King County Sheriff’s detective presents $85,000 scholarship endowment to CWU

Central Washington University has been presented with a new scholarship endowment fund, thanks to a King County Sheriff's Office detective whose investigation of a fatal hit-and-run crash led to the identification of the "phantom driver" who caused the accident near Sea-Tac International Airport in 2019.

The scholarship donors designated Detective Jeanne Walford ('96) as the recipient of the $85,000 fund, which she presented to her alma mater in hopes that it will further the law and justice profession by providing scholarships to current and future law and justice students.

The CWU Foundation has announced that the first two Walford scholarship recipients are incoming juniors Dakota Red Bow and Ralph Ramier.

Walford said her decision to start a new CWU endowment fund was an easy one.

"I loved Central. It was a great school," she said at a July 31 ceremony at CWU-Sammamish, also attended by CWU President Jim Wohlpart and Provost Michelle DenBeste. "And if I can help one student a year to pay their tuition, maybe they will come work for us someday."

The scene of the July 2019 crash was investigated by members of the Major Accident Response and Reconstruction Unit of the King County Sheriff's Office and the National Traffic Safety Board. Over the next six months, Walford and her team used scientific research techniques to eventually track down the phantom driver, whose erratic lane change caused the crash with an airport transport bus.

One of the passengers, Bryan R. Panzanaro of New York, died from injuries he suffered in the collision and nine others were injured. A group of co-workers, flight crew, and others also were on the bus.

The donations to the fund came from Panzanaro's family and six of the crash survivors-David Scott Hutchison, Stephen G. Clay, Jeffrey Cushman, Sheryl Foley, Oliva Pascua, and John Weatherwax. The survivors pointed to Walford's work as an example of excellence in protecting and serving the community.

"By locating the phantom driver, she profoundly impacted the civil litigation of the wrongful death and personal injury cases," they said in a statement.

Walford shared that she had a hunch it was a ride-share car.

"I thought, 'what if we could do a geo-fence warrant and see if we could ping the apps of these drivers and they're using,' because it's always leaving a GPS bread crumb trail. And the data we got from Lyft was right on," she said.

That information eventually led Walford to the car and driver, and resulted in two convictions of negligent driving, plus a series of civil lawsuits.

"It was a lot of work for two misdemeanors, but at the end of the day, I'm not looking to get the big felony," Walford said. "I just want to bring something to conclusion, to the truth, no matter what the outcome is."

Karen Koehler, managing partner of The Stritmatter Firm, shared how important is the conclusion of this case was to the families of the victims, including Panzanaro's wife and four daughters.

"When you're able to find accountability, you can live with it better," she said.