw that the concrete had set up. We placed the five-gallon bucket containing the head in the garage. The next night, Tony [Youso] and I drove in my station wagon to a bridge over the Puyallup River; Tony got out of the passenger side with the bucket and threw it over the side of the bridge. Tony knew what was in the bucket because Paul and I told him.”
    The ax used to decapitate John Achord was, Chris told Yerbury, hidden under a woodpile at the home of Youso’s brother. “The brother knew nothing about any of this,” recalled the detective. “The knife used in the assault on Damon Wells was discarded near the freeway entrance between McKinley and Pacific Avenue at the Thirty-eighth Street on-ramp.”
    Detectives Price and Yerbury were continually impressed by Christopher St. Pierre’s eagerness to assist them. “He told us that he wanted to cooperate in this investigation so he could attempt to prove that he was not the person responsible for the two deaths, and that he wanted to get the whole situation off his conscience. In fact, Christopher St. Pierre also stated that he wanted to take us to the burial site so the bodies could be recovered.”
    Price and Yerbury transported Chris St. Pierre to a meeting at the Pierce County Coroner’s Office with Sergeant Parkhurst, other assisting officers, and Dr. Emanual Lacsina, medical examiner. “I explained the situation,” recalled Yerbury, “and preparations were made to go to the burial site. Due to conflicting jurisdictional problems, Sergeant Parkhurst made arrangements with the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office for support of that agency.”
    â€œWhen Yerbury told us that Chris St. Pierre volunteered to take officers to the scene where the bodies were buried, I contacted Detective Glade Austin of the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office,” said Sergeant Parkhurst. “Detective Austin said that if we were positive the homicide occurred in Tacoma, and that the burial of the victims was the only incident that occurred in Lewis County, they would be willing to release jurisdiction of the bodies to our medical examiner in Pierce County.”
    Parkhurst contacted Dr. Lacsina, Pierce County’s medical examiner, and he agreed to perform the pathological and forensic examinations on the singular condition that Lewis County provided an official written release. A few telephone calls, capped by verbal assurances of complete cooperation, resolved Lacsina’s professional concerns. The required permission obtained, all significant participants convened in the little town of Elbe, Washington.
    â€œGoing to the crime scene from Tacoma were Lieutenant Moorhead, Detectives Price and Yerbury, Officer Brame, Identification Technician John Penton, Dr. Lacsina, Deputy Coroner Dean Patterson, and myself,” recalled Sergeant Parkhurst. Once in Elbe, the investigating officers met with Detective Austin, Sergeant Joe Frace, and Lewis County evidence officer Rick Harrington. “It may also be noted,” wrote Parkhurst in his official report, “that arrested suspect Chris St. Pierre accompanied arresting officers Price and Yerbury on a voluntary basis to point out where the victims were buried.”
    The caravan passed over the Nisqually Bridge into Lewis County, took a right turn at Lubkin Road, and continued about a mile before turning off onto an old logging road. “Officers traveled one thousand fifty-six measured feet down this road,” reported Parkhurst, “and again Chris St. Pierre instructed Price and Yerbury to stop their vehicle, and the bodies would be found off to the right of the road.”
    â€œWalking toward the grave sites,” Yerbury recalled, “Chris St. Pierre pointed out various important pieces of evidence. He showed us portions