Thief returns cherished chair to Snohomish owner after 4 years

SNOHOMISH — When her late husband’s special chair was stolen in the summer of 2010, Kris Raymond tried to convey its sentimental value to anyone who would listen.

“I just hope they have a conscience,” she told a reporter at the time.

It turned out the thief did, eventually.

Four years later, the Snohomish man made arrangements to have the chair, hand-carved in Africa, returned to Raymond. Soon after the theft, he’d learned that it was a precious symbol of the time, all too short, Raymond got to spend with her husband. Mike Goetz, a retired police officer, died of brain cancer in 2009 at the age of 53.

After they married in 2001, the couple marked their honeymoon by climbing 19,340-foot Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest point. When he retired, they moved to Zimbabwe, where they owned a bed and breakfast and he became a safari guide.

A local craftsman they came to know carved chairs for each of them: leopards for Raymond, and one with a lion, leopard and cape buffalo for Goetz. The couple would sit in them side by side on their deck in Zimbabwe.

After his death, Raymond settled into a home at the end of a cul-de-sac in south Marysville.

She kept her husband’s chair on the front porch, never imagining someone might steal it.

Yet that’s what happened on a Saturday night in July 2010.

The next morning, Raymond got up to water the lawn and noticed that the chair’s usual spot on the front porch was empty.

She was devastated. Police took a report. She told her story to newspaper and television reporters.

Time passed. Raymond moved to Snohomish. Just in case, she reserved a spot for her husband’s chair, near hers, in the dining room.

Earlier this month, David Rose, a Q13 Fox News anchor and host of Washington’s Most Wanted, received a phone message from the man who stole the chair. The thief wanted to return it anonymously.

After checking with police and with Raymond, arrangements were made to do just that.

Raymond didn’t want to see the man prosecuted. She just wanted her chair back.

On Wednesday, Rose lugged the African hardwood up a flight of stairs.

“You got your chair back,” Rose told her. “We are just a medium.”

Raymond was delighted.

“I knew that chair would find its way home,” she said. “It was just meant to be. That’s the type of guy Mike was.”

The man who stole the chair said he has long felt the guilt of his actions. He is 37. He describes himself as a recovering methamphetamine addict who used to steal “anything not nailed down” from front porches. He’d been in Marysville that night in 2010 to score some drugs and ended up on Raymond’s doorstep between 1 and 3 a.m. He remembered hearing a dog bark before racing off.

He’d planned to give the chair away as a present, but friends wanted no part of it. They told him he was wrong to have it.

His guilt grew as he worked toward sobriety. The clearer his thoughts became, the harder it was to shove unpleasant memories to the back of his mind. The chair embodied the bad he had done.

He knew he had to return it.

“I wanted her to know it was hers again,” he said. “I couldn’t imagine her pain.”

Raymond heard his voice over a cellphone speaker Wednesday afternoon. She said she could feel the sorrow in his voice.

The way Raymond sees it, the chair might have done the thief some good.

“He got to know Mike in a way no one else would have,” she said. “Mike would give everybody a second chance. He is working his wonders even though he was not even here.”

Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446, stevick@heraldnet.com

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Local News

A firefighter stands in silence before a panel bearing the names of L. John Regelbrugge and Kris Regelbrugge during the ten-year remembrance of the Oso landslide on Friday, March 22, 2024, at the Oso Landslide Memorial in Oso, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘Flood of emotions’ as Oso Landslide Memorial opens on 10th anniversary

Friends, family and first responders held a moment of silence at 10:37 a.m. at the new 2-acre memorial off Highway 530.

Julie Petersen poses for a photo with images of her sister Christina Jefferds and Jefferds’ grand daughter Sanoah Violet Huestis next to a memorial for Sanoah at her home on March 20, 2024 in Arlington, Washington. Peterson wears her sister’s favorite color and one of her bangles. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
‘It just all came down’: An oral history of the Oso mudslide

Ten years later, The Daily Herald spoke with dozens of people — first responders, family, survivors — touched by the deadliest slide in U.S. history.

Victims of the Oso mudslide on March 22, 2014. (Courtesy photos)
Remembering the 43 lives lost in the Oso mudslide

The slide wiped out a neighborhood along Highway 530 in 2014. “Even though you feel like you’re alone in your grief, you’re really not.”

Director Lucia Schmit, right, and Deputy Director Dara Salmon inside the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management on Friday, March 8, 2024, in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
How Oso slide changed local emergency response ‘on virtually every level’

“In a decade, we have just really, really advanced,” through hard-earned lessons applied to the pandemic, floods and opioids.

Ron and Gail Thompson at their home on Monday, March 4, 2024 in Oso, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
In shadow of scarred Oso hillside, mudslide’s wounds still feel fresh

Locals reflected on living with grief and finding meaning in the wake of a catastrophe “nothing like you can ever imagine” in 2014.

Lynnwood
Crash in Lynnwood fully blocks Highway 99

The crash, on Highway 99 at 176th Street SW, fully blocked southbound lanes. Traffic was diverted to 168th Street SW.

The view of Mountain Loop Mine out the window of a second floor classroom at Fairmount Elementary on Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
County: Everett mining yard violated order to halt work next to school

At least 10 reports accused OMA Construction of violating a stop-work order next to Fairmount Elementary. A judge will hear the case.

Imagine Children's Museum's incoming CEO, Elizabeth "Elee" Wood. (Photo provided by Imagine Children's Museum)
Imagine Children’s Museum in Everett will welcome new CEO in June

Nancy Johnson, who has led Imagine Children’s Museum in Everett for 25 years, will retire in June.

Kelli Littlejohn, who was 11 when her older sister Melissa Lee was murdered, speaks to a group of investigators and deputies to thank them for bringing closure to her family after over 30 years on Thursday, March 28, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘She can rest in peace’: Jury convicts Bothell man in 1993 killing

Even after police arrested Alan Dean in 2020, it was unclear if he would stand trial. He was convicted Thursday in the murder of Melissa Lee, 15.

Ariel Garcia, 4, was last seen Wednesday morning in an apartment in the 4800 block of Vesper Dr. (Photo provided by Everett Police)
Search underway to find missing Everett child, 4

Ariel Garcia was last seen Wednesday morning at an apartment in the 4800 block of Vesper Drive.

The rezoned property, seen here from the Hillside Vista luxury development, is surrounded on two sides by modern neighborhoods Monday, March 25, 2024, in Lake Stevens, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Despite petition, Lake Stevens OKs rezone for new 96-home development

The change faced resistance from some residents, who worried about the effects of more density in the neighborhood.

Rep. Suzan DelBene, left, introduces Xichitl Torres Small, center, Undersecretary for Rural Development with the U.S. Department of Agriculture during a talk at Thomas Family Farms on Monday, April 3, 2023, in Snohomish, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Under new federal program, Washingtonians can file taxes for free

At a press conference Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene called the Direct File program safe, easy and secure.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.