Peninsula Daily News news sources
SEQUIM — Richard Ziegler often told his co-workers at a California men’s prison of his dream to move to the North Olympic Peninsula, build a house and fish.
He had bought property in the woods and planned to build a log cabin.
Ziegler, 59, retired in May from his job as a corrections officer at the California Men’s Colony in San Luis Obispo and followed his dream to his four wooded acres above Sequim Bay, his mother said Monday.
Ziegler was living in a fifth-wheel trailer on his property when authorities believe Shawn Matthew Roe approached him Saturday afternoon — apparently to steal Ziegler’s white pickup truck.
Authorities say Roe had abandoned his van on a road near Ziegler’s property after shooting to death Kristine Fairbanks, a U.S. Forest Service officer, at a campground about five miles farther south in the Olympic Mountains.
He then apparently walked to the building site where Ziegler was outside late Saturday afternoon.
Later Saturday, Ziegler’s body was found on the property for which he just received a septic permit to build his retirement house.
Roe was later shot and killed by sheriff’s deputies after he drove Ziegler’s pickup to the Longhouse Market & Deli near 7 Cedars Casino in Blyn, a few miles east of Ziegler’s property.
