Aron Christensen was found dead in August 2022 on a hiking trail near Walupt Lake in East Lewis County. His death was caused by Ethan M. Asbach, who admitted to the gunshot that appears to have killed both him and his dog, Buzzo, a 4-month-old puppy. Asbach and his underage girlfriend waited a full day before reporting the incident to law enforcement authorities after coordinating with his dad and maybe others. The investigation has been infected with negligence, misinformation and prosecutorial indifference.
The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office admitted that they botched the initial response to the investigation by not treating the scene as a potential murder scene rather than a medical incident. The investigation proceeded with the coroner’s office further complicating the investigation by not responding to the death scene as is customary and correct. Their excuse needs to be further examined because I have heard from good authority it revolves around their fear of wild animals in the location of the incident.
Furthermore, the “necropsy” allegedly performed by Dr. Brandy Fay, who seems to have been unqualified to conduct this procedure, is now completely suspect and further inflamed by her allegations of evidence tampering by the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. Dr. Fay went further to get some of her professional colleagues to include Dr. Melinda D. Merck, a nationally recognized forensic veterinarian, to support her conclusions, which she declined citing incomplete procedures, erroneous conclusions and Fay’s lack of subject matter expertise. Finally, Fay apparently thrusted a rod into the wound path cavity in the dog destroying any affirmative evidence of the accurate bullet's path through the dog. This stage of the comedy of errors is the final tipping point of the case destroying any chance of determining exactly what happened to this animal and by implication Aron Christensen.
The sheriff's office drafted criminal charges on two different occasions and referred them to Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer’s office for filing. Meyer refused (January and April 2023) citing what he termed as problems with the case. He has further refused requests by the family to refer the investigation to the attorney general of Washington state for oversight review. Sheriff Rob Snaza, in a conversation I had with him personally on June 5, told me Prosecutor Meyer may be refusing to file charges in this case because he and Snaza have “longstanding personal and professional disagreements.” He further told me, “Mitch, I support a grand jury being called to get to the bottom of this situation and bring justice for the family of Aron Christensen.”
The question that the outraged public wants answered is, “Why is Prosecuting Attorney Jonathan Meyer refusing to request a grand jury or even agree to any process for independent oversight in this case?” Is this a professional and personal dispute with Snaza? What is he potentially hiding or hindering? What if Aron Christensen was your relative? Justice demands a grand jury in this case.
Mitch Townsend
Silver Creek
