Joane Justice had a chance to visit with former Lewis County Sheriff Bill Wiester at his Stillwaters Colonial Residence apartment earlier this year. Years ago, Wiester and his bloodhound Ole Blue rescued the then 3-year-old Joane Heck after she had wandered away from her parents’ home on Oppelt road in Chehalis.
It was summer of 2016 when former Lewis County Sheriff Bill Wiester moved into the Stillwaters Colonial Residence in Centralia.
After getting settled in his apartment, he was given a tour and assigned a seat in the dining room. Each table in the dining room is set for six people. It must have been fate that Wiester was assigned to one end of the table and George Heck at the other.
After introductions, Heck asked Wiester if he remembered when they first met 46 years ago. Bill searched his memory but had to admit that he didn’t. George reminded him that it was 46 years ago that his 3-year-old daughter was missing.
Wiester didn’t recall immediately, He and his bloodhounds had been on a lot of calls to rescue lost children over the years, and he had quit counting after he had rescued over 100.
George reminded him that his wife had been hanging out the wash on the line in the back yard those years ago while little Joane played nearby. When Jeannine Heck looked around, Joane was gone.
She walked around the yard and the house, but the toddler was nowhere to be found. She called George to come help her look, but to no avail. By now, they were getting frantic and George called the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office for help.
Wiester took the call and assured George he would be there right away. He went to his home on Shorey Road to get his bloodhound, Ole Blue, put Ole Blue and his harness in the Plymouth station wagon and was at the Heck residence at the end of Oppelt Road in Chehalis within minutes.
He asked for an article of clothing that little Joane had been wearing to give Blue a scent. Jeannine Heck reached for Joane’s sweater, gave Blue a sniff and Blue led Wiester into the woods nearby.
By now, Wiester was starting to recall the incident. He tells that he was amazed at how far the little tike had gotten; she was still on the move when he and Blue caught up with her and he jokes that he thought she was headed for Westport.
Blue was the first to greet Joane; she put her arms around the huge dog and he gave her little face a big lick. Wiester explained that Blue didn’t care who he found, bad guys or lost children, they all got a good lick. The sheriff had brought along some crackers and water for Joane to give her a few minutes to get acquainted.
Knowing that she wouldn’t be able to keep up with Blue on foot, Sheriff Bill put his coat around her and hoisted her onto his shoulders for the trip back to the Hecks.
The other diners at the table were silent as Wiester told George what he wasn’t telling him 46 years ago: that he was afraid of how he might find little Joane. There were bears, coyotes and cougars in those woods, any of which would have considered little Joane a tasty morsel.
Heck confessed that he, too, had worried about that same thing. A few weeks later, Wiester heard a knock on the door of his Stillwaters Colonial Residence apartment and there was George Heck with a beautiful woman who had come from Henderson, Nevada, to Centralia to visit her father.
Joane Justic gave Wiester a big hug, took pictures, and they went over the events of that day of 46 years ago. A friendship was formed and it’s for sure that when Joane comes again to Centralia to visit her dad, she will include a visit to Sheriff Bill Wiester.
