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S A T U R D AY, M A R C H 1 7 , 2 0 0 7

Parents of baby arrested

TOP STORIES
Dangerous
pet food?
A maker of dog and cat food sold
under Wal-Mart, Safeway, Kroger
and other store brands recalled its
Boy died of overdose after
wet “cuts and gravy” style pet
food Friday after reports of kidney
being given adult sedatives
failure and deaths. SEE A4 BY VANESSA HO AND BRAD WONG
P-I reporters
Soon after their baby died,
Lorrie Peck and Thomas Boett-
ger created a caring Web site to
help parents who’ve lost a baby
to SIDS. They offered inspira-
tional writings and links to sup-
port groups. They presented
their services to create a tender,
yearlong “tribute page” for griev-
ing parents, for a suggested do-
nation of $100.
They wrote of their own an-
guish, of finding 6-month-old
Thomas Michael Boettger Jr. – or
“Boo-Boo Man” as they called
their son – still and blue in his
crib last October.
“The unanswered questions
that SIDS leaves behind are diffi-
cult in their own,” the couple
A LETHAL DOSE
Toxicology report:
wrote on their Web site.
Except that baby Thomas did
Six-month-old Thomas
Michael Boettger Jr.
not die of SIDS, or sudden infant suffered a fatal dose of two
death syndrome, according to a sedatives – Unisom and
San Diego County medical ex- Benadryl or Sominex. He
aminer. He died of an overdose
also was given Zantac.
of two kinds of sedatives given to
him by his father, the examiner Official cause of death:
said. Acute doxylamine and
Seattle police arrested the diphenhydramine
couple on a fugitive warrant ear-
intoxication.
SEE BABY, A6 TLCLIMITED.COM

Felt like a ‘hit

in the gut’
Valerie Plame told Congress that
White House and State
Department officials “carelessly
Walls closing in on homeowners
and recklessly” blew her CIA
cover in a politically motivated
Foreclosures show creative financing is coming back to haunt market
smear of her husband – a move
that stunned her. SEE A2

No passport
to go to B.C.
The U.S. government will approve
Washington state’s pilot project
for use of enhanced driver’s
licenses, rather than passports, by
Americans crossing the border
into British Columbia. SEE B1

ALSO IN
THE NEWS
NATION/WORLD
“Hazy memories”: The White
House backed off its earlier story
that former White House Counsel
Harriet Miers first raised the idea of
firing U.S. attorneys, saying now
that memories are ”hazy.” A3
School lunches: Millions of
children eat in school cafeterias
that don’t get the twice-yearly
health inspections required to help
prevent food poisoning. A4

SEATTLE
Voter suspicions: A building
industry group asked the U.S.
attorney to investigate possible
voter registration fraud. B1
Peace marches: Anti-war
activists will rally Sunday and PAUL JOSEPH BROWN / P-I
Monday to protest the war in Iraq Devaney White has lived in her Central District home since 1981. Repeated refinancings have boosted what she owes from $35,000 to $382,500, her lawyer says.
on its fourth anniversary. B1
BY AUBREY COHEN Her lawyer, Melissa Huelsman, said it
P-I reporter took months to piece together loan docu- RISING FORECLOSURES
BUSINESS ments – and she still doesn’t know every- The number of home foreclosures rose dramatically last year
Second Life coming: Linden Lab, Devaney White kept getting offers to low- thing. in King County, and U.S. foreclosures have continued to
the creator of Second Life, is er her mortgage payment. According to White’s complaint, some increase in 2007.
“They sent me letters,” she recalled. mortgages came months after previous loans
opening an office in Seattle. C1 Foreclosures Per month in King County
“They showed up and came in. They called and, in June 2002, she signed up for two
Feds subpoena Costco: The me on the phone.” mortgages in three days; the second was re- 700
company was ordered to turn over And White kept buying it, refinancing her scinded when an escrow agent noticed.
home or taking out a second mortgage on it Some of the money went for a new roof 600
documents for an investigation into
10 times between 1998 and 2005 – boosting and to pay off credit card debt, much of which
stock options given executives. C8 the amount she owed from $35,000 to stemmed from her husband’s illness before 500
$382,500, according to a complaint her law- he died in 1997. But tens of thousands of dol-
yer filed as part of her bankruptcy proceed- lars went to fees and prepayment penalties, 400
INDEX ings. according to her complaint.
300
White, a 78-year-old Boeing janitor who “My mortgage kept on going up,” White
TODAY’S WEATHER has owned her home since 1981, sat in her liv- said.
200
Mostly cloudy, light rain at ing room Wednesday below a portrait of one
times. High 57. Low 43. B6 of her sons in a U.S. Marines uniform. Two of A big problem
100
her other three sons were in the Army and her White is part of a growing trend, which
Comics E6,7 husband served in the Navy for more than may be bad news for the economy in general, 0
Crosswords E6,7 two decades. White now supports two sons buyers and homeowners. 2005 2006 ’07
Editorial B5 and a grandson, who all live in her modest Source: RealtyTrac SEATTLE P-I
Horoscope E2 house. SEE HOUSING, A6
Lottery B3
Obituaries B4
Television E8

★★

Seattleites don’t get enough ‘sunshine vitamin’

(FJECD|16000V
The P-I and seattlepi.com reach
1.3 million readers a week in
Western Washington, including
three quarters of a million
Monday through Saturday.
To subscribe, call 206-464-2121.
© 2007 SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
Cloud cover blocks needed vitamin D
BY CHERIE BLACK
P-I reporter
Browsing through the vita-
min aisle at a local Walgreens, a
woman tossed a box of multivita-
min pills into her basket. Listed
among the bevy of nutrients was
vitamin D, which, the woman
admitted, she didn’t really think
twice about.
“It’s just one of the whole list
of things I’m sure I’m not getting
in my diet, so I might as well get
it in the pill,” she said.
She’s right – she’s almost cer-
tainly not getting enough in her
diet. But she’s probably not get-
ting enough from her supple-
ment either. And neither are
most people in Seattle, where
sunshine – a major contributor to
the body’s production of vitamin
D – can be a distant memory dur-
ing much of the winter.
In fact, local experts say Seat-
tleites need far more vitamin D
than the Food and Drug Adminis-
tration’s recommendations –
perhaps twice as many interna-
tional units, and maybe even
more than that.
“Vitamin D is good for bone
health, immune health and can-
cer prevention,” said Kelly Mor-
“Vitamin D is good for
bone health, immune
health and cancer
row, nutrition instructor at Bas-
prevention.”
tyr University. “But most of the
year, we’re just not getting – Kelly Morrow,
enough vitamin D.” nutrition instructor
Often called the “sunshine vi-
at Bastyr University
SEE VITAMIN, A8

P-A 1 CMYK • •
P-A 1 CMYK

• P-A 6
A6 ★★
HOUSING: Some expect things to get much worse in Seattle
FROM A1
Last year, there were 41 per-
cent more foreclosures in King
County and 42 percent more na-
tionally than in 2005, and the
number could get higher, accord-
ing to RealtyTrac data.
The reason? Wall Street in-
vestors poured money into the
booming housing market in re-
cent years and lenders found in-
creasingly creative ways to get it
to borrowers – mortgages with
adjustable rates, or ARMs, mort-
gages with an artificially low
“teaser” payment, loans made
without verifying borrowers’ in-
comes – particularly using sub-
prime mortgages, which are
more expensive loans for those
with poor credit, and in markets
where prices rose faster than
paychecks.
About 20 percent of Seattle
mortgages had adjustable rates
in 2004, according to the most
recent U.S. Census Bureau num-
bers. A Monday report from the
Center for American Progress, a
left-leaning think tank in Wash-
ington, D.C., said subprime loans
made up 17 to 18 percent of U.S.
mortgages issued in 2006 and 13
percent of all outstanding U.S.
mortgages.
“There are huge numbers of
people in foreclosure because of
being in ARMs or being put into
loans that are completely inap-
propriate for them,” said Huels-
man, who specializes in foreclo-
sures.
Although ARMs are the big-
gest problem in Seattle, she said,
she expected more problems
with interest-only loans, which
became popular only in the past
couple of years.
Those most vulnerable are
people like White, who were
talked into a series of ever-more-
expensive loans, and others who
could only barely afford their ini-
tial payments.
When home prices increased
by double-digit percentages in
the past few years, owners could
refinance or at least sell for more
than they owed. That’s chang-
ing.
The non-partisan Center for
Responsible Lending in Durham,
N.C., projected in December that
nearly one in five subprime
mortgages issued in the past two
years would end in foreclosure,
up from one in 10 issued in 2002.
Part of the problem, said Erin
Rearden, a mortgage default
counselor with the Seattle non-
profit Solid Ground, is that many
borrowers don’t understand
their loans.
“A surprising number of peo-
ple don’t even know if they have
an adjustable-rate mortgage or a
fixed, or don’t even know what
their interest rate is,” she said.
The number of foreclosures
Rearden sees is relatively stable,
but those in trouble seem to be in
deeper, she said. “What we’re
seeing now is people who have
permanent reduction in their in-
BABY: Mom says couple
took turns medicating boy
FROM A1
lier this week, after prosecutors
in San Diego charged them with
felony child abuse. Peck and
Boettger, who are both 38 and
last lived in Shelton, pleaded not
guilty Thursday to the fugitive
charge.
According to a police docu-
ment filed in San Diego, where
Thomas Jr. died, the couple told
police their son had colic and
acid reflux and that they often
medicated him with Mylanta
and Sominex, which they
crushed and mixed in water.
On the morning Thomas Jr.
died, the couple was staying at a
relative’s house in San Diego,
when the baby woke up crying
“heavily.” Boettger told police
two versions of giving his son
over-the-counter adult medica-
tions.
He first said he gave his son
Zantac, commonly used for ul-
cers and acid reflux, and a half-
tablet of Sominex, a sleep aid. He
later told police he gave his son
half-pills each of Unisom, Zantac
and Benadryl in syringes and
bottles.
After administering the me-
dications, Boettger laid his son in
his crib. About two hours later,
Peck, thinking the room sounded
too quiet, found him dead. The
San Diego County Medical Ex-
Irish leader backs Bush immigration plan
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON – Irish Prime
Minister Bertie Ahern, at the
White House to celebrate St. Pat-
rick’s Day, said Friday he hopes
Congress will embrace President
Bush’s immigration proposal
that would affect illegal Irish im-
migrants in the United States.
“The resolution of this issue
would mean enormous amounts
to so many Irish men and wom-
en,” Ahern said of the 50,000 to
70,000 illegal Irish immigrants
in the U.S. “I fervently hope that
they will, in the not too distant
• P-A 6
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER ❘ SATURDAY, MARCH 17, 2007
come or no income. They’re six,
seven, eight months behind.”
Just about everyone has refi-
nanced to take equity out of their
homes, she said.
Hitting Wall Street
Foreclosures cost borrowers
their homes and ruin their credit,
but that’s not why they’re mak-
ing news, Huelsman said.
“You’re seeing it because it’s hit-
ting Wall Street.”
Investors were happy until
recent months, when more and
more loans started going bad.
Now, some lenders are failing
and others are scaling back sub-
prime lending. Earlier this
month, five federal financial reg-
ulatory agencies urged subprime
lenders to better ensure borrow-
ers were informed and could af-
ford payments.
White got loans through
some of the biggest names in
mortgage lending and banking,
including New Century, Ameri-
quest, Accredited Home Lend-
ers, Washington Mutual, Chase
and CitiFinancial, according to
her complaint.
Most companies named in
the complaint declined to com-
ment or did not reply to requests
for comment. A Citi spokesman
said in a written reply that
White’s loan had a fixed rate that
was not expensive and would
have fallen under Citi guidelines,
including verification of income
and ability to pay.
Mike Fratantoni, senior di-
rector of single-family research
and economics for the Mortgage
Bankers Association, said in a
January report that he expected
“some modest increases” in de-
linquency and foreclosures na-
tionally, but rising values would
protect borrowers and the mar-
ket.
The increase in foreclosures
wouldn’t be enough to soften Se-
attle’s market, thanks in large
part to area job growth, said
Adam Stein, president of the
Washington Association of Mort-
gage Brokers. He added that
many Seattle homeowners still
have significant equity.
But Huelsman expects things
to get much worse.
“Wall Street is definitely
downplaying how bad it’s going
to be,” she said.
Wider fallout
Tuesday revealed the poten-
tial for bad loans to drag down
the wider economy, when new
data on surging home foreclo-
sures helped send the Dow Jones
industrials sliding 240 points.
If investors limit the money
into the market, getting loans
may get harder just as more fore-
closures boost supply. And that
could cause home prices to dip or
at least not go up as fast.
Stein, whose firm is in Au-
burn, said he’s seeing the mar-
ket’s impact on loans. Six months
ago, he said, he could get 100
percent financing for someone
After administering the
medications, Thomas
Boettger laid his son in
his crib. About two
hours later, Lorrie Peck
found him dead. The
San Diego County
Medical Examiner’s
Office ruled out SIDS as
a cause of death.
aminer’s Office ruled out SIDS as
a cause of death.
Peck later told police that she
and Boettger took turns medicat-
ing their son, and that she had re-
searched the drugs on the Inter-
net to “learn” how to administer
them.
When he died, the baby was
extremely small for his age.
Thomas Jr. had also never re-
ceived an immunization shot,
had bruises on his right arm, and
had seen a doctor just once.
As police investigated the
couple, they began preparing to
flee, according to the court docu-
ment. They asked a neighbor in
Shelton to watch their cat, say-
ing they were going to Mexico or
Canada. They told people they
were running from police.
When Seattle officers arrest-
future, be able to step away from
the shadows and into the sun-
shine of this great country.”
In a traditional trek to the
White House on St. Patrick’s Day,
Ahern gave Bush a bowl of sham-
rocks, a symbol of warm rela-
tions with the U.S.
Ahern said he hoped to talk
with Bush about several chal-
lenges facing the international
community, including poverty,
Middle East peace, global warm-
ing and air transport and trade
liberalization.
Bush also nudged Congress
to pass his guest-worker pro-
More businesses invest in misfortune
But buying foreclosure homes is complicated
BY AUBREY COHEN
P-I reporter
As sad as foreclosures are for those
who lose their homes, more and more
companies see them as an opportunity to
make money and help buyers find a bar-
gain.
This month, the Bellevue technology
services company DepotPoint launched
ForeclosurePoint.com, a service to help
people buy foreclosure homes.
“Foreclosure properties will now be-
come a ‘deal’ for all,” the company pro-
claimed in its news release.
Foreclosure homes can be a deal, but
buyers must understand a complicated
process, search out liens that can be sub-
stantial and arrange financing.
Companies such as Foreclosure-
Point.com offer free access to foreclosure
property listings in King, Kitsap, Pierce,
and Snohomish counties, and detailed
information, access to specialists and fi-
nancing help for a fee.
BY THE NUMBERS
41% 2.9%
King County Washington
increase in home home-loan payments
foreclosures 30 or more days
from 2005 to past due in the last
2006. quarter of 2006.
42% in U.S. 4.95% in U.S.
66th 0.24%
Rank of Seattle Washington loans
among the largest starting foreclosure
100 metro areas process in last
for highest quarter of 2006.
foreclosure rate. 0.54% in U.S.
*Loans for people with poor credit.
Sources: RealtyTrac, Mortgage Bankers Association.
with verified income and poor
credit. Now, people with low
credit scores need 10 percent or
20 percent down payments.
“I think you are going to see
some reduction in the number of
home buyers,” he said. “It’ll be a
negligible difference.”
But Stein worries about talk
of restricting access to loans that
could be risky, but also could be
healthy when used properly.
“What concerns me is they’re
lumping in everything that ap-
pears to be new and different.”
The Center for American
Progress says rising foreclosures
could drag down property values
and make mortgages harder to
get in poor neighborhoods.
The cost of foreclosures to
lenders – which the center
pegged at more than $50,000
each – and Wall Street concerns
ed them Monday, just outside
Northgate Mall, they found
handcuffs and a loaded 9 mm
pistol on Boettger.
“They were panicking,
(thinking) this could have been
misconstrued,” said Jack Miles, a
port commissioner in Shelton
and a friend of the couple. He
said they had told him about
how they had medicated their
son, and that they believed they
had done nothing wrong.
“They didn’t mean to over-
medicate their child, if that’s
what it was. They’re very sorry
for what happened,” Miles said.
“They’re wonderful people. Why
would they want to kill their
son?”
He said the couple had strug-
gled mightily with Thomas Jr.’s
death. At church, Peck, whom he
said was a midwife, had sobbed
at the sound of a baby’s cry and
the pastor’s announcement of re-
cent births.
Miles said Boettger had
bawled to him, “I want my son
back, I want my son back.”
Extradition to San Diego
could take a few months. The
couple are being held in the King
County Jail, each on $1 million
bail.
P-I reporter Vanessa Ho
can be reached at 206-448-8003
or vanessaho@seattlepi.com
gram for immigrants.
“Irish Americans remind us
of our heritage as a nation of im-
migrants and our duty to remain
a welcoming society,” Bush said.
Bush, who wore a green tie
for the occasion, noted contribu-
tions of more than 34 million
Americans who claim Irish an-
cestry. Nine signers of the Decla-
ration of Independence were
Irish.
“St. Patrick’s Day is an occa-
sion that unites two distinct
groups of Americans,” he said.
“Those who are of Irish descent,
and those who wish they were.”
P-A 6
•
“But some people aren’t bothered by that
kind of thing.”
Some businesses are less legitimate.
“There are over 800 homes in King Presenting themselves as foreclosure
County alone that are in some stage of rescuers, some operations promise to
foreclosure,” Prakash Kondepudi, chief help people facing foreclosure but really
executive of DepotPoint, said in a state- end up costing clients money – and
ment. homes, said Melissa Huelsman, a Seattle
ForeclosurePoint isn’t alone. Realty- foreclosure lawyer.
Trac of Irvine, Calif., has established it- “That is actually where I’ve seen the
self as a source of foreclosure data. And, biggest increase in my business in the
in January, DataQuick Information Sys- past two or three years,” she said.
tems of San Diego added foreclosures to On Wednesday, three Washington
the property data it sells. businesses agreed to settle charges that
“With a nationwide surge in mort- they took unfair advantage of people fac-
gage foreclosures, this list complements ing tax foreclosure.
the marketing efforts of users in search of Fiscal Dynamics Inc. and Cumulative
quality leads,” the company said in its LLC, both of Tacoma, and Northwest As-
news release. sets of Seattle told owners they would
Solid Ground, a Seattle non-profit pay off the delinquent taxes so foreclo-
that offers home-buying classes, spends sure could be avoided, offered owners as
more time helping those facing foreclo- little as $200 to transfer a title or interest
sure. in the property and ended up letting the
“I would have a problem making my property go to foreclosure and pocketing
million off of someone else losing their the difference between the taxes owed
home,” said Pam Gates, manager of the and the sale price, according to a state-
organization’s housing counseling and ment from state Attorney General Rob
homelessness prevention programs. McKenna’s office.
FORECLOSURE HELP Urban Development: www.hud.gov/
local/wa/homeownership/foreclosure.
◗ Call your lender and a housing
cfm
9.6% counseling agency certified by the U.S.
Department of Housing and Urban ◗ Washington Department of Financial
Washington
subprime loan* Development. Institutions: dfi.wa.gov/consumers/
guide_home_loans.htm
payments past ◗ Document conversations with your
due in the last lender, and use registered or certified ◗ Solid Ground: 206-694-6766 or
quarter of 2006. solid-ground.org
mail in correspondence.
13.3% in U.S.
◗ Beware of scams, particularly phony ◗ NeighborWorks Center for
1.29% credit counselors or signing over a
deed to someone who promises to
Foreclosure Solutions: nw.org/
network/neighborworksprogs/
Washington take over payments. foreclosuresolutions/
subprime loans
starting ◗ Don’t sign papers you don’t fully ◗ HOPE for Homeowners:
foreclosure. understand. 888-995-HOPE, 995hope.org/
2% in U.S.
Sources: Solid Ground, U.S.
MORE INFORMATION Department of Housing and Urban
SEATTLE P-I
◗ U.S. Department of Housing and Development.
may be behind increasing corpo- complaint alleges to be inaccu- her mortgage.
rate efforts to stave them off. A rate information lenders put on Huelsman is seeking dam-
Wednesday Standard & Poors re- applications to make it look like ages from the lenders, and also is
port said prominent loan compa- White could pay. talking with White and her fam-
nies are starting to take action For example, the complaint ily about selling and moving to
early by, for instance, checking in says an Ameriquest employee an apartment. “She’s going good
with borrowers well before inter- failed to include her income in- right now. But she’s not going to
est rates adjust and opening formation when he took her ap- be able to work forever.”
more options to delinquent bor- plication in 2002, but later a Meanwhile, White said she
rowers. computer-generated version got a new mortgage offer in the
said she made more than $5,800 mail Tuesday.
Back at home a month as a “service tech” at “They said, ‘Don’t worry
White’s family didn’t know Boeing. about anything. We’re going to
about her problem until they no- White said she actually gets take care of you.’ ”
ticed her tax forms, Huelsman about $3,750 monthly from her
said. job, a pension and Social Securi- P-I reporter Aubrey Cohen
As Huelsman dug through ty. For the moment, she’s paying can be reached at 206-448-8362
paperwork, she found what the about $2,500 a month toward or aubreycohen@seattlepi.com.
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P-A 6