Thousands mourn slain Forest Service officer

PORT ANGELES, Wash. – Gov. Chris Gregoire joined more than 3,000 mourners Monday at a memorial service for slain U.S. Forest Service Officer Kristine Fairbanks.

The 51-year-old was shot and killed Sept. 20 while on duty in Olympic National Forest.

Hundreds of fellow law enforcement officers attended the memorial, the Peninsula Daily News reported.

Gregoire described Fairbanks as the “true definition of a peace officer.”

“She was incredibly brave, working alone in the woods,” Gregoire said. “She knew everybody, and they knew her.”

Fairbanks patrolled more than 300,000 acres of public lands on the Olympic Peninsula with only her K-9 partner, Radar.

Investigators believe 36-year-old Shawn Roe killed Fairbanks at the Forest Service’s Dungeness Forks Campground about six miles south of Sequim.

Investigators think Roe also shot and killed a Sequim-area retiree, 59-year-old Richard Ziegler, later that day.

Sheriff’s deputies shot and killed Roe outside a convenience store that same day.

The 22-year veteran officer is survived by her husband, Brian, who works for the state Fish and Wildlife Department, and their 15-year-old daughter, Whitney.

Roe was wanted by the Washington Department of Corrections for failing to show up at an August meeting with his probation officer. He was convicted in 2007 of unlawful imprisonment, a felony, and malicious mischief, a gross misdemeanor, said Chad Lewis, a Corrections Department spokesman.