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by Elizabeth
Larson
Article Last
Updated: Monday, August 08, 2005 - 8:33:10 AM PST
Lake County
Record-Bee
LAKE COUNTY --
Despite the fact that more information continues to come to light in the
unexplained deaths of a film producer and his daughter, the pieces in the
puzzling story of Terry Martin Carr and Arieka Carr still don't fit well.
Autopsy results on
the pair obtained this week were inconclusive, according to statements by
officials, and the reasons for the deaths may remain unexplained for
weeks, until pending toxicology results are delivered.
On Monday paramedics
from the Northshore Fire Authority's Clearlake Oaks station discovered the
bodies of Terry Carr, 62, and 9-year-old Arieka, lying in the back of his
2002 Jeep Cherokee at the Clearlake Oaks Tower Mart.
Detective Brent
Jensen of the Ashland, Ore., Police Department, who has led that agency's
investigation into the matter, told the Record-Bee Friday that the pair
disappeared the day before while they along with Chikako Carr, 50, Terry
Carr's wife were at an Ashland grocery store.
Described in a
Friday Los Angeles Times report as a "doting" father, Terry Carr's
disappearance and death reportedly has family and friends at a loss.
The story begins a
week ago Friday July 29 when Terry, Chikako and Arieka Carr arrived in
Ashland, where they rented an apartment.
Jensen said Chikako
Carr told him she and her husband originally considered moving to Powers,
Ore., to escape the big city. With a population of just over 700 people,
Powers located on the Oregon coast near Coos Bay boasts a good school
system and has a good student-teacher ratio, qualities the couple was
looking for, Jensen reported.
But, ultimately, the
Carrs who the Los Angeles Times reported Friday were used to living in a
high-rise Wiltshire Boulevard condominium in Westwood decided against
Powers.
"They kinda decided
that was too remote," Jensen said.
Instead, they looked
south, at Ashland. Jensen said Chikako Carr told him her husband had heard
about Ashland a small southern Oregon city that is home to Southern Oregon
University, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and a thriving arts community
from his Los Angeles business contacts.
The local university
also has an active community of Japanese students, which Jensen theorized
might have attracted Chikako Carr, who is of Japanese heritage.
With its good
schools and artistic style, "They thought that Ashland was a comfortable
place," said Jensen.
So on July 29 they
rented an apartment and moved in, with very little of their belongings,
most of which remain in storage in Powers, said Jensen.
The same day, Jensen
said, a man spotted the couple dumping boxes and bags of possessions into
a pasture, including old family photos and files, and reported it to the
Jackson County Sheriff's Office. The possessions were later determined to
belong to Terry Carr.
Jensen said he
believes it was an attempt by the family to "start a new chapter or to
close an old one."
Two days later, on
Sunday, the family was at Ashland's Market of Choice, a full-service
grocery store and deli, said Jensen, when the story took its strange turn.
The weather has been
extremely hot in Ashland recently, said Jensen; the market's deli area,
with its air conditioning and seating, offers a good place to escape the
heat. Jensen calls it "a nice place to hang out if you're from out of
town."
The family was in
the store at around 2 p.m. Chikako Carr left her husband and daughter
briefly to use the restroom, Jensen related; when she came back out, they
were nowhere to be found.
In police work, said
Jensen, "you look at every scenario."
His department
reviewed the store's security films to check Chikako Carr's story.
"We were able to
confirm that with the surveillance cameras that they had been in the
store," said Jensen, who explained that Terry Carr is seen with his
daughter "nonchalantly walking out to the car."
Terry Carr,
according to his wife, had "never done anything like this before," said
Jensen, and that it was "totally out of character."
That same opinion,
Jensen said, was held by Terry Carr's brother, John Carr, a Clearlake Oaks
resident, who also reportedly has no idea what led to his brother's
disappearance and death.
Chikako Carr went
home to the family's apartment, said Jensen, where she apparently waited
for her husband and daughter to return. She reported them missing at 10:54
a.m. the following day, Monday.
Although it's not
uncommon for adults to leave unexpectedly, when a child is involved, it
becomes a police matter, said Jensen.
Hopeful that Terry
and Arieka would be found safe, Ashland Police sent out a teletype
requesting a welfare check on the man and his daughter on Monday to law
enforcement departments across Oregon and California.
The Lake County
Sheriff's Office didn't see that teletype, said Jensen, as they were
already in the midst of a death investigation, with the bodies of Terry
and Arieka having been found that afternoon.
On Tuesday, John
Carr identified his brother and niece for authorities, according to an
LCSO statement released Thursday. Not knowing where Chikako Carr was, LCSO
detectives entered her into the missing person's system. They sent out a
flier on her through another law enforcement teletype system, but
Ashland's terminal for that system is broken, said Jensen.
"We never got the
flier," he said.
Meanwhile, Jensen
made contact with a credit card company investigator, trying to track down
Terry Carr. When he shared Carr's information with the investigator, she
told him she had just received a call from LCSO about the same man.
"That's how we made
the connections," said Jensen.
LCSO and Ashland
Police connected on Wednesday, the same day as the autopsies on Terry and
Arieka were performed, yielding inconclusive results. Sheriff Rod Mitchell
said Thursday he expects the toxicology reports which could be some weeks
in coming will yield clues to the deaths of the father and daughter.
Jensen said his
department is now done with its part of the investigation, although he
said if LCSO asks for additional help Ashland Police will give it.
Chikako Carr remains
in Ashland, said Jensen. "She's obviously distraught."
He said police are
trying to set up an assistance program for her.
"She's with family
now," said Jensen. "We (the police department) kind of stepped in as the
surrogate support group there for a while."
Social agencies have
also offered their help, as have members of the Ashland community, who
have called the department with offers of furniture and help driving Carr
places.
This week Jensen
said he's fielded calls from all over the country because of the media
interest in the case.
"We were taken aback
a bit," he said.
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