LEFT BEHIND, A YOUNG MOTHER IS GONE
By JOHN BRANTON and STEPHANIE THOMSON, Columbian staff writers
Sheriff's deputies spent Monday sifting through the odd story of how Mary Hammond was left behind in her boyfriend's pickup after he crashed down a 75-foot embankment into the Washougal River.
Hammond, 25, a single mother with a young daughter, drowned at a place in the river known as the Big Eddy. But she suffered only minor injuries from the crash, a medical examiner's investigator said Monday.
Sheriff's deputies say her boyfriend, 26-year-old Ryan Lee Moore, was found walking soaking wet along Washougal River Road right after the 10:30 p.m. Saturday crash. A high-school acquaintance, David Gourley, said he spotted Moore and stopped. Moore told him he had just crashed his pickup into the river.
"Moore assured him several times that there was no one else in the vehicle," Clark County Sheriff's Deputy Greg Chaney said in his report.
The report says Gourley gave Moore a ride to his nearby home at 562 River Road, then returned to the accident scene and told officers where to find Moore.
Meanwhile, rescuers pulled the late-model Toyota Tacoma from the river and found Hammond in the passenger seat.
At Moore's home just across the Skamania County border, Chaney said he went inside and found wet jeans and shoes on the floor, and some blood. Chaney said Moore was in bed lying under the covers with a .45-caliber Ruger handgun. Chaney ordered Moore to drop the gun and Moore pointed it at his own face.
"I think I killed my girlfriend," Moore said, according to Chaney.
Chaney said Moore put the gun on the headboard. Chaney and a Camas firefighter then struggled with Moore and got him under control.
Moore told officers he and Mary Hammond had been drinking in Smeads Tavern in Washougal.
Moore's blood alcohol measured 0.17, more than twice the legal limit of intoxication in Washington, according to tests taken that night at his house. The blood was sent to a lab for a more exact determination.
Moore said he could not remember why he crashed. He only recalled being in the water and flagging someone down on the road, according to Chaney's report.
Sheriff's Sgt. Craig Randall said Monday investigators had unearthed no evidence to support a theory he voiced Sunday that Moore was suicidal before the accident.
"He appears to have drifted off the roadway for reasons we don't know," Randall said. "What were his intentions prior to the accident? We may find out as the investigation unfolds."
Moore was treated for minor cuts and scrapes and taken to the Clark County Jail on suspicion of vehicular homicide in Hammond's death.
He made a first appearance Monday in Superior Court, where Judge James Rulli set bail at $50,000.
Moore's attorney, Jon McMullen of Vancouver, said Moore will appear in court Wednesday for a release hearing and possible arraignment. Moore works as a machinist for Tidland Corporation in Camas.
Members of Hammond's close-knit family said she worked as a loan processor in a financial business. She was separated from her daughter's father, Larry Jones, and lived in a Hazel Dell apartment.
Family members said Hammond loved music, dancing and being outdoors. Her daughter, Maci, is 19 months old.
"She was beautiful on the outside and even more beautiful on the inside," said her father, Tip Hammond of the Five Corners area.
"She loved music and she loved her daughter," said her best friend, Amanda Morris. "She was very responsible and very organized."
She grew up in Clark County and graduated in 1995 from Evergreen High School, family members said.
On Monday, Mary Hammond's family and friends planned her funeral and ways to raise money for Maci.
A contribution fund to pay for funeral expenses and to care for Maci has been set up in Mary Hammond's name at any branch of Washington Mutual Bank.
A fund-raiser spaghetti feed and auction is planned for 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Tip Top Tavern, 2100 Main St. in Vancouver.
A service will begin at 3 p.m. Sunday at Brush Prairie Baptist Church, 11814 N.E. 117th Ave.
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