HUCKLEBERRIES: Carissa’s Law: Wrongs made right

In life, Carissa Benway was “a pretty girl with a pretty smile” who ran away from home.

In death, the 14-year-old’s name protects wayward kids today.

In Idaho, Carissa’s Law, passed in 2003, requires sheriffs to advertise the picture, name, address and criminal history of registered sex offenders who move into their counties.

Twenty-five years ago, Carissa’s helter-skelter life led her to David “Coon” Merritt, a sex maniac from Washington who lived in a Post Falls mobile home next to Benway’s family.

Merritt’s trailer was a hangout for troubled teens. His son, Cody, then 16, was Carissa's boyfriend.

During the Fourth of July weekend in 2000, according to media reports, Merritt persuaded Carissa to join him and his son on a camping trip in the Coeur d’Alene National Forest. Once there, the violent predator zip-tied the 4-foot-11-inch girl to a tent pole and later raped and beheaded her in front of his hapless son.

Three months afterward, grouse hunters found Carissa’s jawbone at a makeshift campsite on the North Fork of the Coeur d’Alene River. Kootenai County sheriff’s searchers, using dogs, found the rest of Carissa’s intact skeleton on a steep embankment 70 feet away.

David Merritt, according to newspaper reports, later pleaded no contest to first-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison, where he died of natural causes in October 2006. In 2002, his son, Cody, was sentenced to five years in prison as an accessory to murder.

At the time of Cody Merritt’s release, Sgt. Brad Maskell of the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office told The Spokesman-Review, “My biggest fear is he is going to come out of prison without any help after participating in a gruesome and nasty criminal act; and that he could act out aggressively. I fear he doesn’t grasp the weight of the crime.”

In 2024, Cody Merritt, then 40, was arrested for allegedly shooting a woman in the head at Yelm, Wash.

Carissa's mother, Bonnie Heilander, was a key witness in 2003 when the Idaho Legislature passed Carissa's Law.

Three years later, according to The Spokesman-Review, Heilander received a $30,000 settlement from the city of Coeur d’Alene. She had sued the city, saying police had ignored her attempts to report Carissa as a runaway and to check David Merritt’s background.

The city admitted no wrongdoing.

Hobbit gold

Flamboyant Mike Kennedy faced controversy in both of his successful runs for the Coeur d’Alene City Council.

In 2005, Mike’s place of residency was an issue. Did he live in the city or not?

In 2009, he defeated challenger Jim Brannon by five votes and then spent the next year warding off recounts and Brannon’s court challenges.

But no one said anything about the $2,000 donated to Mike’s first campaign by — a hobbit. And not just any hobbit. But the one who escorted Frodo Baggins through Mordor’s barren wasteland to Mount Doom in director Peter Jackson’s adaptation of “The Lord of the Rings."

Mike’s cousin, Sean Astin, portrayed Samwise Gamgee, Frodo’s sidekick, in the epic series.

And Sean and his wife, Christine, of Los Angeles, donated $1,000 each to Mike’s campaign.

Mike won with a 49% plurality in a three-way race that included future state senator Mary Souza. And he then served Coeur d’Alene well for eight years.

A Jewel indeed

The Nestlé company found a hidden jewel in Coeur d’Alene 20 years ago when it sponsored a national “Flavorologist of the Day” contest.

Nestlé, as Baby Boomers recall, advertised its Nestlé Quik drink with a catchy jingle: “N-E-S-T-L-E-S, Nestlé’s makes the very best — chocolate.”

In 2005, Nestlé Ice Cream staged a competition to find new names for its Ice Pop line.

The company received 4,000 responses, including a Top Ten entry from 7-year-old Hailey Jewel McCormick of Coeur d’Alene.

Hailey named her confection after herself. The name and ingredients caught the Nestle judges’ attention: “Sparkling Jewels.” It consisted of edible sparkling glitter, vanilla diamonds and Kool-Aid flavors: hot pink, bubblegum and green lime.

Nestle product scientists tailored a special batch of flavors for Hailey and the other winners.

Also, Hailey won $1,000, a free trip to the Nestlé factory in Bakersfield, Calif., free ice cream for a year — and, most importantly, ice cream for her 455 Ramsey Schoolmates.

Fan mail

The Burlington Northern train item in Huckleberries Last (Oct. 26) brought this response from Coeur d’Alene native Tom Torgerson: “Growing up at 1018 Front, my friends and I, as little kids, would jump on the ladders of the lumber cars while the train was moving and use it for the equivalent of a 1970s Uber! That train went straight to City Beach, and it served as one hell of a better option than walking or riding our bikes down to the beach! We were cussed at and chased physically by several "caboose captains!" We would scatter like flies and thus never got caught. The things we did back in those days sure made it fun (albeit dangerous, at times) growing up in downtown Coeur d'Alene!”

Huckleberries

• Poet’s Corner: Those clouds you see/aren’t here to stay,/They’ll leave again/sometime in May — The Bard of Sherman Avenue (“Song for a November Morning”).

• Dogs Gone: Opened in 1988 with hoopla, the Greyhound Park at Post Falls ended with a whimper. On Oct. 31, 1995, track operations manager Al May announced that dog racing would end Dec. 31. Attendance and betting were way off. The track had lost $21 million since it opened. Then, there were rumors of dog abuse. Oddly, the track pulled the plug during its best year because it couldn’t pay down its huge debt.

• Undefeated: Tom Robb achieved much in life, including founding the iconic Iron Horse restaurant downtown — and coaching his undefeated 1975 Junior Tackle team. After the Iron Horse squad finished an 8-0 season with a win over Dingles, Tom gathered his players and said emotionally, “This is a season no one will ever forget. No one will ever take this away from you.” Tom was unforgettable, too.

• Long Forgotten: Yes, Virginia, a Sambo’s restaurant once existed at 817 Sherman Ave. And the chain of 653 restaurants was already under fire for its racially charged name when a crowd attended the opening Oct. 7, 1975. But the eatery didn’t last long. Sambo’s declared bankruptcy in 1981. And Woody McEvers, now Coeur d’Alene mayor, converted the building into his former downtown Rustler’s Roost restaurant.

Parting shot

Aryan Nations leader Richard Butler’s last gasp was anticlimactic — a third parade on Sherman Avenue in successive years.

On Oct. 28, 2000, according to The Press, Butler rode in a white Chevrolet convertible, flanked by two young children and 32 followers.

He used a megaphone to shout out his foul message. But he was barely heard above the jeers and chants of protesters — and three city vehicles. Symbolically, a water truck sprayed the street in front of the supremacists and two street sweepers followed them.

Later, Butler asked Police Chief Tom Cronin in vain to arrest the equipment operators for raining on his parade. And he visited his former 20-acre compound on Rimrock Road for a final time.

A month earlier, Butler gave up his property to satisfy a $6.3 million civil judgment against the Aryans. Bowed and broken, he spent his last four years in a Hayden home provided by an ally.

• • •

You can contact D.F. Oliveria at [email protected].

    Carissa Benway was described at her memorial service in 2000 as “a pretty girl with a pretty smile."
  

    Mike Kennedy hugs his aunt, actor Patty Duke Pearce, while celebrating his Coeur d’Alene City Council win in 2005.
  

    Nestlé Ice Cream named Hailey Jewel McCormick, a Ramsey School second grader, as one of 10 official “Nestle Flavorologists" in 2005.
  

    For decades, trains ran through downtown Coeur d'Alene to the Rutledge mill on the east end of town. Coeur d'Alene native Tom Torgerson recalls jumping aboard for free rides to City Beach.
  

    Operations manager Al May reveals that Greyhound Park will end live racing at the end of the year in 1995.
  

    Coach Tom Robb, left and right photos, guides his Iron Horse team to an undefeated 8-0 season in 1975.
  

    A crowd awaits as manager John Sanchez opens Sambo’s restaurant for a special preview at 817 Sherman Ave. in 1975.
  

    A little girl gives a Nazi salute while riding with Aryan Nations leader Richard Butler in a Sherman Avenue parade in 2000.