PORT ANGELES — A fund has been established to help a family displaced from their home by a horrific act of violence.
Rebecca Messinger, 31, of Port Angeles, and her five children — four boys and a girl — need help to get into a new home after her boyfriend was shot to death last Tuesday in the home they shared at 130 W. 11th St.
Gary Carl Borneman, Jr., 39, of Port Angeles, is being held in Clallam County jail on $2 million bail, charged with first-degree murder in the death Gerald David “Jerry” Howell, 40, of Port Angeles, the kidnapping of Messinger, and five related charges.
Messinger has been staying in a hotel room provided by Healthy Families of Clallam County, a domestic violence prevention and treatment center, and four of her five children have been staying with their father, who is unrelated to the case, Jennifer Goldsby, a close friend of Messinger, said Monday.
“She needs her own house, a place where she can have her own stuff,” Goldsby said.
Messinger is seeking the rental of a house with at least three bedrooms and a monthly rent of $800 or less, she said.
Goldsby said that friends of Messinger were going to retrieve personal items including clothing from the house on West 11th Street as soon as police allowed them to enter the scene.
Messinger is a nurse in a Sequim-area doctor’s office but is off of work while she recovers from the events, she said.
A fund has been established at First Federal to help Messinger pay a security deposit, first and last months’ rent, and to get utilities turned on and to purchase household necessities.
Anyone who wishes to donate can walk into a Port Angeles First Federal location and deposit funds to the Rebecca Messinger fund.
Healthy Families also is able to accept donations on behalf of Messinger, said Sgt. Barb McFall of the Port Angeles Police Department.
Those who wish to donate through Health Families can call 360-452-2381
Messinger’s van, which she used to transport her five children, was seized by police as evidence after its use during the Oct. 7 kidnapping and shooting, and a new vehicle was provided to her by Healthy Families, McFall said.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.