Skip to content

Vancouver: Couple shot dead in driveway; police continue investigation

February 15th, 2009, incident report by jbtaylor

  • February 6, 2009
  • 2
  • 0
  • 7016 Indiana St.
  • Vancouver
  • Washington
  • 98664

Erik Robinson. Columbian. Vancouver, Wash.: Feb 8, 2009. pg. A.1

Vancouver police are continuing to look for a suspect in the shooting deaths of a brother and a sister Friday night in a normally quiet neighborhood in McLoughlin Heights.

Police didnt reveal information about a suspect or suspects, but did say that its likely the victims and perpetrator knew each other.

This is clearly a tragedy for this family, but we believe this is a specific incident. We dont believe theres a serial killer running around, Vancouver police Detective Patrick Kennedy said. It appears this wasnt random.

Donna Plew, 62, and her brother, Timothy Alioth, 59, were gunned down in the driveway of the home at 7016 Indiana St. owned by Donna Plew. Her late husband, Gerry L. Plew, had died in September. Alioth had recently moved in with his sister from Oregon, Kennedy said.

A couple of dozen family members and friends of the victims huddled on the street west of the house just beyond crime scene tape, politely declining to talk with news reporters.

The shooting occurred at about 7:15 p.m. Friday.

Michelle Kraft said she and her husband, Keith James, had just parked their car to pick up her 20-year-old daughter to go out for dinner.

They were just a few doors down and across the street from Plews home when her daughter emerged.

She heard a pop-pop-pop, Kraft said. She said, I swear I just heard three gun shots.

Kraft said that as the trio drove down Indiana Street, they glanced over and saw a woman lying in front of a pickup truck that had been backed into the driveway of the Plew home.

Looking closer, they saw a man lying on the ground near the drivers side with a leg up against the partially opened door.

They were dead, James said. She had blood coming out of her head.

They said they didnt notice anyone running from the driveway or racing away in an automobile. Kraft, who previously lived on Indiana Street with her ex-husband, said she understood that Gerry Plew had died on an airplane coming back from Hawaii in September.

She was taken aback by the violence on Friday night.

Its a wonderful neighborhood, she said.

Roger Peterson, who lives a few blocks away, agreed that the tree-lined neighborhood near David Douglas Park generally has been a quiet place.