Crime, courts
Grieving Native Americans
honor Sikh farming family
LIVE OAK (2/26/03) -- With a lone eagle feather, grieving Native Americans this week thanked a Sikh family for kindnesses they extended during the 15 years it took to solve a brutal murder.
The blessing came at the end of a traditional tribal "closure ceremony" celebrated Feb. 21 shortly after confessed killer Daniel H. Castillo, 34, was sentenced to two 15-years-to-life sentences in state prison for a pair of murders in 1987.
Sutter County Superior Court Judge H. Ted Hansen ordered Castillo to serve the two terms concurrently in accordance with a plea agreement worked out by Deputy District Attorney Brian Aronson.
Castillo surrendered to authorities in August 2002 and admitted to the long-unsolved murders of Gabriel S. Ramos, 19, and Margaret Lorriane Still, 23, on a Sutter County ranch.
Following the sentencing, members of Still's American Indian family gathered at the Thiara Ranch murder scene to thank the Great Grandfather and one graying detective for bringing them closure at last.
"Margaret's soul was in limbo. Now it sits at the right hand of God," said Still's brother, Dan Martinez, as he held a beaded staff decorated with leather and fur.
"Baby sister, you can come home now," added Rosemary Alarcon, holding a single eagle feather.
On Dec. 4, 1987, Sutter County sheriff's detectives were summoned to the Thiara Ranch on Pennington Road where they found Ramos' and Still's bloodied bodies in a tumbledown chicken shed. The two farm workers had been viciously beaten to death with a jack handle, for reasons then unknown.
The Thiara family have been farming in Sutter County since 1906, J.R. Thiara, a younger family member explained just prior to the ceremony.
Detectives interviewed other field workers -- Castillo among them -- but, lacking witnesses and clues, the case went cold and remained so for 15 years.
Still's father was a prominent chief in the three confederated tribes of Paiute, Wasco and Warm Springs Indians, which are centered around a Warm Springs, Ore., reservation.
For years Still's two daughters, her parents and her numerous brothers and sisters struggled with the unfathomable mystery of why someone would kill "the little jokester."
Then in May of last year, another tragic death brought all three tribal branches of the family together for the first time in many years, Martinez said.
"We had a ceremony, a sweat and a group vision. I saw a young man presenting himself to deputies," said Martinez, who is also the Warm Springs fire chief.
"In our tradition, within 90 to 120 days of the vision something will happen," Martinez said.
Under a wild blue sky and with his back to the shed where Still's body was found, Sutter County Detective Dave McFarland told the family what happened one August morning not quite 90 days later.
"I got a call from (Nogales) Arizona saying an unknown subject had turned himself in and confessed to two killings," McFarland said.
"From that day on, Margaret was part of my life," McFarland said, looking out over a white nectarine orchard filled with yellow mustard blooms.
When McFarland sat down with him, Castillo confessed to it all, casting light on the mysterious "why" of what happened.
Ramos and Still, it seems, had become aware of a stash of drugs Castillo had, and he killed them to keep them quiet, McFarland said.
Castillo fled to Mexico after the killings and remained there until, years later, key members of his family died and he felt released to unburden himself of the old, unsolved murders.
Martinez and other family members brought five-pound coffee cans filled with soil collected from Still's gravesite and the graves of her deceased mother, daughter and a brother.
Circling to the four directions as Martinez chanted traditional songs, they sprinkled handfuls of the dirt on the ground around at the Thiara Ranch murder scene.
Dirt from the crime scene will be dispersed on Still's grave in Oregon, Martinez said. "To bring everything full circle," he explained.
In parting, Franco Martinez, the elder brother of the clan, gave the beaded ceremonial staff to McFarland as a token of deep gratitude and remembrance.
The veteran homicide detective thanked his newfound family, and fished out a handkerchief to wipe away tears.
Martinez also thanked Harsev S. Thiara who now operates the farm for permitting the tribal religious ceremony.
In the same spirit as the eldest brother had bestowed the staff to the detective, Alarcon passed on the feather to Mohinderjit Thiara.
As she handed over the feather to the gray-haired farmer's wife, Alarcon said did so because Mohinderjit, through her kindnesses, had become something of a stand-in mother for Margaret Still during the years of mystery.
"She understood, as only a woman can, what we wee going through," Alarcon said.
-- for IndiaWest
Grieving Native Americans
honor Sikh farming family
LIVE OAK (2/26/03) -- With a lone eagle feather, grieving Native Americans this week thanked a Sikh family for kindnesses they extended during the 15 years it took to solve a brutal murder.
The blessing came at the end of a traditional tribal "closure ceremony" celebrated Feb. 21 shortly after confessed killer Daniel H. Castillo, 34, was sentenced to two 15-years-to-life sentences in state prison for a pair of murders in 1987.
Sutter County Superior Court Judge H. Ted Hansen ordered Castillo to serve the two terms concurrently in accordance with a plea agreement worked out by Deputy District Attorney Brian Aronson.
Castillo surrendered to authorities in August 2002 and admitted to the long-unsolved murders of Gabriel S. Ramos, 19, and Margaret Lorriane Still, 23, on a Sutter County ranch.
Following the sentencing, members of Still's American Indian family gathered at the Thiara Ranch murder scene to thank the Great Grandfather and one graying detective for bringing them closure at last.
"Margaret's soul was in limbo. Now it sits at the right hand of God," said Still's brother, Dan Martinez, as he held a beaded staff decorated with leather and fur.
"Baby sister, you can come home now," added Rosemary Alarcon, holding a single eagle feather.
On Dec. 4, 1987, Sutter County sheriff's detectives were summoned to the Thiara Ranch on Pennington Road where they found Ramos' and Still's bloodied bodies in a tumbledown chicken shed. The two farm workers had been viciously beaten to death with a jack handle, for reasons then unknown.
The Thiara family have been farming in Sutter County since 1906, J.R. Thiara, a younger family member explained just prior to the ceremony.
Detectives interviewed other field workers -- Castillo among them -- but, lacking witnesses and clues, the case went cold and remained so for 15 years.
Still's father was a prominent chief in the three confederated tribes of Paiute, Wasco and Warm Springs Indians, which are centered around a Warm Springs, Ore., reservation.
For years Still's two daughters, her parents and her numerous brothers and sisters struggled with the unfathomable mystery of why someone would kill "the little jokester."
Then in May of last year, another tragic death brought all three tribal branches of the family together for the first time in many years, Martinez said.
"We had a ceremony, a sweat and a group vision. I saw a young man presenting himself to deputies," said Martinez, who is also the Warm Springs fire chief.
"In our tradition, within 90 to 120 days of the vision something will happen," Martinez said.
Under a wild blue sky and with his back to the shed where Still's body was found, Sutter County Detective Dave McFarland told the family what happened one August morning not quite 90 days later.
"I got a call from (Nogales) Arizona saying an unknown subject had turned himself in and confessed to two killings," McFarland said.
"From that day on, Margaret was part of my life," McFarland said, looking out over a white nectarine orchard filled with yellow mustard blooms.
When McFarland sat down with him, Castillo confessed to it all, casting light on the mysterious "why" of what happened.
Ramos and Still, it seems, had become aware of a stash of drugs Castillo had, and he killed them to keep them quiet, McFarland said.
Castillo fled to Mexico after the killings and remained there until, years later, key members of his family died and he felt released to unburden himself of the old, unsolved murders.
Martinez and other family members brought five-pound coffee cans filled with soil collected from Still's gravesite and the graves of her deceased mother, daughter and a brother.
Circling to the four directions as Martinez chanted traditional songs, they sprinkled handfuls of the dirt on the ground around at the Thiara Ranch murder scene.
Dirt from the crime scene will be dispersed on Still's grave in Oregon, Martinez said. "To bring everything full circle," he explained.
In parting, Franco Martinez, the elder brother of the clan, gave the beaded ceremonial staff to McFarland as a token of deep gratitude and remembrance.
The veteran homicide detective thanked his newfound family, and fished out a handkerchief to wipe away tears.
Martinez also thanked Harsev S. Thiara who now operates the farm for permitting the tribal religious ceremony.
In the same spirit as the eldest brother had bestowed the staff to the detective, Alarcon passed on the feather to Mohinderjit Thiara.
As she handed over the feather to the gray-haired farmer's wife, Alarcon said did so because Mohinderjit, through her kindnesses, had become something of a stand-in mother for Margaret Still during the years of mystery.
"She understood, as only a woman can, what we wee going through," Alarcon said.
-- for IndiaWest
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