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B.G. woman prays for answers in son’s death as arrest looms

By Laura McVicker
Published: November 30, 2009, 12:00am
3 Photos
Steven Lane/The Columbian
Valerie Smith, right, and her son Chris Dunn, visit a holiday-themed memorial Tuesday that she created at her home in honor of her late son Curtis Dunn, who was killed seven months ago in Battle Ground. Investigators are continuing to investigate his homicide.
Steven Lane/The Columbian Valerie Smith, right, and her son Chris Dunn, visit a holiday-themed memorial Tuesday that she created at her home in honor of her late son Curtis Dunn, who was killed seven months ago in Battle Ground. Investigators are continuing to investigate his homicide. Photo Gallery

It was 12:30 a.m. when Valerie Smith heard frantic, shrill yelling outside her bedroom window.

Alarmed, she went outside.

That’s when she found her son lying injured in the street, choking and clutching his head. His girlfriend, standing by his side, yelled for Smith to get the phone.

“What happened, Curtis?,” Smith shouted, as she dialed 911.

“I was hit by a car,” he said, struggling with his words. But then he clarified: “A girl hit me.”

As paramedics arrived and Smith was treating Curtis with gauze to his bleeding head, the 24-year-old choked, “I didn’t see it coming.”

Those were his last words to his mother.

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It’s been seven months since Curtis Dunn was found beaten in the street in front of his Battle Ground home and died the next day in a hospital.

His mother still doesn’t know what happened that April 12 morning. Investigators haven’t made an arrest in the homicide and remain mum about the details.

Though police initially thought Dunn had been hit by a car, Clark County Medical Examiner Dennis Wickham did not believe his injuries were consistent with a vehicle collision, but, rather, a blow to the face, according to court filings.

In the time since the homicide, Smith has had to deal with painful rumors circulating about her son’s death: Was it a drug deal gone bad? Was her son in a fight?

The mother says she just wants to see justice served. She’s sought solace from the waiting in several ways, calling a number of churches up and asking them to pray. She’s considering other ways she can draw the public’s attention to her son’s mysterious homicide.

But it doesn’t make the pain go away.

“I thought I knew heartbreak,” Smith said, reflecting on the unsolved case. “I never knew heartbreak until now.”

Battle Ground police say they are close to cracking the case — but it has required assistance from the state’s Attorney General’s Office.

Two weeks ago, local investigators requested a review of the case from the state Attorney General’s Homicide Investigation Tracking System, which helps local law enforcement agencies investigate unsolved violent crimes. The team hasn’t reached a conclusion, but Battle Ground police Sgt. Jason Perdue said investigators expect to make an arrest “very, very soon.”

Perdue would not release details about the suspect or suspects, citing the active investigation.

The sergeant did say he’s pieced together a general theory of the homicide and ruled out several rumors. He believes Dunn, who had stepped outside his home for a quick smoke that night, did not know his attackers. And there’s no evidence to support other theories, such as a drug deal gone bad.

“I can only speculate about what led up to their encounter,” Perdue said. “It was just a coincidence their paths crossed that day.”

Dunn’s homicide was the first in Battle Ground since the March 2004 murder of Kimberly Denni. Her husband, Matthew Denni, was convicted of second-degree murder in the shooting.

According to affidavits filed by Perdue, Dunn’s girlfriend found him lying injured outside the home in the 200 block of Southwest 19th Avenue. She said she saw a dark-colored vehicle with tinted windows at the corner, and a male outside the vehicle, yelling. Neighbors reported seeing the man getting back into the vehicle before the driver, a woman, sped away.

Search warrants were filed for the couple’s Honda Accord and Battle Ground home.

Perdue said the couple is still believed to be connected to Dunn’s homicide, but declined to comment further.

In the months that followed Dunn’s death, investigators continued to collect and process DNA evidence and interview witnesses. So far, it hasn’t been enough to support an arrest.

“Sometimes, no matter how much evidence you have, you can’t prove it in court,” Perdue said. “I would say we have kind of come to a stalemate in several areas.”

But the sergeant remains hopeful.

“We’ve worked hard on it,” he said. “We are trying desperately to find a solution.”

Dunn’s mother is holding out.

“It won’t bring my son back,” she said. “But it makes me think maybe one day someone will say they’re sorry.”

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A smiling photo of Dunn hangs on a gazebo wall, just a dozen feet away from where he was found injured in the street. Angel figurines surround the gazebo.

Smith stands nearby and surveys the shrine on this recent afternoon. She’s tried to stay busy the past seven months, sorting though her son’s belongings — childhood photos and his rock collection — and cleaning out her garage.

But the memorial at the side of her house, which she decorates in a different theme each holiday, has become her biggest project. This month and next, it’s Christmas-themed.

An angel represents her son watching over her.

“This gives me something to focus on,” she said. “Otherwise, I have no power.”

As she talks about the memorial, Smith doesn’t cry. She’s become good at only breaking down in the privacy of her home.

But when conversation turns to the stress of her son’s unsolved homicide, her voice breaks.

“It’s the waiting and not having the answers” that’s the worst, she said.

What’s more, she says she’s wrestled with her role in the investigation: What can she do as a mother?

Smith has taken her case to a higher power. She’s called nearly 100 churches in the Vancouver-Portland metro area, asking them to pray for an arrest in her son’s homicide.

She tries to stay in constant touch with the prosecutor and detectives working the case. And she tries to talk about Dunn frequently with family, including the three young children he left behind.

“When I look at the face of my grandchildren, I have to know I did everything I possibly could,” she said.

Laura McVicker: 360-735-4516 or laura.mcvicker@columbian.com.

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