Captured felon linked to Forest Grove homicide
Fugitive who led police on a high-speed chase in Cornelius knew woman whose death is now under spotlight
Nicholas
Courtesy photo / News-Times
After a nearly 15-hour dragnet search in rural Washington County, wanted fugitive Josh David Nicholas was arrested near Gaston Monday.
And late Tuesday, Forest Grove police said Nicholas is a person of interest in a homicide investigation in the city.
Nicholas, 36, who was arraigned Tuesday afternoon on charges relating to his evasion of police, had recently become acquainted with Lori Fitzgerald, 47, who lived in the 2700 block of Sycamore Court in Forest Grove, police said.
Investigators initially described the circumstances surrounding Fitzgerald’s Nov. 7 death as highly suspicious: numerous items, including firearms, were missing from Fitzgerald’s home.
One of Fitzgerald’s neighbors, Bob Browning, sensed something big was up when he returned home that evening and saw not only police vehicles but the county medical examiner’s truck. “Then I realized the whole front yard was wrapped in crime-scene tape,” he said.
When questioned by police later that evening, Browning didn’t have much to offer.
“There was a fair amount of activity at that house, but no one ever bothered anybody,” he recalled. “I barely knew her. If she was out front I’d say ‘Hi,’ but I didn’t see her that much.”
Nicholas’s relationship with Fitzgerald, which police would not describe, led them to seek him in order to ask questions about the case.
But Nicholas was on the lam, with two warrants for his arrest — one from Washington County and one from Douglas County in southern Oregon.
The search
Last week, the Washington County Sheriff’s office sought the public’s help in finding Nicholas, issuing a series of urgent press advisories saying the fugitive was likely armed and had reportedly told an acquaintance that he wouldn’t be arrested by police without a firefight.
He almost got one.
Monday morning, around 4:30 a.m., a Cornelius Police officer attempted to pull over a man operating a stolen Nissan Pathfinder in the city, but the man gave chase.
Police determined that Nicholas was behind the wheel, and he led officers into a rural area north of town along Susbauer Road.
Police reportedly drew their weapons during the pursuit, but Nicholas fled into a nearby orchard.
Police conducted a three-hour search of a broad area of rural land bordered by Glencoe, Zion Church, Wren and Susbauer roads before they found evidence indicating Nicholas had fled on a different road before police surrounded the area.
On Monday afternoon, Hillsboro Police located the stolen Pathfinder in a parking lot near West Main Street and West Western Way in Hillsboro, but Nicholas was nowhere to be found.
But at 7:45 p.m., a K-9 unit and U.S. Marshals found Nicholas at a home located in the 25000 block of Southwest Gerrish Valley Road and arrested him.
Sgt. David Thompson, spokesman for the Washington County Sheriff’s office, wouldn’t say how investigators believe Nicholas got from Hillsboro to the house near Gaston without the stolen vehicle.
Capt. Jeff Williams, of the Forest Grove Police Department, wouldn’t say to what extent Nicholas is linked to the homicide investigation, other than saying he’s a “person of interest.”
“We knew that this person was somehow involved but there were still a lot of unanswered questions,” he said.
Williams did say police expect to make at least one arrest in the homicide investigation in a week or so.
“There’s still a lot of investigation that needs to happen and we’ll be working with the DA’s office (over) what the appropriate charges are going to be,” Williams said.
Long history of arrests
Nicholas had been sought for nearly a year on two warrants. One of the warrants is from Douglas County Community Corrections for a dangerous drugs charge. The other is from the Washington County Circuit Court for failing to appear on a stolen vehicle charge.
According to Thompson, Nicholas has a lengthy criminal history, having been arrested more than 45 times in three different states. Past arrests include possession of methamphetamine, felon in possession of a restricted weapon, resisting arrest, fourth-degree assault, eluding police in a vehicle and third-degree escape.
“It’s kind of a gamut,” Thompson said of Nicholas’s list of arrests. “No sex crimes, but anything else you can think of.”
Nicholas, who also goes by the name “Clay,” has been known to change his appearance and may wear a disguise at times. Nicholas has numerous tattoos, including a sundial on his back, a broken cross on his right hand, a bulldog on his upper let arm, and the word O-Z-Z-Y across the fingers on his left hand.
Browning said it’s a bit unsettling to know Nicholas’s link to his neighbor’s death. “This guy apparently was running around the entire county,” he said. “They say people don’t return to the scene of the crime, but in truth, they return all the time.”