The woman arrested following last week’s multi-county chase that ended in an hours-long standoff on Interstate 5 in Lewis County died at the county jail Monday.
Heidi R. Presson, 51, of Hoodsport, was scheduled to make a preliminary appearance at 4 p.m. Monday for one felony count of attempting to elude a police vehicle and other charges.
Shortly after 4 p.m., however, prosecutors said Presson had died at the Lewis County Jail just hours before the hearing. The court entered an order of dismissal for the charges.
The Chronicle has since reached out to the Lewis County Coroner’s Office for the time, cause and manner of death.
Lewis County Corrections Chief Chris Sweet, speaking through a deputy, said Monday the sheriff’s office would not be making any statements, as the incident was still under investigation.
Around 12:10 p.m. Tuesday, the sheriff’s office said in a news release that medical staff “found an inmate unresponsive in their cell” at about 1:40 p.m., Monday, April 6.
“Lifesaving measures were performed while waiting for emergency medical services to arrive; however, the inmate was not able to be revived,” the sheriff’s office said.
The office said an outside agency — which was not named — is investigating the "circumstances surrounding the death.”
“The release of this information from our office has been pending the death notification to the family of the deceased, which was completed a few hours ago by the Lewis County Coroner’s Office,” the sheriff’s office said.
Presson was arrested Thursday, April 2, in Lewis County after a Washington State Patrol (WSP) SWAT team removed her from inside her disabled sedan.
Troopers said the chase began in Mason County around 6 p.m. after deputies tried to pull over a 2005 Acura RL driven by Presson.
Presson allegedly fled into Thurston County, where county deputies began to pursue, and then continued southbound on I-5 into Lewis County.
At that point, WSP troopers took over the pursuit and successfully spiked the Acura’s tires near milepost 71 south of Chehalis, according to a WSP news release.
“The vehicle continued for approximately two miles before striking a Washington state Department of Transportation (WSDOT) sign along the right shoulder of southbound I-5 near milepost 69, which ultimately disabled the vehicle,” WSP said.
The state patrol’s incident report said the totaled Acura “came to rest in lanes one and two” of southbound I-5 near U.S. Highway 12.
According to WSP, Presson allegedly refused to exit the car, becoming a barricaded subject.
The state patrol’s SWAT team responded, and all lanes were closed “to ensure public safety.”
The stalemate lasted for “several hours,” the state patrol said, before Presson was ultimately apprehended and transported to Providence Centralia Hospital.
In its incident report, WSP noted that drugs or alcohol were involved in the incident.
Just before 11:30 p.m., WSDOT sent out an alert saying both directions of I-5 had opened.
The probable cause affidavit filed Monday by the Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office contains a written report from the primary investigating trooper.
In his report, the trooper said that Presson “was completely non-compliant and ignored all
given commands” to exit her vehicle after it was stopped on the interstate.
Thurston County sheriff’s deputies, along with a K9, arrived and issued commands from an intercom, but Presson refused to exit the car, according to the report.
Meanwhile, police at the scene were notified that Presson “had a past standoff with law enforcement” and had “rushed law enforcement with an axe in the past,” the trooper said.
At about 8:30 p.m., the SWAT team arrived and used a number of tactics to persuade the suspect to exit the vehicle, “including chemical agents,” according to the report.
Roughly two hours later, Presson exited the car and was arrested, then transported to Providence Centralia Hospital “out of an abundance of caution.”
“After a thorough evaluation, a doctor advised Presson was cleared for incarceration,” the trooper said in his report. “I escorted Presson to my patrol vehicle and transported her to the Lewis County Corrections Center where she was booked without incident.”
