ODDLY ENOUGH

ODDLY ENOUGH

Washington woman’s listing as slain is a surprise to her

KENNEWICK, Wash.

Cheri Schumann would like Kennewick High School’s class of 1971 to know she’s very much alive.

A story in Saturday’s Tri-City Herald about Kennewick High’s reunion focused on seven classmates who were slain out of 80 who had died. Schumann — now Cheri Taylor — was included.

But Taylor lives in Mill Creek, north of Seattle, with her husband and four children. She says she’s happy, healthy and not ready to be buried.

Reunion co-chairwoman Debra Blum told the newspaper that the report of Taylor’s premature demise came by email, apparently from another classmate. Blum says she used other sources to verify it.

Blum says another classmate listed in the story — Leo Marcel — also wasn’t murdered. He died in 2004 after a lengthy illness.

In Washington, 2 men skin 16-foot roadkill python

SEDRO-WOOLLEY, Wash.

A man was driving near a park in his Washington state hometown when he noticed an object on the side of the road that he thought was a large tree root. It turned out to be a dead, 16-foot-long python.

Lino Silva of Sedro-Woolley says the snake apparently had been run over by a car.

He and his friend Nick Pfeifer hauled the roadkill snake to a relative’s house, where they skinned it.

Pfeifer says he learned how to skin a python by watching the Discovery Channel. He says he plans to call a taxidermist so he can preserve the skin and use it to make a jacket or a vest.

The two men told the Skagit Valley Herald they think the python was somebody’s pet that escaped or was released.

Sedro-Woolley is about 70 miles north of Seattle.

Remorseful thief returns NH woman’s wallet, GPS

PLAISTOW, N.H.

Police say an apparently remorseful thief who stole a woman’s wallet in a New Hampshire supermarket showed up at her door days later to return $90 and a GPS, and brought along an apology letter.

The wallet was stolen from the 61-year-old woman’s cart July 18 in Plaistow. Her wallet was found at a Massachusetts post office.

Then on July 26, the victim heard a knock on her door. A man said he was sorry, returned her belongings, gave her the long letter and fled. Police say the thief probably found her address from something in her wallet.

Deputy Police Chief Kathleen Jones tells The Eagle-Tribune that although the woman is happy to have her belongings back, she’s unnerved that the thief knows where she lives.

Jones says the thief still faces charges when caught.

Associated Press