Once-Peaceful Camano Island Beset By Tragedies -- Retiree Found Shot To Death Is Latest In A Series Of Events That Have Made Longtime Residents Of The Area Anxious

CAMANO ISLAND - You reach Camano Island by crossing the Davis Slough by bridge, leaving behind the relative metropolis of Stanwood, with its corporate banks, fast-food franchises and recently constructed health club.

But you probably thought about going to a place like Camano Island many times before: when a car alarm abbreviated your sleep. Or when you spent two hours on the freeway, plus another hour looking for a parking space, only to find next morning that your car stereo had been stolen for the third time.

Camano is where you go to get away from your problems and worries.

Although hardly overrun with crime, Camano has recently experienced far more than its usual amount of death and mayhem, the nature of the incidents as striking as the results.

The latest occurred early Friday morning, when retired contractor Jack Pearson, 68, was shot to death in his large, Victorian-style home overlooking Port Susan Bay. A revolver was found in the home. No suspects have been named. Investigators do not believe the crime to be random.

"This incident follows so closely on the heels of other recent tragedies in the Stanwood Camano area," Island County Sheriff Mike Hawley said in a prepared statement. "It seems unfair that such a peaceful place would be so inundated by violence. Unfortunately this is the trend in rural areas as they become more suburbanized."

-- In November, a Camano Island man pleaded guilty to defrauding 350 Quaker church members out of millions of dollars in a health-insurance scam.

-- In October, three pygmy goats were found mutilated, suggesting a cult ritual.

-- In September, a Camano teenager known to have a troubled past raped and murdered a 12-year-old girl in Stanwood while she baby-sat five children.

-- In July, a 13-year-old girl gave birth in an outhouse to a baby her 20-year-old stepbrother fathered. Together, they buried the newborn, who was alive at birth, in the woods.

-- Also in July, 16-year-old identical twin brothers from California visiting their mother were killed when their car struck a tree.

-- In July 1996, a flight attendant from Camano Island died aboard TWA Flight 800. The cause of the explosion has yet to be solved.

Some bad luck can be blamed. But the frequency of the events has turned the sad into the disturbing.

"In our minds, this murder (of Pearson) was the last straw," said Judy Latner, who works at the Elger Bay Deli and Grocery, a busy crossroads for island residents. "None of us could have ever expected this.

"Everyone works together," Latner said. "You can trade work, or trade work for goods, if you want to pay for something a little bit at a time, you can. We're all honest people.

"Now I feel more nervous, more aware, more cautious."

Resembling a peninsula more than an island, Camano Island is flanked by Port Susan Bay to the east and the Saratoga Passage to the west. Shielded by the Olympics from storms, Camano gets about half as much rain as Seattle. Mountain and water views have lured many retirees, some of whom build their mansions next to neighbors who live in trailer homes. Shopping, stores in Stanwood

All the schools are in Stanwood. The largest commercial enterprise on the island is the Plaza shopping center, tiny by mainland supermarket standards but stocked with all the necessities. You can eat either at Renee's or at the Elger Bay Cafe. The video stores, arcades and strip malls are in Stanwood - just the way Camano Island residents like it.

On a clear or rainy day, Camano Island, hilly and wooded, is beautiful. It is not quaint or chic like so many island or waterfront communities on Puget Sound. Camano does not have Langley's art galleries, Port Townsend's bed-and-breakfast inns, or Bainbridge's gourmet restaurants. It is plain, even stark, reminiscent of the Northwest Gothic theme embodied by grunge rock and to some extent by the "Twin Peaks" and "X-Files" television shows filmed in the the region.

Pearson's house conveys the same mood. It is on a bluff, accessed by a ferociously steep gravel road. Pearson recently added a tall turret to the south end of his blue house, giving it the outline of a medieval castle, and in light of the crime, an ominous face. The Island County Sheriff's Office, aided by the state's crime lab, examined the house all weekend.

More sheriff's deputies added

The sheriff's department has, since 1990, grown from four deputies who knocked off at dinner time to nine deputies who draw shifts around the clock. They have responded to two slayings in the past five years. Before then, no one can remember a previous one.

"It's shocking when it happens here," said Deputy Phil Farr. "This office has been a mellow place to work.

"But we have more full-time residents now and we're getting a lot of commuters. The place has about doubled in size the last six years."

When Jim Joyce's family moved here in 1947, his home did not have a flush toilet or electricity. He was ashamed of their antique furniture, so prized today. You seldom saw a car, which made it difficult for Joyce to hitchhike home after track practice - normal and parent-approved behavior for young people back then. Now a retired Naval aviator, Joyce sells real estate on the island, frequently entertaining urbanites fleeing the cities. Some find Camano too rural.

"They ask where their kids can rent videos, and when they find out they can't, they drive back home," Joyce said.

Places like Camano Island are often called "good places to raise kids," as if the absence of vehicles, steel and concrete and all that they bring is inherently healthier for children.

But the woods have their own hazards. Sometimes all that time and space can lead to no good.

"All these crimes have been in the family," said Bob Nelson, another realtor. "Our crime rate is extremely low. But a few people move out here because they want to live in the woods and do their own thing and . . . sometimes that's because there's something wrong."

Hugo Kugiya's phone message number is 206-464-2281. His e-mail address is: hkug-new@seatimes.com