Cougar Claw Marks

"Well you sure earned your stripes," I said.
It was my pathetic attempt at humor, as I photographed the cougar claw marks on her back.
The good news was she thought my comment funny and laughed heartily. She was 17, she got it.

We were in the bathroom of Mickey D's -- AKA, McDonald's, just outside Port Angeles.
For obvious reasons, she was uncomfortable lifting her shirt in the middle of the dining area, so we left her father and the male investigator I brought with me, at the table while we proceeded into the bathroom for the injury shots.

I was surprised by the depth of the claw marks -- considering she had been found clothed in many layers. A red down jacket, a blue sweater, and a long sleeve thermal shirt under that which covered a tank top.
All of those clothes, now in evidence, bore the tell-tale rips of cougar claws running down the length of her back.

There were also bite marks on her arm, they were deep puncture wounds. She showed me where something nibbled at her left baby finger, most of the nail bitten off.
"Creepy huh?" she said.
As my camera closed in tight and I imagined a little rodent chomping her finger , I felt an involuntary shudder.

"Do you know how lucky you are to be alive?" I asked her as I clicked away with the camera.
"Yes, " she said quietly. "I don't understand how they found me, how I lived through it."

I gave my standard reply.
"You must have a guardian angel. Someone close to you die recently?"
"My mother, " she whispered, her eyes tearing up. "Brain embolism. Just like that. One year ago."
I didn't say anymore except, "I am so so sorry."

To me it was one more piece of confirming evidence re: the dead.
The clients, the victims, who live, against the odds, tell me someone close to them has died.
I have found this to be true more times than not.

But this story is not about angels, energy fields, ghost hunting or other psychic matters. I was making conversation with the victim of an ATV accident and a resultant cougar attack, while I accomplished the final task of the long day's investigation, the photos.

The Fall Off Hurricane Ridge

It started at the top of Hurricane Ridge on the Olympic Penninsula.
That's where we did the scene photos, measurements, sketching.
I didn't want to go on this case alone.
The locale was remote -- Deliverance Land -- where good old boys go bad. And a lone woman, investigator or not, can be a target or a toy.
When investigating places like Hurricane Ridge, I bring back-up. Mine was 6'2", a retired Marine and armed.

The two of us worked the scene in perfect synchronicity.
We had the police reports, diagrams and scene photos to assist us.
We saw the spot where the ATV flew off the road at the curve which had just been covered with gravel the morning of the accident.
I noted no "loose gravel" signs anywhere and wondered if they would have made a difference anyway.
I took pictures of "slow", "caution" and "curve" "danger" and "10 mph. signs."
There was nothing but downhill, cliff-like forests to either side of the road on Hurricane Ridge. The ridge was literally the flat top of the mountain the highway drove across.

Off Road

So here's how it all went down.
My client, who we'll call Jenny -- was a minor, 17 years old. Jenny had a friend we'll call "Rich" because he had a rich daddy who bought his man-boy, any toy he wanted.

Jenny was just getting out of school. It was about 3 pm. Rich was parked in the lot at school as she walked by and asked Jenny if she felt like taking a ride up Hurricane Ridge on the new ATV his daddy just bought him.

Jenny said no, she better not, she better ask her dad first. She had no cell phone, though.
Rich said her dad didn't have to know, she'd be home before sunset.
When she said she'd be cold, Rich took off his red down jacket and put it on her.
"I"ve got another coat in the truck" he said.

I asked her if Rich was her boyfriend, she said no, she had a boyfriend who was on a Mission somewhere at the time. Rich was a kid her older brother hung with, he was always nice to her. They grew up together and were friends.

So Jenny figured what the hey.... and felt a little rebellious... so she agreed to take the ATV for a ride on Hurricane Ridge.

Rich had the ATV loaded in a pick-up truck his dad's company owned.
The pickup had the name of Dad's company on the outside of the truck. It was one of a fleet of vehicles Dad's company owned.

Rick and Jenny drove the winding road through the Olympic Forest to the place called Hurricane Ridge. It is very remote, primitive, wild. Very high up.
They pulled into a gravel area on the side of the road where people could do turnarounds or just sight see. They off-loaded the ATV from the pickup.

Rich gave Jenny a helmet and buckled it for her. Then he put his on. Jenny climbed on the back of the ATV. It was winter time, the sun sets early in the Northwest in winter, it was already late in the afternoon.

Jenny wrapped her arms around Rich's waist and off they went driving the ATV round the primitive roads of the remote highway, far to the right in case a car came through.

Then Rich started going faster and faster.
Jenny recalled yelling at him to "Slow down".
He just went faster, she said. Then she said he called her a "baby."
She punched his shoulder and shouted "slow down you idiot" right into his helmet .
Instead, she said, he sped up again.
Then came "the curve." or "The" curve.
It came out of the blue.

It was a tight curve that hugged a huge cliff on two sides, covered with a layer of freshly laid gravel.

At the high rate of speed Rich was traveling, he lost control off the ATV and the last memory Jenny had was the vehicle going air-born and flying directly ahead, then down.
Jenny lost consciousness when her helmeted head hit a tree.

So Jenny wasn't aware Rich lost his life when he flew straight ahead, right off the ATV driver's seat, and head first into an even bigger tree in the old growth forest. It completely crushed his skull. The M.E said Rich died instantly.

Now it was getting dark. Jenny was unconscious and on the ground in thick brush along side a cliff. She could not be seen from the road. Nor could Rich or the ATV.
Jenny's right leg was broken and was wedged on the ledge by a tree surrounded by forest. Her left arm was wrapped around long thick kudzu vines.
Did she grab those, or did they grab her? I wondered as I worked the scene.
Temperatures the night they went over the ridge were dropping by the hour.

Meantime Jenny's father wondered where she was. Dinner was hot, it was dark and she was not home. Rich's parents were also worried. They were all going out to dinner that night. It was Rich's Dad's birthday and Rich was nowhere to be found.

Eventually, everyone put the pieces together about midnight, when someone said Rich asked him to go ATV'ing on Hurricane Ridge. The police, parents, and a team of searchers and friends headed up to the Ridge. They found the pick-up parked where Rich left it. But the night was jet black, no road lights, this was the wilderness. They searched as best as they could finding nothing until dawn. They had no clue where or what side the ATV went off of.

I don't know who saw her red jacket first. Someone caught a glimpse of it while the sun was rising. Jenny was spotted. Then Rich was. Then the ATV.

Rescue operations have their own individual rhythms.
Sometimes there is an odd, sacred silent calm at such a scene.
At this scene there was mass hysteria as Rich's parents saw what little was left of their son's head.
And Jenny's father, who'd just lost a wife, waited anxiously for the rescue workers to get his only child, his little girl off the ledge and tell him if she was still alive.
She was.

Thing was, the animals had been trying to get her throughout the night. A brain injury resulted when her helmet hit the tree... her skull hit the helmet... then her brain hit her skull and bounced back and forth which damaged the frontal lobe. Her jacket was sliced to shreds with claw marks that extended all the way down her back.
Her hands were bitten.Some hair had been pulled out. Yet, mercifully, she slept through it all.

So there we were, in Mickey D's restroom, after the deadly accident on Hurricane Ridge and I was clicking away with my camera.

She said to me then, that she knew she shouldn't have gone.
She should have gone home and at least asked her Dad's permission or told him where she was going.
She said she just wanted to have a little fun and felt so bad for scaring her dad, and so horrible Rich was dead.
She said she was also angry it all could have been prevented had he just driven slow.
Or had she just not gone up there.
Or this. Or that.

Injured people get lost in the "if's" and "or'"s and Jenny was in that place.

"What happened.... happened," I said to Jenny.
"Look at you girl, you made it through. There's some reason for that.
Maybe you are meant to do great things in life.
Maybe its up to you to tell other kids about choices. How you could have chosen not to go. How Rick could have chosen to slow down."

She nodded as she pulled herself back together, took a long look in the mirror and I tucked my camera away. We walked out of the bathroom to meet her dad and the other investigator.

Dad asked if I thought the lawyers had a case.
I said I thought there might be a good shot, because the 20 year old was using his father's company truck to haul the ATV. So maybe there was auto insurance available, and possibly, company insurance as well.

The dad asked whether we could sue the state for laying loose gravel on the road and not putting up signage.
I said only the attonrneys could say. Though, I added, in my opinion, liability was with Rich who was driving too fast for road conditions.

Then dad asked if they could sue the ATV company because two people aren't supposed to be on the model Rich was.
I again replied, only the attorney knows, but my guess was there was a large warning on the ATV that said "one person at time," they ignored.

The case never went to trial. It settled out of court. All Jenny's medical bills were paid, she also got a pain and suffering judgment.

Rich's parents were shattered and never quite the same.
His dad shut his buisiness down because there was no "Son" in his company name with the logo followed by the words: "Father & Son".
He drank himself into a stupor and drove his car down a boat ramp and drowned.
Rich's mom moved in with her sister who had cancer.

Jenny's father told me he thanks God, and the spirit of his dead wife, every night in his prayers, for saving his little girl.

And Jenny, on the outside, seemed "over it", like any other about-to-turn 18 year old.
But, she said, she'll never ride another ATV. Never go to Hurricane Ridge.
And she decided she was never going to drive in any car unless she was the one doing the driving.

Made perfect sense to me.