Dominique Jolene Cushman died in a car crash

[rachy]

was there an article on this girl? i couldn't find one.

Dominique Jolene Cushman, age 18


Dominique Jolene Cushman, resident of Concord, died in a car crash on I-5 near Coalinga on April 13. Dominique was born September 3, 1990. She is survived by her mother Gaylyn Tovar, Gaylyn’s husband Hector and his children Tara and Daniel, her father Duane W. Cushman, her sister Tina Cushman, mother of nephew Ayden, her sister Britney Cushman, her grandmothers Dorothy Cushman Beardsley (Frank) of Kenwood, and the late Marilyn Waage, her Nana Delores Menge, her uncles John Cushman of Livermore and Mike Cushman of Kenwood, her aunt Maryann Neumann of Sonoma, and many loving family members and friends.

Living with Dominique was exciting. She was the queen of drama, not a drama queen. She had a promising career with the modeling agent with whom she had just signed. She enjoyed the small parts in movies and television she was able to do. Her beautiful blue eyes would twinkle and light up when she talked – that look she had when she was trying to be convincing, but not too obvious. You always knew when a story was about to come out of her very fertile, imaginative mind. Dominique had many plans for the future. Suddenly she is gone, and we can all say, “We miss your face and stunning personality.�

A celebration of Dominique’s life was held on April 17 in Concord. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Dominique’s name to ASPCA or ARF foundation in Walnut Creek, CA.

http://www.kenwoodpress.com/pub/a/3498?full=1

[rachy]

Concord canines poisoned by laced meatballs

CONCORD -- When Gaylyn Tovar rescued a 15-month-old charcoal Westie-dachshund puppy last year, she named him DJ -- short for Dominique Jolene, her 18-year-old daughter and aspiring model who died in a 2009 car crash on Interstate 5.

She also had Coco, the long-haired Chihuahua that Dominique doted on, who gave the heartbroken mother a living, breathing link to her lost child.

Tovar lost both in a single weekend earlier this month, allegedly at the hands of a disgruntled neighbor so infuriated by the dogs' barking that after sending the owner a year's worth of unsigned threatening letters, he lobbed strychnine-laced turkey meatballs into their yard to silence them.

"I didn't even know who he was," Tovar said. "All he had to do is come tell me."

The neighbor, 72-year-old Earl Ansley, was arrested then released Wednesday after police got a warrant to search his home near the Concord-Clayton border and took several items they say implicate him in the poisoning of DJ and Coco.

Investigators have also tied a 2003 dog poisoning involving another neighbor to Ansley, a retired law enforcement officer whose career included work with Berkeley police and the state Department of Justice before he became a private investigator in the mid-1980s.

Ansley did not return multiple phone messages Friday and when a Bay Area News Group reporter tried to talk to him in front of his home, he shook his head and drove away.

Tovar said she came home the night of June 4 to find DJ having what looked like a seizure and rushed him to an emergency veterinarian. The physician quickly determined that the pup was not having seizures.


"The vet said, 'No, no, this looks like strychnine poisoning,'" Tovar said.

Tovar left the clinic and followed the veterinarian's orders to comb her backyard to find anything strange that DJ might have eaten. That's when she found the first meatball. She flashed back to a series of anonymous letters left at her doorstep or sent through the mail, all threatening to kill her dogs if they did not stop barking.

It couldn't be a coincidence, she remembered thinking.

"I immediately called police," Tovar said.

DJ died later that night. An officer came to her house and also searched the backyard. He soon found another meatball, prompting Tovar to lock the dogs inside and spend the rest of the weekend canvassing the yard.

That Monday, detectives came to interview her and talk to neighbors about the mysterious poisoning. Then she saw Coco, one of her five remaining dogs, also appear to be seizing.

It was more than horrific déjÃ* vu: Coco died on the way to the vet.

"I guess I missed one (meatball)," Tovar said. "I didn't even see her eat anything."

Coco was a tough dog. She survived the wreck that killed Tovar's daughter Dominique and was missing for three days before being found at a Coalinga RV park near the crash site. When the Chihuahua turned up, the family said it was a "bright spot" in the midst of their grief.

Detectives took the case more seriously than Tovar and her neighbors ever expected. They took meatball samples and sent them out for lab tests and knocked on doors up and down the neighborhood.

"It was good, old-fashioned police work, talking to neighbors and quite literally leaving no stone unturned," said Sgt. Brandon Richey, who oversaw the investigation.

The ace detectives became ace pet detectives.

After numerous interviews, all signs pointed to Ansley, Richey said. They kept their findings quiet until they could obtain a search warrant, being careful not to tip off the newly identified suspect for fear he might destroy evidence.

In their research, detectives learned that strychnine, the suspected poison used to kill DJ and Coco, is not readily available. It was once a common ingredient in poisons used to kill gophers and other pest rodents, but the risk to pets and children was eventually deemed too great.

"It had to be something someone already possessed," Richey said.

That was enough for police to arrest Ansley on suspicion of willful cruelty to animals, a felony. They released him pending further investigation -- and the results of meatball toxicology tests -- but detectives plan to present a case to prosecutors in the near future, Richey said.

When word of the poisoning began spreading throughout the neighborhood, fliers went up warning about the poisoning. When residents learned it was one of their own suspected in the deaths, the quiet crosshatch of sleepy streets and cul-de-sacs found itself rattled.

"Obviously, it shakes you up," said one resident, who asked not to be named out of privacy concerns.

When another neighbor learned of DJ and Coco's death they called police for their own dog who was poisoned in 2003.

The dog owners in the older case could not be reached for comment.

Tovar said her family is getting over the grief of their loss and the bizarre circumstances behind their pets' deaths, but was heartened by the quick justice.

"Those detectives were on top of it," she said. "They took it seriously. And they have K-9 units, so they're dog lovers. Plus, what if a kid picked it up in my backyard?"

http://www.contracostatimes.com/top-stories/ci_18300550

[nestlequikie]

How sad for her poor momma. What a bastard to do that to those poor doggies.

Dominique had a private MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/33323278


And Rachy? No article that I found in the archives.

[deeply shaded]

But after a year's worth of unsigned letters threatening to kill her dogs if she didn't shut them up she said, "All he had to do is come tell me." Really? Not the appropriate way to deal with it, of course, but come on. Six yapping mutts next door? Ugh.