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Volume 170 • Issue 61 | 75¢
mtdemocrat.com
Monday, May 24, 2021
Seals gets 25 to life for murder of El Dorado woman Mountain Democrat staff Tanner Michael Seals was sentenced May 10 to 25 years to life in state prison for the 2018 murder of 60-year-old El Dorado woman Helen McKinney. Seals, now 28, brutally murdered McKinney in her Pleasant Valley Road home. Investigators said Seals, a man who was born in South Lake Tahoe and bounced around El Dorado County and Nevada his whole
life, was intent on robbing her and taking anything of value he could find to support his heroin and methamphetamine addiction. He also took her life. Seals reportedly told El Dorado County sheriff ’s investigators details about that deadly attack, including the fact that after breaking into a house where he hoped no one was home, he had decided to arm himself with a metal pipe. “Just in case,” thought
Seals, according to preliminary hearing testimony heard in September 2020 from Rich Horn, an investigator for the District Attorney’s Office. Seals reportedly told Horn and sheriff ’s Det. Jeff Sargent he wasn’t sure exactly when he broke into the house, recalling only that when he was surprised to see someone inside he began using the weapon he earlier had found Mountain Democrat file photo by Thomas Frey n
See Sentenced, page A2
Tanner Michael Seals is pictured at a court hearing in September 2020.
Living history is back
Mountain Democrat photo by Sel Richard
Commuting to school on a motorized scooter might be easy but riders could also be breaking the law.
Motorized vehicle codes may come as a big surprise Photos by Laurie Edwards
Docent Christine Terbijhe shows Kiran Quadros, 8, of Pollock Pines how to make yarn from wool using a spinning wheel as Living History Day returned to the Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park May 8 — the first in-person demonstrations of pioneer living at the park since the pandemic halted events of its kind. Living History Day takes place the second Saturday of each month at the Coloma park — the very site where gold was discovered in 1848, triggering one of the largest human migrations in history.
Demonstrating hand stitching and the methods in which miners and their families would have mended and washed clothes in Gold Rush days, left photo, is docent Cyndi Lychan. Inorie Almas, 5, and her sister Primrose, 4, right photo, feel animal pelts while their brother, Levi, 7, listens to docent Robert “Double Fist” Woodgate.
Sel Richard Staff writer Young riders of electric scooters may be unaware that they are breaking the law if riding on any public roadway, sidewalk or bike lane without a Class C driver license. CHP Officer Andrew Brown made this painfully clear at the last El Dorado Hills Community Council meeting when he laid out regulations for various motorized vehicles. “Parents, this is coming as a shock to many of you, I know,” Brown said, adding that the same rules apply to GoPeds with gasoline engines on the back. Scooter riders cannot go faster than 15 mph and those younger than 18 must wear bicycle helmets. “I don’t know if there are a lot of highway patrol officers … going to be ticketing children while they’re riding their scooters to school, but I know just from tonight that our officers working in Serrano have pulled over two kids already and given verbal warnings,” he reported. “We’re doing n
See Vehicles, page A3
Mechanical equipment sparks 45-acre blaze near Latrobe Andrew Vonderschmitt Staff writer Mechanical equipment being operated in the Latrobe area ignited a fire that burned 45 acres when that equipment hit rocks surrounded by dry grass Wednesday, according to Cal Fire officials. The blaze was sparked just before 3 p.m. with firefighters working through Friday for full containment. The fire broke out in the Settlers Trail area and did not threaten structures or require evacuations. Flames moved quickly through dry vegetation on uninhabited grassland.
Firefighters were assisted by an air tanker in the fire fight. Some fencing was reportedly destroyed but there were no injuries. Fire crews on scene Friday continued to patrol the fire, keeping an eye out for any hot spots that might flare up with gusty winds in the forecast. Cal Fire officials urge anyone who might need to operate mechanical equipment in dry vegetation to do so before 10 a.m. when the air is cooler and has a higher moisture content. High winds are also not favorable conditions for such activity.
Grassland in the Latrobe area is consumed by flames Wednesday after a fire was started by mechanical equipment.
Photo courtesy of PG&E
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