By Kiera Morgan

At approximately 5:48 on the morning of August 5th 2016 Willamette Valley Communications Center received a report of a fire at the City Center Motel on Hwy 101 in Newport. After a very long investigation into that fire  the Lincoln County District Attorney on a secret indictment had 39-year old Rebecca Joanne Sinclair extradited and lodged at the Lincoln County jail.

Sinclair was arraigned yesterday afternoon by Judge Paulette Sanders and was charged with 4 counts of manslaughter in the  second degree, 4 counts of criminally negligent homicide, reckless burning and 7 counts of recklessly endangering another person.  The first eight charges are felonies.

The motel was fully engulfed in flames and fire personnel, police and emergency crews quickly went to work to get all the guests out of the burning motel. Three  people were taken to Samaritan Pacific Communities Hospital two with minor injuries and another guest was transferred to Legacy Emanuel burn center in Portland for burns and smoke inhalation.

 At around 4pm Fire crews found the bodies of 51-year old Tammi Sue Heppner and 63-year old Allen A. Heppner of Portland. About 4 hours later fire crews discovered the deceased bodies of 60-year old Sandra K. Shoemaker and 64-year old Danny K. Shoemaker both of Springfield. Sinclair is being held on a $750,000 bail and is scheduled for an early resolution conference on May 22nd. The D.A’s office has not released information to the public as to why they feel Sinclair is responsible for the fire. As soon as more information is available we will post it.