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RichardSwlnsommurder
TODAYS RiADERDO ARD
TUD
Board votes out disc golf course
BRIEFING
Sonora couple gets 'peace of
By GUY McCARTHY The Union Demoerat
mind' after sentencing
The Tuolumne Utilities Districtboard of directors voted 3-1Tuesday night to engage legal counsel for removal of adisc golfcourse setup on TUD property at Sierra Pines in Twain Harte. Directors Ron Ringen, John Maciel and Ji m G r innell voted for the measure, while Ron Kopf opposed it and Kent Johnson was absent. About a dozen people who care about the discgolfcourse attended the TUD boardmeeting. Disc golf enthusiasts started the course over the past six years on the Sierra Pines property without TUD permission or authorization, but until now it has been tolerated, according to district staff. In thepast year,discgolfat the site has gained popularity and district management
By ALEX MacLEAN
Golden Regiment tour
The Union Demoerat
— The Sonora High School Golden Regiment band performed at elementary schools last week during its annual feeder school tour.A2
A Californiaman found guilty lastyearforthe 1980 murder of a Sonora couple's teenage son in South Lake Tahoe was sentenced to life in prison without paroleMonday in El Dorado County Superior Court. Andrew Sanford, 53, of Carmichael, was ordered to spend the restof his life behind bars for killing 16-year-old Richard Swanson during a robbery at a South Lake Tahoe gas station in the early hours of Aug. 14, 1980. Sanford was arrested in 2012 after DNA evidence
SpellingBER —Results from the 40th annual Dr. June McOmber Junior High Spelling Bee held last at Curtis Creek Elementary School.A3
CBtSand DOgS — A list of animals available for adoption from Mother Lode humane societies.A3
Vital Stats — A»stof births, marriages and deaths recorded in Tuolumne and Calaveras counties.A3
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is concerned about events
with large numbers of participants, parking, lack of public toilets, camping and the proximity of the disc golf course to private homes. Anumber of disc golf enthusiastshave organized clean-
was found that connected
him to the crime. The victim's parents, Ron and Sharon Swanson, moved to Sonora in 1983 to get a fresh start with their youngest son, Bob Swanson, who was 8 at the time of his brother's murder. Decades passed, and the case remained unsolved, but the family never gave up their quest for justice. The long wait finally came to an end Monday. "For 34 years, we have felt as though we have been c~ n g a 50-pound ball and chain around our ankle," Sharon Swanson told her son's murderer in a prepared statement she read in court at Monday's sentencing. "Your life will now surely be something you have deserved all these years."
OPlnlOn — Calaveras County Board of Supervisors needs to separate church from state.A4
BUSINESS
• SHOP STILL ROLLIN' ALONG:Jamestown HarleyDavidson celebrates 20 years. B1 • BUSINESS EXPO:Registration open for free event that serves as a kind of conference and seminar for the local business community.B1 • FAMILY FINANCE: Buying a home getting easier.B1 • AWARDS:The Promotion Club of Jamestown installed a new slate of officers and honored citizens and teacher of the year.B2 • LANDTRANSFERS:A list of real estate transactions in Tuolumne County.B2
The crime Richard Swanson had been employed at the South Y Gas Station in South Lake Tahoe for only three weeks leading up to the night he was killed. Swanson left home shortly before midnight on Aug. 13, 1980, to help cover a graveyard shiftfor a coworker, an
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Maggie Beck/Union Democrat
Sharon and Ron Swenson, of Sonora, hold a photograph of their son, Richard Swenson, who was murdered while working at a South Lake Tahoe gas station in 1980. that was supposed to last crimes, such as auto theft only three nights. and breaking and entering. Six hours later, SwanAuthorities considered son's body was discovered Sanford a suspect early inside the back storage in their investigation, but room of the gas station. He never had enough evidence had been beaten and left to to link him to the crime prisuffocate and die, with his or to advancements in DNA head bound in technology. 16 feetofduct Sanford repo r tedly tape. moved away from South South Lake Lake Tahoe on the same Tahoe police day that Swanson's body officers inveswas found. tigated t h e San ford Over the years, the Swancrime scene sons were able to keep tabs and determined $761.02 on Sanford through the Inwas missing from the cash ternet. They would see him register. on social media posing for Sanford, who was 19 at pictures while on cruises the time of the murder, was and dates, but they stayed known to hang around the patient and let the legal gas station and had been process take its course. involved i n s m a ll-time "We're a strong fam-
ily and just never gave up," Ron Swanson said. "It wasn't an option."
Waiting fOr anSWelS The Swansons and other South Lake Tahoe community members established a secret witness program in Richard Swanson's name shortly after he was murdered, in hopes someone would come forward with information that w ould help solve the crime. No one ever came for-
ward with information to capture Swanson's killer, but theprogram stil lexists and has drawn hundreds of tips that have helped solve See SWANSON/Back Page
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Clinton: Inclusive problem-solving key
NEWS: editor@uniondemocrat.com
The Associated Press
FEATURES: featuresIuniondemocrat.com
Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tuesday that if she decides to seek the White House again she would try to bring Republicans from red states and Democrats in blue states into a "nice, warm, purple space" that would encourage problem-solving. Clinton, the leading Democratic contender should she run, referred
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to her likely presidential campaign in hypothetical t erms during an interview on stage at a women's conference in Silicon Valley. But she said anyone who mounts a campaign for president in 2016 should Cli oton make economic growth and restoringrising wages top priorities, along with rebuilding trust and
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cooperation in the nation.
"I'd like to bring people from right and left, red, blue, get them into a nice, warm, purple space where everybody is talking and where we're actually trying to solve problems. That would be my objective," Clinton said at a paid appearance before the Watermark Silicon Valley Conference for Women.
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Friday:High 61, Low 40
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By AUSTEN THIBAULT The Union Democrat
The Calaveras County Board of Supervisors at a meeting Tuesday took no actionon acontroversialproposal to drain Tulloch Reservoir or on a recent lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union. The board took no action Tuesday — except to schedule a special meeting next week — on last week's announcement by Oakdale Irrigation District that it could drain Tulloch Reservoir to meet federal water-flow mandates to save salmon during the drought. A handful of citizens called on the board for immediate actionagainst the water
flows. Don Wells, a Tulloch-area resident, called the fiows a disaster for the county and state
that could set a dangerous precedent. He said some independent studies showed that hundreds of billions of gallons SeeBOARD/Back Page
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Tulloch draining concerns Calaveras
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