FRANCKE CASE RESULTS IN SEARCH

Author: PHIL MANZANO - of the Oregonian Staff

Summary: Bags full of property are taken from the mother-in-law of a man police are looking at in the murder case

Investigators in the slaying of Corrections chief Michael Francke reportedly searched a Salem residence last week after arresting a former Oregon State Penitentiary inmate they are looking at in connection with the case.

A source close to the investigation said the former inmate, Frank E. Gable, 30, is being looked at intently by the Oregon State Police team investigating the Francke slaying. The source told The Oregonian that Gable has failed a lie-detector test and matches one of three composite pictures released in the case.

The source stopped short of calling him a suspect.

Marion County District Attorney Dale Penn would not comment Friday on whether Gable was being investigated, and Gable declined to be interviewed.

Police searched the home of Gable's mother-in-law, Lynne Studer of Salem, after arresting Gable in Coos County last week on charges unrelated to the Francke case. No information was available on what was found in the search.

Francke, 42, was stabbed to death Jan. 17 outside the Corrections Department in the Dome Building, which is on the Oregon State Hospital grounds in Salem. No one has been charged in connection with the crime.

Gable was arrested Sept. 15 in Coos County on a grand jury indictment for third-degree assault and probation violation in connection with an attack on his wife, Janyne Gable. He is being held in the Coos County Jail in Coquille on $100,000 bail.

The Marion County district attorney's office, however, confirmed that investigators had filed an affidavit for a search warrant under Gable's name in Marion County. The document was ordered sealed by a judge, and officials refused to release any information about it.

Such an affidavit normally would list what investigators hoped to find under a search warrant.

The same day Gable was arrested, a team of investigators reportedly searched the home of Studer, mother of Janyne Gable, for about two hours beginning between 6 and 7 p.m.

Studer would not comment about the search when contacted Friday.

However, Studer's daughter, Noreen Ferris, said Studer told her investigators searched the home and left with bags full of property. Ferris said she did not know what was seized by investigators, who had been told that Janyne and Frank Gable had stored some property at the residence. Noreen Ferris and Janyne Gable are sisters.

In addition, Ferris said, state police showed Studer composite sketches and she told them one of the sketches looked similar to Gable. On Aug. 31, investigators released three composite drawings of people seen around the Dome Building the day Francke was killed. They said they wanted the individuals for questioning only.

Meanwhile, Gable was re-indicted at 10:30 a.m. Friday by a Coos County grand jury on a charge of second-degree assault stemming from the same incident that led to his initial indictment Sept. 15 on a third-degree assault charge.

The new indictment added that Gable ``did cause physical injury to Janyne Margaret Vierra-Gable by means of a dangerous weapon. . . .''

Coos County Deputy District Attorney Stephen Keutzer said after the arraignment that the ``dangerous weapon'' was a piece of glass from a broken plate.

Judge Robert Warberg complied with Keutzer's request that bail be increased from $15,000 to $100,000.

``I asked for a high bail because he has a background of violence,'' Keutzer said of Gable.

Keutzer also said he knew of no plans to move Gable, who is set to enter a plea to both the assault charge and the probation violation charge at 9 a.m. Oct. 9.

Also Friday, Francke's brothers, Pat and Kevin, returned to Oregon this week to appear Sunday on a ``Town Hall'' television special on Portland television station KATU (2).

``We're encouraged by any new development,'' Pat Francke said Friday.

Francke's widow, Bingta, said Friday she did not recognize either Gable name, although she and Michael Francke often supported a drug-treatment program that Gable was enrolled in.

She said they had bought plants that inmates had grown in a greenhouse behind the Oregon State Hospital building, where the Cornerstone program is located.

Bingta Francke, who now lives in Fresno, Calif., was in Salem this week to testify before a special Marion County grand jury meeting to hear evidence in the case. She would not say what she told the grand jury but said coming to Salem and testifying was a ``positive, but emotional experience.''

When she arrived in Salem she made an early morning trip, about 2:30 a.m., to the Dome Building where Francke was killed.

``I did go by the office and sit up there on the porch . . . just to see what it is like at that time,'' she said.

Francke was killed about 7 p.m. Jan. 17 but his body was not found until after midnight by an Oregon State Hospital employee making a routine check of the grounds. Earlier in the evening, some late-working corrections employees searched the Dome Building for Francke after they found his car door standing open in the parking lot but did not find him.

Since January, investigators have considered several possible theories about Francke's slaying, including robbery and revenge. Francke's family has raised questions that Francke may have been killed because he uncovered an ``organized criminal element'' within the prison system. However, Penn has said that investigators have found no evidence to support that theory.

Police also have questioned an Oregon State Penitentiary inmate, Johnny Lee Crouse. Crouse was on temporary leave from the penitentiary when Francke was killed. He became the focus of intense police interest in April but has denied in published reports being involved with the crime.