Two local women charged with attack, kidnapping of a Pocatello woman
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POCATELLO — Two women accused of attacking another woman in her home then dumping her in Fort Hall have been charged with multiple felonies.
Shannon Del Wetchie and Vandalia Rose Farmer have each been charged with felonies for aggravated assault and second-degree kidnapping, court records show. Wetchie has also been charged with a felony for possession of methamphetamine and a misdemeanor for possession of drug paraphernalia.
Pocatello police received a call from a Fort Hall police officer on the morning of Feb. 8, according to an affidavit of probable cause. The Fort Hall officer told the Pocatello officer that a woman was attacked somewhere in Pocatello before being dropped off in the Ross Fork area.
The woman was rushed to Portneuf Medical Center for immediate medical care, the affidavit says.
Officers spoke with the victim inside the emergency room at PMC. Police reports note that the victim was “severely injured” with cuts and bruising to her face, neck and arms.
The victim, who the affidavit shows struggled to speak with officers, said she was afraid to report what had occurred “for fear of retaliation.”
She told the officer that she was asleep at her home on East Clark Street when she was awakened and beaten by two women. The women beat her, then drove her to Fort Hall where they dumped her, she believed, to die.
The victim said she was kicked and punched, then dragged into the living room of her home where she was further beaten and stepped on. At one point, she told officers, one of the women choked her by the neck until she passed out.
When the beating was done, the victim said, the women forced her to clean the blood off her face. Then she was “taken hostage” and forced into a vehicle.
Once inside the car, she believed the women were going to “finish what they started,” she told officers, and feared for her life.
After speaking with the victim at the hospital, officers went to her home to collect evidence. Upon entering the home, officers “immediately” noticed blood and chunks of hair on the carpet and wall in the living room.
They also spoke with a witness, who said he heard the disturbance but did not know exactly what was going on.
Officers contacted the FBI for assistance identifying and locating the women involved.
The officers and an FBI agent created a photo lineup, which included six people matching the description of the women provided by the victim. The victim picked Wetchie from the lineup, saying, “That one is the one that assaulted me.”
Wetchie was arrested on Feb. 16 following a traffic stop on the 1100 block of West Quinn Road. Wetchie refused to answer any questions at the time of her arrest and was taken to Bannock County Jail.
When she was arrested, officers allegedly found Wetchie in possession of methamphetamine and a meth pipe.
The FBI agent spoke with a second woman identified, by name, by the victim. She provided the agent with a story that corroborated the victim’s account, naming Farmer as the second woman involved.
Farmer was arrested but has not been booked into Bannock County Jail.
Though Wetchie and Farmer have been charged with these crimes, it does not necessarily mean they committed them. Everyone is presumed innocent until they are proven guilty.
If they are found guilty, Wetchie would face up to 38 years in prison while Farmer would face up to 30 years.
Both are scheduled to appear in court for preliminary hearings on Feb. 27.