o Suspect in stabbing has extensive criminal history
o Yancey appears in court on murder charge
A daylong dragnet for a homicide suspect in west Vancouver on Thursday ended about 8 miles away on the porch of a mobile home on the east side of town.
The arrest of Jack Raymond Yancey, 57, ended a 20-hour investigation and manhunt that began with the reported stabbing of Gary L. Adams in Vancouver’s Hough neighborhood.
Yancey was arrested at 5:36 p.m. at Acres Mobile Estates, 13401 N.E. 28th St., according to the Vancouver Police Department. The mobile home park is adjacent to the Evergreen Public Schools administrative complex, in the Landover-Sharmel neighborhood.
A police officer spotted a man matching Yancey’s description going up the steps to a mobile home, then doing the same thing at another mobile home.
He gave the officer the name Jack Yancey, and matched the description for the suspect in a fatal stabbing, including the tattoos and clothing, according to emergency radio traffic monitored at The Columbian.
After being questioned by detectives, Yancey was arrested and booked into the Clark County Jail on Thursday night on suspicion of first-degree murder.
A female who was arrested at the residence where Yancey was found was taken into custody on outstanding warrants not related to the homicide investigation, a VPD bulletin said.
It remains unclear how Yancey managed to elude an elaborate police dragnet and end up across town, despite the fact his car was found around 11 a.m.
All available police converged on the Hough neighborhood after a reported sighting of a man accused of the fatal Wednesday night stabbing.
The manhunt centered in an approximately 10-block area west of the Clark County courthouse and between Mill Plain and Fourth Plain boulevards, including the BNSF rail yard. West Mill Plain Boulevard and some neighborhood streets were closed to traffic in the area as police hunted for Yancey. All the streets reopened to traffic around 5 p.m.
A witness called 911 about 10 p.m. Wednesday to report that someone had been stabbed at 900 W. 16th St. and reported that the victim was unconscious and barely breathing, according to emergency traffic monitored by The Columbian.
Police identified the victim as Gary L. Adams, 50, of Vancouver.
Wanda Lonergan, 48, lives at the residence where the stabbing occurred. She said that she was watching television Wednesday night when she heard screaming outside.
“I ran downstairs, came outside, and that’s when I realized there’s a lot more going on than I thought was going on,” she said. “I saw my friend lying dead next to his truck.”
Lonergan said she had been friends with Adams for more than 15 years and knows Yancey, too. The victim had been visiting the house and was on his way to get in his vehicle to leave when the altercation occurred, she said.
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