Clearly determined
Some tourists aren’t letting smoke ruin Yosemite vacation
LONDON — A Kentucky man called 911 just minutes after killing his wife, sobbing and confessing to a dispatcher that he fatally shot the cancer-stricken woman, and asking to take a last look at her before his arrest, according to recordings released Thursday.
Ernest Chris Chumbley, 48, cries throughout the 16-minute call placed around 2:30 a.m. Wednesday and says he shot the woman twice in the face with a . 32-caliber handgun in their southeastern Kentucky home. He said in a jailhouse interview after the shooting that he shot his wife, Virginia, 44, to end her pain from terminal breast cancer.
“Give me police, I’m under arrest,” Chumbley says on the call.
Chumbley has pleaded not guilty to a murder charge and is being held in jail on a $200,000 bond.
Stan Campbell, a neighbor, said the couple loved each other dearly. But the cancer put a strain on their lives, and the Chumbleys filed for bankruptcy in 2009.
YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. — Every year at this time, tens of thousands of visitors flood the trails and scenic byways of Yosemite National Park in search of one last summer communion with Mother Nature.
But now, as the devastating Rim fire rages through the High Sierra and spreads deeper into Yosemite, would-be park visitors are having to decide whether to cancel plans made months or years in advance or press ahead with a visit that could potentially end in a smoky evacuation.
Many are choosing to keep their date with El Capitan and Half Dome.
“Do you know how hard it is to get reservations up here? We’ve been trying for two years,” said Mona Carrizosa, 44, of Corona, Calif. The middle school instructional aide and her boyfriend, Jose Gutierrez, 31, said they weren’t about to pass on the opportunity. In fact, they said they were delighted to find the park less crowded than anticipated.
“I know it’s bad for business, but for visitors it’s good,” Carrizosa said. “We’ve never seen it like this.”
Park officials say traffic is lighter than it usually is heading into Labor Day weekend, but that campsites remain full and lodges are still receiving guests.
“We are definitely encouraging visitors to not cancel their plans,” said Kari Cobb, a park ranger and spokeswoman. “They might have to modify their plans, meaning they’re going to have to come in through a different entrance, but the park is a very, very big place.”
The wildfire, 30 percent contained Thursday, has scorched roughly 5 percent of the park’s 750,000 acres, but is still some 20 miles from the attraction’s most popular area, the granite-walled Yosemite Valley. Though a massive plume of smoke has been observed by astronauts in the International Space Station, there has been no hint of smoke in the valley.
Other park areas have been affected, however.
Officials closed the campground and lodge at White Wolf and barred access to the popular Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, and a state road through the park has been closed.
On Wednesday, Alan and Garcia Williamson crammed several days of sightseeing into a few hours so they could avoid a noon road closure and reach Mammoth Lakes on the eastern side of the Sierra.
The husband and wife had traveled from Scotland to see Yosemite as part of a monthlong vacation in the U.S. and Canada and never considered canceling their plans, they said.
“We just did our research and found out where the fire was,” Garcia said. “It’s not as bad as people think, so we’re going to press on.”
Friends and relatives back home have sent text messages asking the Williamsons if they are in danger. “They think the whole park is ablaze,” Alan Williamson said.