From the Mail Tribune:
Fire crews were mopping up one cabin fire early today on Dead Indian Memorial Road when they spotted smoke from a second fire five miles up the road.
When crews arrived, the second cabin, at 12801 Dead Indian Memorial Road, was fully engulfed. After they quelled the flames, they found a body inside.
Jackson County Deputy Medical Examiner Tim Pike said the body was badly burned and that it would take an autopsy to positively identify the victim. He expected the autopsy would be done tonight or Friday.
Investigators from the Jackson County Sheriff's Department, Oregon State Police, Jackson County Fire District No. 5 and the state fire marshal's office are combing the cabin's burned remains for evidence this afternoon. This morning, investigators said they considered the fire suspicious.
They are also investigating the first fire, reported at about 3 a.m. at 18196 Dead Indian Memorial Road.
Crews from the Oregon Department of Forestry and the volunteer Greensprings Fire and Rescue responded to the first fire, near the Keno Access Road. The cabin was a summer rental and no one was occupying it at the time, investigators said.
By the time they saw smoke from the second fire, crews from Fire District 5 were already on their way after receiving 9-1-1 calls from neighbors far down the hill.
Also from the Mail Tribune:
Firefighters discovered a badly burned body in one of two cabins destroyed by separate fires along Dead Indian Memorial Road early Thursday.
Jackson County Sheriff Mike Winters called the death and pair of fires suspicious, but he and other investigators remained tight-lipped about the case.
Details about the causes of the fires and the identity of the dead man will take time to confirm, he said.
However, friends and family suspect the victim is David Edwin Lewis, a 46-year-old father of three who lived alone at one of the hilltop cabins lost in the fires. The other was a summer home only occupied on weekends, neighbors and authorities said.
A driver on Dead Indian Memorial Road spotted and reported the first fire near the intersection with Keno Access Road just before 3 a.m., said Gene Davies, chief of the all-volunteer Greensprings Fire and Rescue. A crew of six volunteers found the small, rustic cabin at 18196 Dead Indian Memorial Road engulfed in flames, he said. Oregon Department of Forestry firefighters joined the fight against the flames. Crews used three water tanker trucks and a portable water pond to douse the flames, but the weekend retreat burned to the ground.
At about 4 a.m., 9-1-1 calls from the Ashland Mine Road area reported seeing flames on the hillside across the valley, Jackson County Fire District No. 5 Chief Dan Marshall said. As district trucks headed up from the valley below, crews from the earlier fire roughly five miles down the road spotted the flames shooting into the sky and were the first to arrive at the burning cabin, he said.
"The fire had burned undetected for a long time," Marshall said. "It was on the ground when crews arrived."
Only a concrete chimney protruded from the rubble of the rustic wood home with a loft as investigators worked Thursday morning.
After quelling the flames, which licked to the tops of neighboring trees but didn't spread into the forest, firefighters discovered the body and contacted the sheriff's department, Marshall said.
Winters said the two fires in the rural neighborhood had already garnered his department's attention as suspicious.
He noted that the utter devastation of the burned buildings will make it challenging to find evidence, but the multi-agency team will tackle the job. Until details emerge, the fire and deaths must be considered suspicious, he said.
Jackson County Deputy Medical Examiner Tim Pike said the body was badly burned, but an autopsy to positively identify the victim and look for a cause of death was set tentatively for late Thursday or this morning.
In Palmer, Alaska, Linda Lewis Miller, David Lewis' sister, anxiously awaited word from authorities. She said her brother, a welder who rented and served as caretaker of the rural property overlooking the Rogue Valley, was a meticulous man who carefully maintained the home's appliances, smoke detectors and wood stove. She said she doubted that the fire was an accident or suicide, especially in light of the other fire nearby.
"It's just too coincidental," she said. "It makes me sad."
She said Lewis was an outspoken man who could have made enemies. He'd gone through an acrimonious divorce in 1999, followed by a string of misdemeanor assault and harassment convictions. He had a decades-old felony conviction for growing marijuana, which prevented him from keeping a firearm for protection, Miller said.
However, she said, he had since gotten his life on track.
Also from the Mail Tribune:
Friends and family of David Edwin Lewis continue to mourn the man they called "the most loving man on the mountain" while they await word on suspicious fires that destroyed his house and one other on Dead Indian Memorial Road Thursday.
Authorities say it will take days to confirm the identity of the badly burned body found at Lewis' hilltop cabin and collect evidence from home's scorched rubble.
Lewis, 46, had lived at the cabin at 12801 Dead Indian Memorial Road for 23 years and was known for his care for the land and his neighbors, said his ex-wife Josee Fournier, who is the mother of his three sons.
Investigators continue to unravel that mystery. Two fires, at 18196 and 12801 Dead Indian Memorial Road, were reported about an hour apart in the early morning hours Thursday. The unoccupied weekend home and Lewis' cabin each were completely consumed by flames, prompting suspicions of neighbors and authorities alike.
Also from the Mail Tribune:
Jackson County Sheriff Mike Winters said his department is continuing an "active criminal investigation" into a pair of house fires on Dead Indian Memorial Road earlier this month and the death of a man who lived in one of the destroyed homes.
Two fires — at 18196 and 12801 Dead Indian Memorial Road — were reported about an hour apart in the early morning hours of Sept. 4. Both homes burned to the ground and a man's body was found inside the cabin at the summit, where David Lewis, 46, had lived for more than two decades. The other cabin, near the intersection with Keno Access Road, was a summer home occupied only on weekends, neighbors and authorities said.
They haven't confirmed the identity of the dead man, although Lewis' friends and family held a memorial for him on the mountain Sept. 14.
Investigators contacted several local dentists but couldn't come up with recent dental records for Lewis. DNA samples from the body found in Lewis' cabin and from Lewis' family members have been sent to the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification, a national program supported in part by the Department of Justice.
An autopsy was done, but Winters declined to release the cause of death.
*****
A reader I will call Donna emailed me this case and what a case it is! Thanks, Donna, this is a real mystery with a lot of twists and turns. Better than a thriller novel. But I was, at first, a bit reluctant to tackle it because of all the twists and turns which make it hard to follow. I was not sure I could do both charts and keep them balanced and working with each other. There was no way I could do this chart without doing a chart for the other fire, too. I have no doubt they were some how connected. So I rolled up my sleeves and got very busy with both charts and this is what I found.
The first chart I drew up was for one hour before the first fire so I could see what may have caused that fire to start. The chart is for 2 am on Sept. 4. Please note the planets in the fourth house. Cancer is rising and Capricorn is falling. The Moon is in the fifth house and Saturn is in the third. The Moon, the traditional symbol of motherhood, is in the fifth house of children. Saturn, the traditional ruler of fathers, is in the third house of relatives. This tells me that this is a family situation. Notice please that Mars is in the Libra in the fourth house closely aligned with Mercury and Venus. All three planets are disposed of by Venus. This fire looks like it was started by a woman with a child. Whether she was pregnant at the time or actually had a child with her, I am not absolutely sure. Notice that Virgo is on the nadir and the cabin was said to be a summer rental that was empty at the time. However, notice also that the house ruler, Mercury, is in the fourth house, telling me that the cabin was not empty at all. There were a woman and a child in that cabin on this night, when the fire started.
Notice in this chart also that Venus, the descendant ruler, is square to Jupiter in Capricorn, right at the seventh house cusp. This tells me that the fire was started with earth materials, like wood or garden debris. It is possible, since Capricorn rules real estate, that the cabin itself was set on fire; a match lit to the wood or the other building materials. Now, I know that fires are not started just that easily or we'd all be in flames all the time, but it is something like this. The tenth house ruler is Pisces, with Neptune in the eighth house. Something about the scene was not overtly obvious and the firefighters and arson inspectors may have missed something. In fact, it's a given that something was deliberately hidden from them and they were somehow deceived. It is also possible that this fire was set to hide something else; to distract and shadow. This makes me suspicious now that this fire was set as a cover or ruse for the second fire. Perhaps they knew that authorities would see this fire first, because of the logistics of that territory, and this would actually keep them from responding to the second fire before real damage was done.
And then doing a second chart, this one for the time when firefighters arrived, I see things have changed in a certain fashion that confirms for me what I suspect. But, first, let me explain. I draw up the chart for 3 am and see that now Aries has arrived on the midheaven which is expected. Aries, depicting the fire, is on the tenth house cusp, visible to everyone. People now know there is a fire. But notice this. Mars is just outside of the fourth house cusp, along the inside of the third house cusp. There is another fire in the neighborhood! It is very close and also closely tied to this one. Almost at the same front door, it seems; or perhaps the chart is telling me that both fires are the same! Look now the Moon is now in the fourth and Saturn is still in the third. The father is in the neighborhood? I mean, it could be read this way. And Mom is here, or the family is here, somehow attached or involved in this fire? There was no woman found in the first cabin so I am not sure what I am being told. I will leave that up to the reader.
The continuing insinuation of a female continues throughout this chart. Notice that Venus rules the nadir and that planet is in Libra, disposing itself. Again, it looks like a woman is attached to this cabin. I would be interested to know who owned this cabin or if there had been a history of some family in the background of this cabin. Or if some woman had been living there, in secret, with a child... or even children. These are all tracks that my mind goes running on when I see these placements. The Moon in the fourth is the dispositor for the Ascendant ruler and since we are inquiring about David, we could be talking about the mother of his children. This is just a possibility. But there is no doubt in my mind, after seeing this chart, that a woman had something to do with the first fire and the first fire was set to hide something about the second.
Now, it's hard for me to separate these two fires astrologically because we are talking about the same place and time. And it is easy to just tie the two together and leave it at that. But I am going to really try to separate these fires and get to some facts that might help. I draw up a chart for a half hour later, 3:30 am, a half hour before they discover the second fire but after they have arrived at the first fire. I am hoping I can switch focus from the first to the second fire this way. This chart has a few differences from the last. Leo is rising and Aquarius is falling. Uranus is in the ninth and the Sun is in the second. The placement of Uranus tells me that whoever set the second fire was in the woods outside of the cabin area during the blaze. The Sun in the second house tells me that David is among his things, his belongings, which places him in his home. The ruler of the fourth house, however, is still Venus in the third house in Libra. Mars is nearby with Mercury. There is a woman involved in this fire, too, and she is a relative with a child. I am having trouble with the child symbols because I have a hard time imagining some woman would drag her child out to set a fire and kill someone. This leaves me with the question of what the child has to do with this. I will have to leave that to family, as there may have been disputes over children... and if there were, then this is related to that.
Mars in the third, where it was in the fourth during the first fire, tells me that both fires were in the same neighborhood, that they shared similar components and that the same person probably started both. I am still asking myself, who owned the first cabin? Why does this woman feel like she belongs there or lives in that neighborhood? Again, that would be left to investigators and family who have more insight than I do. Please notice that Uranus is disposed of by Neptune in the seventh house. The person who committed this crime was cagey and careful, hiding in shadow and covering his or her tracks. Clues were purposely destroyed and Neptune is "pristine" in the chart, having no negative aspects, making it a very strong and clear influence. Some things, I am afraid, were destroyed and will never be found. Probably any evidence implicating the person who actually did this.
So the next chart I draw up is for 4 am, the time at which firefighters became aware of the fire at David's cabin. The Sun, ruler of the first, conjoined Saturn makes me think that David is already dead. He probably died much earlier and this chart is just saying it again. I may have to do a chart for an earlier hour. Notice now how Uranus is in the eighth house, ruling from the seventh. Murder was the reason the fire was set. I mean, it says that pretty simply. The ruler of the arsonist is Uranus in the eighth house of death. Uranus is square Pluto in the fifth house, hinting at several different things I will discuss. First of all, this aspect says that the fire was set swiftly, almost unexpectedly, and burned furiously, perhaps to the surprise of the arsonist. It also talks about the motives of the arsonist, that there was anger, jealousy, bitterness and maybe even hatred in this task. And then, last but not least, the placement of Pluto in the fifth house whispers about children and sexual relationships. Was there a woman he had had a sex relationship with that had a child but had not been a part of his life? Was there a bitter woman he had jilted? Or a woman he had left behind over differences involving a child or children? I do know that he had a bitter divorce years earlier and there were kids. This is a place where seekers should start. If this woman is cleared, then the next step should be looking into this past and seeing what women there were over the years and if any of them might have had a child that was either his or at the least she believed the child to be his. This is also a place that should be researched.
So now that I am sure that the second fire was set in tandem with the first, I also know that the second cabin, the one with David's body, had burned to the ground by the time firefighters arrived. This sort of says that the second fire may have been set before the first. And to take a look at this, I run the charts backward, to what I think may be the very beginning. I run a chart for 2 am and I notice something that stands out to me right away. Saturn rules the descendant and is in the third house. This puts the arsonist in the neighborhood. The Moon, which rules the first house, is in the fifth house. Was there a child visiting David at the time? It is possible that there was a child there and this started the fight. This may actually be the same child I see with the woman at the other cabin. Moon is in Scorpio so could David have been drinking? If he was drunk and asleep, it might have been easy to start the fire and have it burn fast enough; too fast for him to react. The Moon in Scorpio is well placed, applying only to sextiles. This means he did not suffer or die slowly. It was fast and easy. He went "easily".
Here's another thing: Mercury rules the fourth house and it's posited in the fourth. Other than being the child I discussed earlier, I also see that the house had a lot of paperwork or paper items like books, files or printed documents. This large amount of paper caused the fire to burn fast. Mercury is conjunct to Mars, and rather than believe that the child started the fire, I am likely to believe that the paper was lit and this is what caused the place to burn down in a heartbeat the way it did. Mars in Libra square Jupiter in Capricorn does not indicate a petroleum accelerant, but flammable items being in contact with lots of oxygen. Cabins often have open windows or fireplace flues that would rush air in and out of the room when the fire because to suck it in. Jupiter trine Saturn, with Saturn ruling the Descendant, indicates that this was easy for the arsonist to do. Jupiter is so lucky, things just fell into place. And, as the cops will probably tell you if you ask, everything went the "perps' way". Uranus crosses the midheaven at just before 2 am, telling me that the whole thing started suddenly, unexpectedly. Combined with the influence of Neptune, the overall picture is someone setting this cabin on fire without first presenting themselves to David. He had no idea they were around; he may have been drinking and fast asleep; the fire was accelerated. This was not the result of an argument or confrontation. This was a sneaky, backdoor plot that a sly killer executed perfectly. There is no doubt in my mind that this was murder.
And who actually did start these fires? Well, as I said it was a woman. A woman who either had children, was expecting a child or had a child with her. This child was somehow tied to David. Whether she was a current girlfriend, an ex wife, or someone who went back even farther, is hard to tell. I will give my usual description of the killer, hoping it might help someone close to the case put something together. This is a woman of medium height, neither short nor tall, with a large body. I don't mean fat, her body is well made, but she is large in structure. This woman is pale in complexion, with an oval shaped face and a high, broad forehead. The hair is dark brown or black and the eyes are dark grey or blue. The eyes will not be brown or hazel but might also be green. This woman loves to debate over current topics and has an interest in either occult studies like ghost hunting, tarot cards or astrology or in alternative religions. She may believe in faith healing. She has a rather peculiar nature, moody, and can sometimes be mean. She can be very critical but cannot handle criticism; her feelings are easily hurt and she is hard pressed to let go of resentments. She is known to be adventurous, even eccentric and has had many strange experiences which make great conversation. She is studious and has a great memory for detail.
All I can say in closing is that I hope they find out what killed David (if it's other than smoke inhalation) and find the person who started these fires. The charts as I see them do not give much hope for the revealing of secrets, which Neptune so gently placed. There is a good chance that this case may never be solved or, if it is, the wrong person may be blamed. I can venture a guess based on progressions as to when information may become available that will be helpful. Mars rules the midheaven at the time the fire is discovered. Mars is in the third house, which is a cadent house. Mars is also direct and not retrograde. Counting the distance between Mars and the Midheaven point, I see that there are 18 degrees to be progressed. Mars in in a Cardinal sign and so is the tenth house. It will be 18 months, give or take a few days, before valuable information will come to light. And this information will come from gossip or discussion; Mercury shows it will be loose talk and it may actually come from one of the children.
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