PORT ANGELES — Lee Daniel Renfro did more than illegally drive past a guard station and onto the Port Angeles Coast Guard base earlier this year.
Undetected, the Forest Grove, Ore., Navy veteran made it past a second watch shack at 5:30 a.m. March 28, then boarded the 210-foot cutter Active.
Renfro strolled into the Active’s commanding officer’s stateroom, took a shower — and smoked marijuana he had carried onto the cutter.
He was apprehended three hours later while still on the vessel, according to a Coast Guard report of the incursion obtained by the Peninsula Daily News.
Found dead
At about 6 p.m. March 31, three days after he breached security at the Coast Guard base on Ediz Hook and boarded the Active, Renfro, 32, was found dead several miles away on Rayonier Inc.’s old pulp mill site in Port Angeles, which was closed in 1997 and is undergoing environmental cleanup.
An autopsy showed Renfro — who Coast Guard personnel described as confused and at times incoherent when they found him aboard the cutter — died of hypothermia.
Port Angeles police said there was no evidence of foul play.
His father, Steve Renfro — also of Forest Grove, Ore. — said in April that police told him it appeared that his son slipped and twisted his ankle while walking along the shoreline, falling backward on rocks and breaking four ribs.
He apparently tried to crawl to safety, his father said, but he was not spotted from the Waterfront Trail until after his death.
Coast Guard report
Titled Counter Terrorism and Internal Security — Special Inquiry, a May 25 report on how Renfro breached security at the Coast Guard station, home to the Active and other smaller patrol boats and helicopters, was obtained late last month by Peninsula Daily News under a Freedom of Information Act request.
While it was known Renfro had gotten onto the base last March, details about his activities there had not been revealed by the Coast Guard or Port Angeles police.
The newly released report describes the bizarre events surrounding a man who made it past two guard stations without detection and was finally discovered in broad daylight, high on drugs, standing on the deck of the Active in sweatshirt and jeans as if he was supposed to be there.
Renfro “trespassed and gained unrestricted access to [Coast Guard] Group Port Angeles and the [Coast Guard cutter] Active,” according to the report’s synopsis.
The Coast Guard also determined after a search of the Active that “no classified material was reported as being compromised,” according to the report.
In addition, the vessel’s weapons and munitions were stored in secured areas inaccessible to Renfro when he was on board, said Chief Petty Officer Robert Lanier, a spokesman with the 13th District Coast Guard in Seattle, headquarters for the Port Angeles facility.
‘Shouldn’t have happened’
“It was an incursion that shouldn’t have happened,” said Coast Guard Cmdr. Tony Hahn, commanding officer of the base, now Air Station/Sector Field Office Port Angeles, in an interview. Hahn took command of the base last summer, several months after the incident.
The report also contains 10 affidavits and statements. The authors’ names were redacted.
The incident began with Renfro driving his Ford Focus up to the gate at the base’s unmanned guard station.
Its camera was monitored from a base command center staffed by a Coast Guard seaman responsible for opening the gate who “saw a slight flash as [Renfro] pushed the button on the terminal,” he said.
“I believed this flash was the white reflecting from an ID card . . . The flash I saw turned out to be a ring on his finger.
“The individual then told me, ‘Lee going to the Active’ . . . I wasn’t able to get a good look at his face, since the camera is black and white when it is dark out, he didn’t look at the camera.
“I mistook this individual for what I thought was a cutter Active crew member, possibly a food service specialist.”
The gate was opened, and Renfro drove onto the base.
Sector Field Office Port Angeles conducts operations out of Coast Guard stations Port Angeles, Neah Bay and Quillayute River.
Activities include search and rescue, law enforcement-homeland security and resource protection for Washington’s northwestern coast around the Olympic Peninsula to the mouth of Puget Sound.
The Active, which reports to the 11th Coast Guard District in Alameda, Calif., is the largest and most completely outfitted of the local patrol boats.
Built in 1965, it features a helipad, sleeps up to 82 and has mounts for a 25 mm gun and two .50-caliber machine guns on the forward deck.
Its primary mission is law enforcement and search and rescue.
Discovered on Active
Renfro was discovered on the vessel at about 8:30 a.m. by Coast Guard personnel while he stood on the deck of the vessel at morning colors — the raising of the American flag.
When apprehended, Renfro “seemed to be a little confused,” the report said.
At first, he said he “was not ready to leave” when duty personnel tried escorting him off the vessel, but he was finally “detained” by boarding team members.
They frisked him and found a marijuana pipe and an empty Kodiak tobacco can that tested positive for marijuana and heroin, the report said.
A box cutter, a razor blade and an expandable police baton were found in his car.
Under questioning in a base training room, Renfro said he “thought the gate was opened and he was able to just drive through so he could go look at the water from the Active,” the report said.
‘Meant no harm’
Renfro “stated he meant no harm,” the report said.
He said he parked his car, walked straight to the vessel and boarded it without talking to or seeing anyone, he said.
Then he walked through the galley and some main passageways until he saw the commanding officer’s stateroom.
“He entered the CO’s stateroom and proceeded to take a shower and use the toilet,” the report said.
Renfro told his questioners he then smoked the last of his “medicine” there because his knee hurt.
Asked if he had a prescription for the marijuana, he said no.
“He did not see any person on-board until he saw a CG member going to do morning colors,” the report said.
While in the training room, Renfro tried to escape, was tackled and was put into hand and ankle restraints.
While there, he mumbled, rocked from side to side and made “unrecognizable statements,” the report said.
Conversation with God
Renfro “seemed to be having three to four conversations with himself, the most prominent one being with God,” said one seaman.
“He continually asked ‘God’ to stop time for him.”
In addition, according to the synopsis, “it was apparent Lee Renfro was under the influence of an illegal drug, physically and by his own admission.”
Finally, after questioning, Coast Guard personnel drove Renfro to the home of his brother, Donald Renfro, in Port Angeles, at about 4:30 p.m.
The incident was reported to Port Angeles police.
Neither Donald Renfro or Lee Renfro’s father could be reached for comment for this article.
The Coast Guard had wanted the Department of Justice to review the incident, the report said, but after Renfro’s death, the Justice Department was not interested in investigating when no charges were possible.
After Renfro’s death, the Coast Guard turned its attention to “where did this guy come from, what was his involvement with the Coast Guard, how did he get on the base,” Lt. Collin Bronson, public affairs officer for Coast Guard District 13 in Port Angeles told the PDN last April 18.
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Senior Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
