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The

Independent
Wednesday, April 9, 2008 Serving Fremont, Seattle, and the Pacific Northwest since 1922 Fremont, Washington• Volume 86, No. 1

Labors
Bail set for
employee
accused of
strangling
Nursing assistant has no
criminal history, worked
at nursing home 1 year
Lost
Today’s immigrants defy
By Melissa Allison the stereotypes that have
Staff reporter
long plagued them. But
Bail was set at $1 million Saturday
for a 24-year-old nursing assistant who
is being held on suspicion of strangling a
breaking down barriers is
75-year-old woman after she left a Fed-
eral Way nursing home last month.
never easy – and their
Joseph Njonge, of Kent, who has no
criminal history, worked for nearly a year stories are the proof.
as a certified nursing assistant at Garden
Terrace Alzheimer’s Center of Excel- Photo by Jackie Smith
lence, where Jane Britt’s body was found Ana Reyes, in red, and daughter Julie spend the evening hours at their roadside stand in Mexico City.
in the trunk of her car March 19. She was
last seen alive the evening before, when
she left the nursing home after visiting her By Lornet Turnbull
77-year-old husband, who lives there.
Staff reporter
Njonge was arrested Thursday after
the Washington State Patrol Crime Labo-
ratory said that it had matched his DNA MEXICO CITY — Ana Reyes
to that found under Britt’s fingernails, ac- walks briskly through a crowded
cording to court documents released Sat- neighborhood here, out of place
urday. among the provocatively dressed
He was booked in King County Jail women of the night soliciting work in
for investigation of first-degree murder the middle of the day.
and robbery. The 41-year-old mother of four
In the documents, Federal Way po- slips through the entrance of a cloth-
lice said that Njonge denied killing Britt ing store, its racks thick with the Photo by Jackie Smith
or having any contact with her that could latest fashion, a sign on the door
Men and women wishing to apply for job openings stand outside a shop in Mexico City.
have resulted in his DNA being under her indicating the shop is hiring female
fingernails. assistants.
Njonge is scheduled to return to King She approaches the manager poor barrios of one of the world’s big- known about what happens to them strains to hear Americans speak.
County Superior Court by Tuesday, said about the job but is told it’s only for gest and most crowded cities. after they’re ushered by U.S. immi- “I always think that if I had the
Pro tem Judge Karli Jorgensen, who set women 20 to 30 years old. After nearly two decades picking gration authorities through revolving courage I’d go up and talk to them,”
bail. Manager Maria Inez elaborates hops and fruit in Eastern Washington doors into Mexico’s border towns. Julie said. For her mother, small
About 20 members of the suspect’s when prompted: “A younger girl will and cleaning hotel rooms near Seattle, Once there, they get little help things, like the Starbucks white-choc-
friends and family appeared at the bail be able to bring more male customers she was among more than 870,000 from their government. olate mocha her son sometimes buys
hearing. A woman who identified herself into the store. She’s too old.” Mexicans the U.S. government ex- Many stay, others try to get back her, remind her of their old life. And
to the court as his sister declined to be in- Ten months after she was picked pelled from the country last year. to their hometowns. For the most part some days she thinks of little else but
terviewed. up by immigration officers in an ear- For all the attention illegal immi- no one tracks them — not their gov- how to get it back.
Two relatives of the victim also were ly-morning raid of her Burien home grants get in the U.S. — from those ernment, or the U.S., or their advo- “It’s ugly here,” Reyes said, sit-
in court but wouldn’t comment, citing a and soon deported to Mexico, Reyes who believe they’re a drain on social cacy groups in the states. ting in her sister’s living room, her
statement they released Friday. That state- — jobless and broke — struggles to services to advocates who say they do They become largely forgot- children and other family members
ment read, in part: “We were shocked by eke out the barest existence in the dirt- the jobs Americans won’t — little is ten — along with the U.S.-born chil- around her. “I never wanted to come
the sudden and senseless crime that took dren they sometimes take with them. back here to live. I wanted to stay and
the life of our beloved mom, grandmother, Reyes’ two adult sons, Christian and watch my daughters go to school and
and great-grandmother.” Carlos Quiroz, whom she and her graduate, have the kind of life I didn’t
According to court documents re- then-husband had brought illegally have.”
leased Saturday, Federal Way police said into the U.S. as little boys, were also
the only DNA found under Britt’s nails returned to Mexico last year. Fuel for economy
belonged to her and Njonge. Investigators And with no family in the U.S., The engine of the American ser-
had collected DNA samples from several Reyes’ two American daughters, Julie vice economy runs on the labor of
people who worked at the nursing home. Quiroz, now 13, and Sharise Hernan- many of the 12 million immigrants in
Police also said they found Britt’s dez, 6, have also joined her here in the the U.S. illegally.
husband’s Costco card in Njonge’s wal- area. Many had fled poverty in small
let. Now, unable to find work in a city towns across Mexico and Latin Amer-
When Britt’s body was found in her she left 18 years ago, Reyes shuffles ica, becoming the cheap labor that
car trunk, she was fully clothed but her between the cramped homes of a builds houses, cleans hotel rooms and
shoes were missing and her pockets were brother and a sister in neighborhoods tends gardens in the U.S.
turned inside out, court documents said. so unsafe her children aren’t allowed For her mother, small things, like
According to police, Britt’s fam- outside to play. the Starbucks white-chocolate mocha
ily said she usually did not carry a purse Neither daughter is in school. her son sometimes buys her, reminds
but kept money and identification in her The older one longs for her life her of these times.
pockets. in Seattle, saying that on the rare oc-
Immigrants primarily reign from mid- to northern areas of casion she gets close enough to the
Mexico, where poverty levels steadily rise annually. See “LABOR” on 4A >>
See “DNA” on 6A >> hotels that cater to tourists here, she

Cemetery headstones may crumble, fall, but residents still pay respect
Decades of wear, When it happened, more than a century pioneers. She has cut, weeded, hauled, tery initiative this spring, document-
after Mrs. Clark’s death, there were no chipped, scrubbed, planted — and in ing burial grounds older than 40 years
tear lead officials to descendants around to notice. But Kar- the process, opened up a historic burial and creating a fund for preservation.
en Lee Bouton spotted it right away. ground for public view. The county has already given Bouton,
seek funding for repairs She was on one of her tours through the Next month, King County’s His- an amateur genealogist, a three-year,
Saar Pioneer Cemetery in Kent, clear- toric Preservation Program is giving $15,000 grant for landscaping and oth-
ing brambles and bushes and overbear- Bouton, 51, its highest honor, the John er needs.
By Cara Solomon ing locust trees. And right there, off to D. Spellman award for Excellence in “You should have seen me hit the
South County reporter the left, poor Mrs. Clark was in a state. Historic Preservation. Other people floor when I heard that, I was so excit-
Something had to be done. have shown interest in pioneer cem- ed,” she said. Bouton is trying now to
The grounds hold graves dating “She just toppled over,” said Bou- eteries, said Julie Koler, King County’s get the cemetery named a King County
from 1873 to 1949, including members ton, gazing at the headstone recently. historic preservation officer. But noth- landmark.
of some well-known pioneer families: “We straightened her up.” ing like this. She has also asked the Greater
Photo by John Satterfield
Burke, Clark, Guiberson, Iddings, For the past few years, Bouton “She was the one who, as a citizen, Kent Historical Society to consider
Liesinger, Maddocks, Monster, Saar, has made it her calling to preserve this really busted butt to get out there and taking ownership of the cemetery from On Saturday, a couple dozen
Shinn, Smith, Stephenson and Willis. 135-year-old pocket of land in north- do something,” Koler said. Kent United Methodist Church. volunteers, ncluding Jonathan,
Over time, the headstone tilted east Kent, home to five Civil War vet- Inspired by her work, county of- 5, cut weeds and cleaned up
sideways, until one day it finally fell. erans and several of the area’s earliest ficials are launching a historic-ceme- See “STONES” on 6A >> around headstones.