Driver in crash still not talking

The Deer Park man involved in a crash that killed five children last year still won’t talk to Washington State Patrol detectives, but it’s his right not to, officials said Monday.

“He’s not doing anything wrong by not talking to us,” said Sgt. Ken Wade, a supervisor for the detectives’ unit. “It’s his constitutional right,” he said, referring to the Fifth Amendment right to remain silent.

But investigators aren’t letting Clifford Helm’s silence stop them from pursuing the investigation.

Helm, 56, was the driver of the truck that collided head-on with 38-year-old Jeffrey Schrock’s truck on Nov. 1. The two drivers were on Highway 395 when Helm’s truck crossed the median of the four-lane highway into the Chewelah resident’s path. Schrock’s five children, ages 2 to 12, were pronounced dead at the scene.

Helm retained an attorney, Carl Oreskovich of Spokane, who has refused several requests to speak with the State Patrol detectives. Oreskovich did not return two phone messages left by a reporter at his office.

The crash is considered Spokane County’s most deadly in recent memory. But what led to the deaths of Jeffrey and Carolyn Schrock’s five children remains unknown.

“Routinely, when we are at a scene we know with some reasonable assertion why it happened,” Wade said. “This was not the typical collision.”

The absence of Helm’s side of the story has made it difficult.

“We are looking at all the possibilities because he hasn’t talked to us to rule any of them out,” Wade said.

A sample of Helm’s blood has been evaluated, but Wade could not say what the test revealed.

Investigators are also looking into whether the crash could have been caused by something mechanical on Helm’s truck because of information that he’d recently had work done on it.

“We are trying to track down where and what type of work was done,” Wade said. “Again, we can’t talk to him (Helm) to find out.”

“We are working on it every day,” Wade said. “We still have a lot of research to get done.”

Detectives have interviewed Schrock and witnesses about the crash. They also searched Helm’s Deer Park residence in November.

“We are in the reconstruction phase of the investigation: the behind-the-scenes work,” Wade said.

Investigators do have time on their side, and they want to make sure the case is solid when and if it goes to the Spokane County prosecutor’s office.

The statute of limitations for issuing a traffic citation is a year and a day, Wade said. It’s longer than that for other, more serious charges, including vehicular homicide.

A detective with Washington State Patrol is in contact with the Schrock family weekly to keep them apprised of the investigation.