HUCKLEBERRY: The question remains | Coeur d’Alene Press

Gary Cuff kept a small blanket in his car for years to remind himself of “Heaven-Heaven.”

“When Ryan was found, the person who found him wrapped him in a blanket,” the late Kootenai County sheriff’s deputy told the Coeur d’Alene Press in a 1999 interview.

The owner did not want to return the blanket. So Cuff washed it and put it in his car.

On November 12, 1984, Ryan Hoffliger, a blond-haired, blue-eyed 2-year-old, was found floating off a dock at Hayden Lake, 2 miles from his home on Dakota Avenue. How he got there remains a mystery that haunted his grandmother, Corinne McDonald, so much so that she wrote an annual letter to the editor of the Coeur d’Alene Press.

Her words changed a little each year, but the request for information remained the same.

“Someone must know something,” she told The Press. “How could you live with this guilt?”

On the night of that weekend in November 1984, Ryan, the son of Kurt and Gail Hoffliger, disappeared.

On Saturday at 11pm, his mother put Ryan to bed with his 7-year-old sister because his crib was broken. The boy fell asleep on the floor in the living room. The boy’s sister got up around 5 am to go to the toilet. But she couldn’t remember for sure whether her brother was still in her bed.

At 8 o’clock on Sunday morning the boy was no longer there when the whole family woke up.

News of Ryan’s disappearance prompted an intense air and ground search in the Hayden area.

Acting on a hunch, Hoffliger family friends Dave Meeks and Jim Wilcot headed to Hayden Lake. They knew of an abandoned house near Chalet Road and thought it might be “just the kind of place where a lost or frightened child would find refuge.”

After searching the vacant house and its surroundings, the two men walked 200 yards to a lake where there was a boathouse surrounded by a wooden dock. At the end of the dock, they are stunned by the sight of Ryan’s lifeless body stuck in the water between two logs. The child’s legs were partially floating under the dock, according to the newspaper report.

Meeks pulled the boy’s body from the water and sent Wilcot to contact sheriff’s deputies. He then desperately tried to resuscitate the baby. But it was too late. He told The Press: “I thought if I could get the spark out of him by hitting him in the chest, I thought I’d have a chance.”

Ryan was still wearing his diaper and blue and red plaid pajamas. The pajama bottoms were missing. There were no signs of serious injury. And his legs weren’t cut or bruised.

The autopsy report would later reveal that Ryan had drowned.

Questions remain.

How did Ryan get out of the house? Did someone drug the family dog, which seemed lethargic the day before Ryan disappeared? Why should the “mama’s boy” leave?

This case bothered Deputy Sheriff Cuff more than any other. From time to time, tips came in. But the sheriff’s office couldn’t gather enough evidence to solve the problem. The case remains open.

Kennedy and Brannon

Coeur d’Alene residents went to bed 15 years ago with visions of narrow election results dancing in their heads.

On November 3, 2009, incumbent Dina Goodlander beat maverick Dan Gookin by 29 votes. And incumbent President Mike Kennedy led Jim Brannon by five votes, 3,165 to 3,160.

But the bitter battle to replace Kennedy was not over yet.

A few weeks earlier, Brannon had been fired as director of Habitat for Humanity. Both he and his Republican allies said the action was political. So Brannon was in no mood to give up. He sought a recount. And he sued when that didn’t work.

After a year-long legal battle that cost Kennedy more than $100,000, the incumbent was declared the winner—by three votes. And he became the deciding vote in a series of 4-3 decisions to overhaul McEwan Park without a public advisory vote.

As a result, Kennedy faced an unsuccessful recall attempt in 2012 along with council members Goodlander and Woody McEvers, and Mayor Sandy Bloom.

In 2013, Kennedy decided to focus on his growing internet business and not seek a third term.

Also in 2013, Brannon was named to replace Kootenai County Clerk Cliff Hayes, who died in office. And then Brannon won two- to four-year terms.

There is a good chance that the McEwan Park renovation would not have happened if Brannon had defeated Kennedy. But we’ll never know.

SOS misfire

This City with a Heart has always had a soft spot for worthy causes. And the girl who was stuck in an iron lung in Moscow 55 years ago (November 3, 1969) met all the requirements.

No one knew where this rumor came from in Idaho. But here it has taken root.

It looks like a disabled girl needed empty packs of cigarettes to pay for her treatment. This story prompted good Samaritans Bill, Dorothy Monteith and Dortha Starr to start a charity campaign.

Soon, empty packs of cigarettes started pouring in from the sheriff’s office, police and fire departments, nursing homes, schools and even from nearby towns.

As the packages piled up, the trio tried in vain to find the ransom center, only to discover that the story was a hoax.

Mrs. Monteith then said, instead of apologizing, “Before I do any more good deeds, I am going to get all the information.”

The trio eventually lit the empty bags on fire, creating a bonfire that the press said was “big enough to rival the homecoming flames” before a Coeur d’Alene high school football game.

Huckleberry

• Poet’s Corner (with a slight edit): I’m not a Demo or a Pub/I don’t like Donald T. or sub Joe./I don’t lean to the right or to the left, you know/I mostly just lean towards honesty – Bard of Sherman Avenue (“ The Bard’s Politics”).

• Starstrike: In the fall of 1979, actor Andy Griffith called a cab while filming scenes here for the short-lived ABC series about a family of loggers and miners: The Yeagers. He and his agent were having drinks at a Coeur d’Alene restaurant when a taxi driver pulled up. So they followed him to his car, where they were surprised to see the taxi driver’s wife and three children sitting in the front seat. Such was Griffith’s star power in those days.

• Doubting Thomas: Greg Crimp, coach of the North Idaho College team, did not like the smaller round ball introduced in the fall of 1984 for women’s basketball. But he changed his mind when his players fell in love with him. “Their hands seem to handle the ball better,” Greg said. He predicted that high schools would also adopt the new size and that the change would result in “a one-two punch.”

• Time flies: Has it been 10 years since artist Terry Lee installed his bronze “American Worker” on the McEwan Park waterfront? On November 6, 2014, the $50,000 statue, donated by Dean Haagenson of Architects Northwest, became the first of five Lee statues fanning out along Front Avenue and Sixth Street. Others honor miners, loggers, farmers and suffragettes.

• Call of the Wild: Previously, nothing stood between the hunter and his passion here – not even a watch. In 1964, customers at Guy’s downtown barbershop came for a haircut to find a deer’s head hanging on one of the chairs and a sign posted by owner Russell G. Coulter: “Store Closed. Went hunting from October 23 to November 10.”

• Saving Paradise: On October 28, 1969, the city announced the purchase of 38 acres of Tubbs Hill for $125,000, including $57,500 from the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund. State inspectors applauded the city’s foresight in preserving the hill. At the time, the purchase increased the government’s ownership of Tubbs Hill to 75 acres and 2,650 feet of shoreline.

Parting Shot

You may be confused if you haven’t set your watch to Pacific Standard Time. In the old days, the Coeur d’Alene Press featured local VIPs and a large clock in front page photos to remind readers of the time change. On October 24, 1964, Ken Everson of Everson’s Jewelry was awarded this honor. The press headline read: “Changing the clocks is a kind of job for those merchants who have many clocks on display.” The photo shows Ken instructing little Patty Jean O’Reilly of Coeur d’Alene on how to set the large wall clock to 2 a.m. Spring 2016. Everson has closed after 70 years in downtown Coeur d’Alene. The family made many contributions to the community, including occasional modeling for the Coeur d’Alene Press.

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DF (Dave) Oliveria can be reached at [email protected].