|
Thursday, May 8th and Friday, May 9th, 2008
I am back from my visit to East Wenatchee to learn about the death of my
birth father, Pat Dorrance. For
me I found out some disturbing information that caught me off guard.
I got into Wenatchee at around 3:30pm Thursday afternoon.
My first stop was the Coroner's office to obtain the autopsy
report. When I got there I
didn't know if I really wanted to know or not.
I got to the window of the coroner's office and Wayne Harris, the
coroner, was standing there with a yellow manila envelope in his hands.
I hesitated at first and then told him my name.
He handed me the envelope and asked if I wanted to sit down and go
over the findings. I said yes
and we proceeded to his office. After
we both sat down, he told me that there were two other people in the
vehicle that Dorrance was driving. I
was shocked to hear this. I
couldn't believe what I was hearing.
He went on to say that the car they were in wasn't discovered until
five or six days later. I couldn't understand what he had meant.
He said that there were in that vehicle for five or six days until
someone had discovered the car in the river and called the Sheriff's
office. It had been a truck
driver that had spotted the car. Hearing
this, my heart sunk as low as I think it could have.
Wayne went on to tell me that Dorrance had a blood/alcohol level of .22%.
In the autopsy report is found that he had diffuse fatty change in
liver, probably due to alcohol. It
appears Dorrance suffered from the disease of alcoholism.
He also had no identification on him so it was very difficult finding out
who he was. After contacting
the FBI it was then that his identity was discovered.
There was very little information on his background even for J.
Edgar Hoover's FBI. It read
"Born April 22, 1932 at Monte Vista Colorado.
In 1960 wife listed as Linda Dorrance. No address, No service
record located.
After the coroner’s office I went to the Wenatchee Public Library to
research any newspaper articles on the accident.
The very first article found was an obituary for Ennis G.
Kesterson who also was in the vehicle that night.
His obituary read that he had come to Washington State four weeks
prior to find work in the fruit industry.
It has said that he was, 51, and Orondo farm laborer.
He was from West Stayton, Oregon.
The second article I found was in the paper a couple days later. It reported that Raymond M. Rivas was the second
person in the car that night. Rivas
was from Palisade, Colorado. No
other major information given. The
Sheriff's office received the report from the FBI on Pat Dorrance.
I then went to the cemetery at around 5pm.
All employees had left by the so there was no one to ask about the
location of his grave. I
walked around for about two hours hoping to find it on my own but no such
luck. I came back the following morning and the lady in the office
took me along with her stack of papers showing where all the graves in the
cemetery were located. After
a rather lengthy walk we found it. “Here
it is,” she said. I was
completely confused. "What
do you mean?" I asked her. This
is where your father is buried told me. There was no grave marker at all. I asked, why wasn't there a grave marker?
She said it probably is under the grass since it had been there so
long. I asked her then why
wasn't the grave marker next to it under the grass. It, too, was a 1968
burial. She said she didn't know. I
was furious, sad, confused and who knows what other emotion I felt then.
I felt so helpless. She
later gave me an estimate of $1,000 grave marker if I wanted to go that
route. I was not in good
emotional space to make any kind of decision like that.
I told her I would get back to her at a later time and date.
Instead, I bought some flower in town and brought them back to his
unmarked grave area. I will
do something but I don't know just what yet.
At least I know now where is buried.
The rest will take care of itself, I hope.
|
