GOOD NEWS REAL NEWS HOMETOWN NEWS
SINCE 1889 Making Communities Better Through Print.™ VOL. CXXXIII, NO. XLVIII
THURSDAY, MAY 11, 2023
pasoroblespress.com • $1.00 • WEEKLY
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Retired Derby Day Wine Fest brings out detective an eclectic hat parade reflects
INVESTIGATION
on Nancy Woodrum murder case Clint Cole discusses the NANCY WOODRUM investigation and resolution five years after he Kristin Smart case, closing it after 26 years. While off duty caught the case at home on May 5, 2018, he By CAMILLE DEVAUL camille@pasoroblespress.com
Steve Baker and Cheryl Armstrong, who won the Best Hat contest at the Derby Days Wine Fest with her “smoking” pink flamingo hat. Photo by Camille DeVaul/PRP
Martina and Joe Kingman win bestdressed couple among other contest winners
stirred the creative and whimsical spirit of Paso Robles-area locals. Consider the hat alone: a smoking pink flamingo tucked among giant roses adorned one wide-brimmed hat. A split By MIRA HONEYCUTT of Champagne with a glass Guest Contributor adorned another hat. Men in PASO ROBLES — The flashy jackets accented their second annual Derby Day attire with bow ties and a few Wine Fest at Windfall Farms cowboy hats were spotted in the
crowd of some 200 attendees. A fundraiser for Sunrise Rotar y, the haberdashery-themed gathering, held at Windfall’s mare and foaling barn, honored the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs, which was live-streamed in Windfall’s indoor rotunda that afternoon. “We’re as good as last year,”
commented Steve Baker on the attendance. Baker, past two-time president and current secretary of the Rotary Sunrise (so named for its members’ morning meetings), co-chaired the event with Jocelyn Baer. Owned by the Limoneira Company, Ventura County’s CONTINUED ON PAGE A9
EDUCATION
PASO ROBLES — Last Friday marked the five-year anniversary of the murder of Nancy Woodrum. The Paso Robles hairdresser, mother, grandmother, and friend was murdered on Cinco de Mayo in 2018. The Paso Robles Press sat down with recently retired San Luis Obispo County Detective Clint Cole to discuss the case from his point of view. Cole retired from the Sheriff ’s Department on March 10 after over 32 years of service, 10 of those years as a detective. In 2018, he was completing his first year serving as the first detective in the county’s cold case department. He is now famously known as the lead investigator on the
received a call to come out to the suspicious scene of a missing woman’s home. Woodrum lived off Geneseo Road towards the town of Creston. She lived alone in a studio apartment on the property with her daughter in another home there. Another larger home on the property was used as a vacation rental. On the weekend of her disappearance, a wedding party was renting the home. Woodrum was reported missing after not showing up to plans with two of her friends. Her daughter and neighbor checked on the studio, where they found the sliding door open, horses not fed, her belongings and cars there, and blood seen throughout the home. Cole arrived on the scene to CONTINUED ON PAGE A9
FENTANYL AWARENESS
Third annual ‘An Evening of Aloha’ brings fentanyl awareness to the community Event celebrates the life of Emilio Velci, who died of fentanyl poisoning in 2020
By CHRISTIANNA MARKS christianna@pasoroblespress.com
The audience looks on as Kenneth (Kenney) Enney is sworn in as the new trustee on the Paso Robles Joint Unified School District board during its Wednesday, May 9, meeting. Photo by Camille DeVaul/PRP
Enney sworn in as PRJUSD trustee after winning special election sworn in on Tuesday night, May 9. Last week, after the San Luis Obispo County Clerk certified the April 18 Special Election, candidate Kenneth (Kenney) Enney secured the vote. Enney supporters filled By CAMILLE DEVAUL the seats Tuesday night with camille@pasoroblespress.com American flags in hand to PASO ROBLES — A new watch his swearing-in before Paso Robles Joint Unified the closed session. In October School District trustee was 2022, Enney was appointed
to the trustee seat after Chris Bausch left his seat on the board to serve on City Council. The special election was then initiated after a petition was successful in terminating provisionally appointed trustee Enney. Former PRJUSD Trustee Frank Triggs served on the board that appointed Enney.
COMMUNITY
NORTH COUNTY LIFE
Previous appointee secured 54.29 percent of vote, defeating candidate Angela Hollander
NEWS
CONTINUED ON PAGE A9
ATASCADERO — The community gathered at the Pavilion on the Lake for the third annual “An Evening of Aloha” at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 6. The event included a Hawaiian dinner, hula entertainment, a silent auction, and a marketplace with local vendors, including Farron Elizabeth, Bloke, Red Road Leatherworks, Blueberry Jewelry, Body Bean, Stellar by Sabreena, and products from Hawaii provided by Po’s Island Delights. Hosted by The Emilio Velci Share Aloha Project, it was started by Cammie Velci after the fatal fentanyl poisoning of her son, Emilio, in 2020. “We started this, and most of you know my story. My son took a counterfeit Percocet and
passed away on March 9, 2020,” stated Emilio’s mother, Cammie Velci. “He had no intentions of passing away, he had a toothache, and he took Percocet, or what he thought was Percocet, and the person that gave it to him, sold it to him, deceived him into thinking that’s what it was, but it was pure fentanyl. So since then, I decided to raise awareness and spread the
SPORTS
SECTION
San Luis Obispo County District Attorney Dan Dow speaks at the Evening of Aloha event to raise awareness of the fentanyl crisis. Photo by Rick Evans/PRP
message of what is going on in our community and in our state, and in our nation.” Velci has been busy bringing fentanyl awareness to the local community as well as the rest of the nation over the last three years, taking a tragedy and turning it into something beautiful. “What we do at the Emilio Velci [Share] Aloha Project is CONTINUED ON PAGE A9
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