When my brother, Aron Christensen, and his dog, Buzzo, were shot and died in the backcountry in 2022, members of the Lewis County sheriff’s office, coroner’s office and prosecutor’s office each urged my family to keep quiet while they investigated.
At the time, Sheriff Rob Snaza, Coroner Warren McLeod and Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer were in charge of those offices. The 2022 election was right around the corner, with each seeking re-election.
They are now up for election again — except for Sheriff Snaza
Silence was the last thing we should have kept.
Aron’s and Buzzo’s deaths were never just a tragic accident. Lewis County’s law enforcement offices (sheriff, coroner and prosecutor) all knew this, but they failed to do their jobs.
Consequently, no one was ever held accountable, even though the shooter came forward and admitted to shooting Aron and Buzzo within 24 hours after their bodies were discovered.
Instead of pursuing justice, county officials fabricated lies and misdirected us to cover up their own errors.
It started right away.
Lewis County Deputy Andrew Scrivner was called to Walupt Lake in East Lewis County after hikers discovered Aron’s and Buzzo’s bodies a mile and half from the trailhead on the Walupt Lake Trail.
Those hikers knew something was suspicious — they saw an obvious gunshot wound in Aron’s abdomen, and Buzzo was dead beside him. They told Deputy Scrivner this information.
But dispatch records show that Deputy Scrivner was determined to “pack” Aron out, despite the witnesses’ reports, and even before Scrivner arrived at Aron’s location. Those same records show that Scrivner’s superiors ordered him to secure the scene if he observed anything suspicious and informed him that detectives were on their way.
When Scrivner arrived on the scene, he did not tell his superiors that a deceased puppy was next to Aron. Instead, Scrivner reported that there was nothing suspicious and no need for detectives to come to the scene. Scrivner then destroyed the crime scene by having volunteers wrap Buzzo and Aron in a tarp and hauling them down the trail. Scrivner’s superiors later endorsed his conduct.
Coroner McLeod also tried to justify Scrivner’s conduct by telling our family that the coroner’s office does not allow its staff to undertake dangerous search and rescues. This was not a dangerous search and rescue. Families hike the Walupt Lake trail with children. And, two days after Aron’s discovery, Deputy Coroner Dana Tucker hiked to the scene to reconstruct it. If it was against policy for coroner staff to go there, why did she go there? More importantly, why is the coroner pushing this very lame excuse?
The day after Aron was found, the shooter’s father admitted to the sheriff that he gave his then 19-year-old son a gun. The son admitted that he shot that gun, hitting Buzzo and Aron.
With the shooter’s admissions, they had probable cause to gather cellphones, the backpacks taken on the trail, and other evidence. But the sheriff never applied for a search warrant to get the other evidence.
What would have happened if the crime scene was not destroyed? What would have happened if the sheriff sought a basic search warrant?
Sheriff’s office personnel assigned to this case later learned that my brother’s wallet was missing, and possibly stolen, from the scene. Still, when they learned this fact, they again did nothing.
Prosecutor Meyer had already closed his file — citing investigatory errors (not a lack of evidence) — and saw no reason to reopen it. The conflict of interest within this case is glaring. Lewis County’s law enforcement team was more concerned with protecting themselves than finding the truth for my brother and his puppy.
Some internet sleuths have produced records suggesting financial and family links connecting the suspect’s family to the agency leading the investigation. We have never heard the sheriff respond to those allegations. And the sheriff certainly did not hand the case off to preserve integrity after his department’s personnel committed egregious errors. Instead, these elected officials held onto it and ensured zero real consequences occurred.
Manslaughter might be a complex conviction, but what about the obvious, undeniable crimes? The suspects admitted to abandoning Aron and his dog after shooting them. They admitted that they failed to render aid or otherwise seek help from the hundreds of campers who were only a mile and half away.
Why were they never charged with any of the lesser, fully prosecutable offenses that would have actually stuck? Why didn’t the sheriff or prosecutor take any legal action after the father admitted that he gave his 19-year-old son a loaded gun to take into the woods, which apparently violated gun laws?
Instead, law enforcement bought the absurd claim that the dad asked his son to bring him the gun so they could go “bear hunting” with a pistol.
After years of conducting our own investigation (something no victim’s family should have to do), we asked public officials to change their procedures to prevent any other families from having to go through what we went through.
We wrote to two governors. We met with Prosecutor Meyer (he showed up in a sweatsuit). We talked to detectives. We talked to the coroner. We wrote the Lewis County Board of Commissioners.
We asked the Washington State Police Training Commission to investigate. Our request was made in April 2025. We understand it is stuck in “intake” and that we should not expect a response anytime soon. We asked the Lewis County attorney for help, after he told our pro bono lawyers not to speak to any employee of Lewis County. He ignored us, too.
We pointed all of these government officials to former King County law enforcement officials, Kathy and John Decker, who specialize in training law enforcement to investigate wilderness crimes.
All of our requests — every single one of them — have been disregarded.
The prosecutor, sheriff and coroner are elected officials. That means that only your vote can hold them accountable. I ask you to consider carefully whether you want to vote for Snaza’s endorsed candidate, re-elect Coroner McLeod or re-elect Jonathan Meyer when so many questions remain unanswered.
The voters of Lewis County deserve public servants who actually enforce the law, not officials who protect their friends and cover up failures when an election is on the line.
It is time for voters to demand basic integrity and elect leadership that respects the rule of law for everyone, not just a chosen few.
Thank you for your consideration.
Corey Christensen is the brother of Aron Christensen, who was shot and killed along with his dog in August 2022.
