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NATIONAL PARK SERVICE MORNING REPORT Thursday, December 28, 2006 =============================================================================================================== INCIDENTS Wrangell-St. Elias NP&P Former Inholder Pleads No Contest To Incest Charge On Tuesday, December 26th, a self-styled religious patriarch and former park inholder known as "Papa Pilgrim" pleaded no contest to felony charges including incest. R.H., 65, was accused of molesting one of his 15 children over a seven-year span, including a period when his family lived in seclusion within the park. The Pilgrims, as they once called themselves, gained notoriety for their feud with the National Park Service over access to the family's remote homestead within the 13.2 million-acre park. In Tuesday's hearing, R.H. pleaded no contest to consolidated counts of first-degree sexual assault, incest and coercion. According to an assistant district attorney, R.H. told the state superior court judge that he never sexually assaulted anyone but decided to plead "for the good of his family." R.H. had been scheduled for a January 16th trial on 30 felony counts involving one of his daughters. The incest and two other counts were consolidated and charges of kidnapping and assault were dropped in a deal R.H. made in exchange for a state-approved sentence of 14 years. [Rachel D'Oro, Associated Press] Tonto NM Human Skeletal Remains Recovered On the afternoon of December 18th, contract archeologists working in the park discovered human skeletal remains and an associated article of clothing in a drainage approximately one mile southeast of the maintenance/employee housing area. Rangers investigated, then notified the Gila County Sheriff's Office. On the following morning, they met with officers and assisted them in a further search of the drainage. Other remains were found, along with metal hardware that indicated a past surgical history. All indications are that the remains are of a 45-year-old woman who disappeared three years ago. On June 16, 2003, park maintenance employees found a late model Ford truck abandoned in the leach field near the employee housing area. Investigating officers determined that it belonged to the woman, who lived in the Fountain Hills area in Maricopa County and had been reported missing. The officers inventoried and impounded the truck, then conducted a search of the park over the next two days. No clues were found as to her whereabouts. Because of a report of a possible sighting of a woman matching her description at the Spring Creek Store in nearby Roosevelt, the park search was terminated and search efforts focused on Highway 188 and adjacent Forest Service campgrounds. She was never found, though. Preliminary investigations conducted by the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office confirmed that the woman's past medical history included surgery for leg fractures sustained in a motorcycle accident. The metal rod found by searchers has an inscribed manufacturer number on it, so a positive identification is deemed likely. Foul play is not suspected. [Susan Hughes, Chief Ranger] OTHER NEWS Other news from today's edition of InsideNPS, the National Park Service's home page: Office of Public Affairs - Remembering the late President Gerald Ford - the only American President to have served as a park ranger in the National Park Service. Everglades - The popular Eco Pond area, closed since it was severely damaged by Hurricane Wilma in 2005, has been rehabilitated and reopened to the public. Glen Canyon - The park has begun an environmental assessment on the restoration of native vegetation to the Colorado River between Lees Ferry and the Glen Canyon Dam. To link to InsideNPS, click on HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/" http://inside.nps.gov/ * * * * * Prepared by Visitor and Resource Protection, WASO, with the cooperation and support of Delaware Water Gap NRA. --- ### --- |