Video key to robbery charges

Detectives watched the video repeatedly, scouring for anything distinctive about the suspects.

“As we were watching it, Detective Eric Macnab said, ‘You know, is there something going on with this guy’s hands?’” Elton recounted.

Both the suspects, a man and woman, were wearing gloves and jack-o’-lantern masks.

“We noticed that the male suspect’s right hand, he was either missing part of his hand or there was something weird about his hand,” Elton said.

The man was holding a shotgun. “There was just the way he was holding the shotgun when he came in. He switched hands and when he held it you could look at the glove and tell there was something off,” Elton said. He began researching local people who might have a deformity with their right hand.

Then, two days later, a hotel in Portland was robbed, and a couple led police on a chase that involved several crashes and shots fired by the suspect vehicle at police. The suspects were captured, and local media coverage of the suspects revealed the man, Joshua Luther, lost his right hand in a fireworks accident in Sunnyside, Wash., on July 4 this year.

At the time, he’d been hailed a hero, and was featured by a local TV station. He’d spotted something amiss with a firework a boy was holding, and he grabbed it from him and as he was throwing it, it exploded, costing him his right hand, according to media reports, Elton said.

“So the next morning, Sgt. [Dan] Nelson said, ‘Hey, you might look into this, this looks pretty promising,” Elton said of the revelations about Luther’s missing right hand.

Elton called detectives in Tualatin. Evidence they had recovered at the scene “made them stronger suspects in our robbery.” Elton could not disclose what that evidence was.

The Dalles police executed two search warrants of their own, and also had a brief, unproductive interview at the Washington County jail with Michelle Renee Luther, Joshua Luther’s wife, who was driving the vehicle as it led police on a multi-jurisdiction chase following the hotel robbery.

Ultimately, both Josh and Michelle Luther were charged in Wasco County with three counts each of first-degree robbery and unlawful use of a weapon.

Josh Luther already faces 23 counts related to the incident in the Portland area, while his wife faces 15 counts.

Both are accused of attempted aggravated murder.

In The Dalles, The key piece of evidence was the video, which Elton estimates he watched 50 times. “The video was great. If we wouldn’t have had the video, it would’ve gone unsolved, I imagine. It just came down to that one thing with his hand and that was the break we needed.”

He added, “This was one of those cases where everybody really wanted it to get solved because we don’t have a lot of armed robberies in this town,” Elton said. “This year we had two. This was a big deal for us and everybody including patrol was involved with working this case.”

He said the case involved “just a lot of legwork and phone calls and typing. A lot of typing.” He also worked with other agencies and everybody he contacted was “extremely helpful. We’re all pretty proud of the work everybody did here, so hopefully the outcome now will be satisfactory to everyone.”