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LAKE COUNTY – Family members and law enforcement are seeking information about the whereabouts of a missing Fremont couple who stopped in Lake County last weekend.
Ryan Barrett, his girlfriend Viola Liu and their three dogs left home for a camping trip on the afternoon of Saturday, Jan. 16, according to Barrett's uncle, Richard Jenkins of Corte Madera.
“They were scheduled to return home on Monday evening, Jan. 18,” said Jenkins. “We have not heard from them.”
Jenkins said his family filed a missing persons' report with the Fremont Police on Wednesday.
Barrett and Liu, both 31 years old, hadn't given their families a definite destination for their camping trip, according to Jenkins.
Family told Bay Area media that they had found evidence on Barrett's laptop that he had been looking at maps for various areas around Northern California.
The couple haven't answered their cell phones, which go straight to voice mail, according to information issued by the Fremont Police Department.
A small break in the case came when it was discovered that Liu's credit card was used for gas in Upper Lake on Jan. 16, according to Genevieve Glassy, Barrett's stepmother.
Jenkins said his nephew is familiar with the mountains. Barrett had with him a tent, sleeping bags, camping gear, dog food, freeze dried food and water.
“We think they may have been camping in the back country near Upper Lake and were caught in the recent storms,” Jenkins said.
That's a very real concern; Lake County Public Works reported on Friday that a portion of Elk Mountain Road was closed due to heavy snow, and as much as 3 feet of snow had fallen in that area as well as along Bartlett Springs Road. Four wheel drive with chains is required in both areas, where work to reopen the roads isn't scheduled to begin until Monday.
Barrett and Liu are driving a red 2005 Toyota Tacoma pickup truck with a red camper shell; the pickup's license plate number is 7P61451, according to the Fremont Police.
Barrett is a white male, 5 feet, 9 inches tall, 150 pounds, with brown hair and blue eyes. Liu is a Chinese-American woman, standing 5 feet, 7 inches tall, 130 pounds, with brown hair with highlights, and brown eyes.
The three dogs accompanying them include two huskies and a Labrador retriever, Jenkins said.
Jenkins said he'll be in Upper Lake area on Saturday to put up flyers in an attempt to help locate the couple.
Anyone with information about the couple is asked to call the Fremont Police Department at 510-790-6800, or dial 911 to contact local authorities, who also have been notified of the missing couple's possible presence in the county, Glassy said.
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were injured in a head-on traffic collision that occurred Friday afternoon near Kelseyville.
Gregory Austin, 42, of Clearlake, Nicolas Chavez, 26, of Hidden Valley Lake, and 30-year-old Clearlake resident Sunny Gardner sustained injuries in the crash, which occurred just before 3 p.m. Friday, according to California Highway Patrol Officer Steve Tanguay.
Austin was driving his 2000 Toyota Corolla southbound on Highway 29, south of the portion of Highway 175 that leads to Cobb. According to the report, as Austin was traveling southbound, he lost control of his vehicle for an unknown reason.
Tanguay said Austin's Toyota crossed over the painted solid double yellow lines and struck the 1997 Ford F-250 truck that was pulling a U-Haul trailer and was driven by Chavez.
The two vehicles came to rest blocking both lanes of traffic of Highway 29 in front of Kelseyville Auto Salvage, Tanguay said.
REACH air ambulance transported Austin to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, where he was treated for two possibly broken legs, Tanguay said. Gardner, a passenger in the Toyota, sustained minor lacerations and complained of pain. Chavez also complained of pain and sustained minor injuries.
All three men were wearing their seatbelts in this collision and the air bag in the Toyota was deployed, said Tanguay.
The CHP said alcohol is not believed to be a factor in this collision.
Officer Jake Bushey is investigating the crash.
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The center was closed last week in order to repair water damage from a leaking pipe, as Lake County News has reported.
ServPro, a company that specializes in fire and water cleanup, had reportedly sent three vans to the center on Thursday. One of the vans, which was left unlocked with the keys inside, was stolen, according to California Highway Patrol Officer Steve Tanguay.
The bright green van with the orange ServePro logo was last seen heading eastbound on Country Club Drive at about 3:30 p.m. Thursday, Tanguay said. On Friday, it still hadn't been recovered.
A CHP officer was dispatched to the center to take a report, Tanguay said.
Anyone with information should call the CHP's Kelseyville office at 279-0103 or call 911.
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Maintaining one’s separate property’s identity is important because at death or divorce it belongs to that one spouse alone. Assets acquired prior to marriage, or received as a gift or inheritance during marriage, are separate property, unless co-mingled and transmuted into community property.
Community property, however, belongs equally to both spouses. It is divided 50-50 at death or divorce. Everything acquired during marriage, particularly marital earnings, is presumed to be community property.
When significant separate property is involved, there are multiple concerns with using a single joint trust.
First, including separate property in a single trust with community property and/or the other spouse’s own separate property, risks losing the separate character of these assets.
The separate property might be sold and the proceeds co-mingled with community property or the other spouse’s separate property. It will be difficult, or impossible, to distinguish the proceeds from the original separate property.
Second, assets in a joint trust will usually be managed by both spouses while they are alive and competent, and thereafter their children or beneficiaries.
That may not be desirable for separate property. The spouse with the separate property may not want to share control and management of the separate property with the other spouse. Also, and more worrisome, is that the stepchildren may later manage the separate property when both spouses are no longer able to manage their affairs.
Third, the surviving spouse, if left in charge of the separate property, may consume the separate property before using their own property – to the detriment of the children of the spouse owning the separate property.
What are the solutions?
The best solution, when substantial separate property assets are concerned, is to create two separate trusts to hold each spouse’s separate property estate. If necessary, a joint trust may be established to hold “community property” assets.
Alternatively, the separate property assets may be held a common trust but be controlled by a “special trustee” appointed by the spouse owning the separate property. Initially that spouse would be the special trustee.
The successor special trustee, who steps in at disability and/or death, would be that spouse’s own children or beneficiaries. The trust would say how the separate property is to be used for the benefit of the contributing spouse, the other spouse, and the children.
Protecting their children, as well as themselves, motivates people to ensure that their separate property is maintained as such, is separately managed, and is separately distributed at death (and not co-mingled with the other spouse’s estate).
Whether to use a separate property trust or use a common trust with a special trustee(s) in charge of separate properties, entails examination of individual circumstances such as the nature of the assets, the size of estate, and the quality of familial relationships involved.
Dennis A. Fordham, attorney (LL.M. tax studies), is a State Bar Certified Specialist in Estate Planning, Probate and Trust Law. His office is at 55 1st St., Lakeport, California. Dennis can be reached by e-mail at
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The storms, which began earlier this week, have turned out to be good news for the county's water supply, with creeks and Clear Lake all noting measurable improvements, according to US Geological Survey gauges stationed around the county.
Clear Lake was reported at 2.72 feet Rumsey late Thursday, having risen from below 1.0 foot Rumsey less than a week ago, the USGS reported.
Traveling along county roads proved challenging in some parts of the county, particularly the Cobb area, which continued to get snow on Thursday. Lake County Public Works reported that chains were required on all county maintained roads in Cobb.
One reader reported that on Thursday morning motorists traveling along Highway 175 between the Cobb school and Loch Lomond were sliding sideways on the road and blocking traffic because they lacked chains or four-wheel drive capability on their vehicles.
The California Highway Patrol reported a jacknifed truck that blocked the roadway between Loch Lomond Road and Harrington Flat Road at around 9:30 a.m. on Highway 175 in the Cobb area, with eight other vehicles reported stuck due to snowy conditions. Over an hour later the road was reopened.
During the course of the day the county's roads department responded to the Cobb area, where they plowed the roads and put down sand.
Throughout the rest of the day, reports would continue to come in about vehicles stuck in the snow or trees down across roadways in the Cobb area, according to the CHP. A noninjury solo vehicle collision reported just before 3:30 p.m. had a vehicle dangling over the embankment on Bottle Rock Road, three miles from Kelseyville.
Other roadway trouble spots around the county on Thursday included Scotts Valley Road near Lakeport, closed between Highway 20 and Laurel Dell Road due to flooding; Rose Anderson Road, from Maria Vista Road to Van Dorn Reservoir Road in the Middletown area, closed due to a downed power pole and lines; and Douglas Terrace in Lucerne, closed because of a downed tree and power lines, according to the roads department.
Snow was reported falling in the Bartlett Springs and Elk Mountain Road areas, where roads were open. However, county officials urged anyone traveling in those areas to have chains and four-wheel drive.
Also on Thursday, power outages continued in Cobb.
Jana Morris, a spokesperson for Pacific Gas & Electric Co., reported that two separate outages affecting nearly 700 customers were reported at about 2:30 p.m.
Both outages appeared to be storm related, Morris said. Power was restored later in the evening.
To see some of Thursday's snow fall in Cobb, see area resident Roger Kinney's video at www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_grz-TEjFI .
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SONOMA COUNTY – A Santa Rosa man who disappeared from work last week appears to have gone missing on his own, and now is wanted on embezzlement charges, law enforcement officials reported late Thursday.
Bryan William Scobey, 35, is no longer considered a missing person, but Sonoma County Sheriff's detectives are actively seeking him for allegedly embezzling company property – including a pickup truck – from his employer, Hitmen Termite & Pest Control Inc., according to Sgt. Tim Duke.
Duke said a male subject told authorities that he had driven Scobey to Reno, Nev.
The latest information in the case follows a week of exhaustive work both by authorities and Scobey's friends, who started Facebook and MySpace pages, and even launched a Web site, www.findbryan.com , to help find him. On Thursday, nearly 2,000 people had signed up to be Scobey's friend on Facebook.
His friends also had raised money to hire a private investigator, but Randy Hill and Bob Ramme, who led the effort, reported on the Facebook page Thursday that they were suspending the private investigator.
Late Thursday, Scobey's friends on Facebook shared different reactions, from disbelief to relief that he is alive. Many also were preparing to offer him support and encouragement for when he returns, as well as offering to raise money to assist Scobey's wife and three stepchildren.
Duke said that at approximately 5:21 p.m. Jan. 13 the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office was contacted by a concerned representative of Hitmen Termite & Pest Control Inc. who wanted to check on the welfare of Scobey, one of their employees. Scobey had reportedly worked for the company for several years.
The Hitmen representative reported to the sheriff's office that the company's vehicle assigned to Scobey, a pickup truck, was last known to be in the area of Freemont Drive and Burndale Road in Sonoma.
Several deputies were summoned to check the area in an attempt to locate Scobey or his company vehicle, Duke said. The Sonoma County Sheriff's Office helicopter, “Henry-1,” assisted in the search.
During the intensive four-hour search for Scobey, several law enforcement resources were utilized in an attempt to locate him and his vehicle, Duke said.
The company vehicle Scobey was assigned had a global positioning satellite (GPS) device installed. The GPS company was contacted and was able to establish the last known location of the vehicle and time the GPS stopped functioning, which was at 8:39 a.m. Jan. 13. The area was checked but neither Scobey nor the company vehicle was located.
Scobey had a company cell phone, Duke said. The cell phone carrier was contacted and revealed the last phone call made from Scobey's phone occurred at 8:49 a.m.
Duke said it was apparent that the GPS and cell phone, both belonging to the company, had been disabled. Preliminarily, it was unknown if Scobey or another source disabled the devices.
Authorities deemed Scobey's disappearance suspicious and it subsequently became a missing person's case, the investigation of which was delegated to detectives in the Sonoma County Sheriff's Violent Crimes Unit, Duke said.
Detectives continued to use existing law enforcement resources and implemented additional resources in an attempt to locate Scobey and his company vehicle, Duke said.
Investigative leads took detectives to the city of Yreka, in Siskiyou County. Detectives worked with local law enforcement authorities and ascertained that Scobey arrived in Yreka on Jan. 13. He allegedly stopped in Yreka on his way to Portland, Ore. – which is listed as his birthplace on his MySpace page.
Scobey was traveling by himself, driving the company vehicle, and appeared to be in good health, according to the report.
While in Yreka, Scobey ran out of money. Duke's report said that Scobey allegedly sold tools and other items off the company vehicle that belong to Hitmen Termite & Pest Control Inc.
On the night of Friday, Jan. 15, Scobey allegedly befriended what Duke called “an unwitting subject” to drive him to Reno. The subject agreed, and in exchange for driving Scobey to Reno, Scobey told the man that he could keep the Hitmen Termite & Pest Control vehicle.
Scobey is being sought for embezzlement of a company vehicle and items that he took and sold without the permission of his employer, Duke said.
Duke said that the Hitmen truck was located and will be returned to the company. Several tools and other items Scobey allegedly sold or bartered have also been recovered.
Anyone with information on the case should contact the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office at 707-565-2511.
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