Head Shot by Burl Barer Page B

of carpet remnants, the ripped and discarded bag of cement, and a pile of dried and hardened concrete, which had been left in the bag and discarded by the side of the road. Once he pointed out the grave sites, he was placed in a police vehicle and kept there.”
    Parkhurst, Price, Yerbury, and Penton approached the first grave site from a common pathway. “This is an area of sandy soil covered with dry ferns,” commented Parkhurst. “Just in front of the grave site was an area where a circle of cement was found. This circle represented a five-gallon bucket that was utilized after decapitating Achord’s head. Once the dried ferns were removed, officers could observe a pronounced area of raised dirt, probably an inch or two in height.”
    â€œOnce the burial sites were confirmed, and before they actually removed the bodies, Detective Price and I drove Christopher St. Pierre back to Central Station,” recalled Yerbury. The ride back was neither uneventful nor nonproductive. First they made an unscheduled stop to chat with Mr. Gayle W. Adams of Elbe, Washington.
    â€œWe were driving back to Tacoma,” Yerbury explained, “when I saw a tow truck leaving a gas station. We stopped him and introduced ourselves. We asked him if he was the person that towed Andrew Webb’s Dodge out of the ditch. He clearly remembered the incident, and although he didn’t have the license plate number, he did recall that it was a brown or gold Dodge. He also remembered that the fellows didn’t have exact change, and he didn’t have any either, so he was paid thirty dollars instead of twenty-five.”
    The two detectives and Chris St. Pierre were heading toward Central Station when St. Pierre offered another helpful bit of evidentiary advice. “He pointed out the area where the Gerber knife used to murder Damon Wells had been thrown out of the car, and he also pointed out the area where the head had been discarded—approximately midspan of the Lincoln Avenue Bridge.”
    During the initial interview, Christopher St. Pierre told Yerbury and Price the reasons why he fully cooperated. “I told you ’cause there was so much evidence, and I didn’t want to get caught up in anything else,” said Chris St. Pierre. “It’s been on my conscience. I wanted to point out the facts and evidence, and clean everything up because if I told you the truth, I wouldn’t be charged with a homicide. I didn’t kill anyone. I was just an accessory. I just wanted to be charged with what I did and nothing else.
    â€œI may be cutting my own throat for a big term, but I don’t want to be charged with a murder. Now I’ll probably talk to an attorney and he’ll say that I shouldn’t have talked and they are charging me with murder. I’m trying to help you guys just to get this shit over and done with. I decided while I was in the bedroom to tell you everything I know.”
    Upon arrival at Central Station, Christopher St. Pierre confirmed again that he was willing to provide a sworn, notarized, formal statement of everything he knew, and everything he did. “We took his statement, and after he had the opportunity to read and review it, he signed it in the presence of Detective Price and myself,” said Yerbury. “At that point, he was booked into the Pierce County Jail on charges of rendering criminal assistance.”
    Officers Peterson and Washburn were dispatched to St. Joseph’s Hospital to place Andrew Webb under arrest for first-degree murder. A steady stream of visitors had kept Webb’s spirits up, including his estranged wife, Anne, who had raced to his bedside the day Paul St. Pierre shot him in the stomach.
    â€œI ran right to him, comforted him, cried over him, and worst of all—once he was charged with murder—I believed him. At first I felt sorry for him; I guess I still loved him. Or at least I was neurotically attached to