News: Scalping suspect sets new low
I was considering writing an entry about a week of weirdness in Oregon and Washington. It seemed that every time one blinked another offender was either apprehended, convicted or released. There was the Sunday school teacher accused of molesting his foster son and other boys. The Portland school board member saying he might run for office again -- after being jailed for violating a restraining order forbidding contact with his estranged wife. Our nationally infamous accused stalker and thief of more than 3,000 pairs of soiled panties had his bail reduced. An area man was busted for recruiting participants in a suicide cult on the Internet. (Hmmm. Wonder if he is a blogger.)
But, I realized I would need to expand my 'news of the weird' entry to included Idaho yesterday when I learned about the accused scalper.
KGW-TV reports.
BOISE, Idaho -- A woman suspected of scalping a teenage girl in Idaho surrendered to authorities Wednesday.
Marianne Dahle was arrested at the Ada County Jail on suspicion of aggravated battery for allegedly tying up the 16-year-old acquaintance and cutting away a six-inch by eight-inch section of her scalp.
The victim, a 16-year-old girl whose hair was cut in a mohawk, survived. Police said a member of a punk clique scalped her as punishment for her disrespectful behavior toward women.
Dahle was visiting Kirkham Hot Springs in central Idaho with the girl and a friend when the attack occurred Jan. 18. The teen spent two weeks in the hospital and is now recovering at home.
Authorities did not release the victim's name, though she identified herself as Sheila to Boise TV station KTVB.
Dahle, (pictured) 26, may be the leader of a group with cult-like tendencies. According to investigators, Sheila was scalped as punishment for violating a rule. Participants in the punk-related group say Dahle claimed the girl 'disrespected women,' by uttering something Dahle disagreed with. As is all too typical in groups, cults or not, the dissenter became the enemy and was summarily punished. No information on why a practice as arcane as scalping was chosen is available. A detective thinks there are sexual implications, such as the adult establishing dominance over a younger consort.
Sheila was dropped off at a hospital bleeding from the large wound in her head. She is in the process of receiving a series of skins grafts. In interviews, the adolescent appears bewildered. She doesn't understand why people she considers friends did her dirt. Welcome to the real world, kid.
Marianne Dahle, possible dominatrix and suspect in a despical act, has trumped a covey of contenders to lead this week's news of the weird.
