Arsonist shot. (Exercising the Right).

Shortly after 6 a.m. on April 19th, noises coming from their garage awakened Mr. and Mrs. Linn Stordahl of South Salem, Oregon. Mr. Stordahl armed himself with a .22-caliber handgun and went to investigate.

Stordahl entered the garage and found fire and thick smoke. A young man suddenly emerged from the smoke. When Stordahl asked the intruder what he was doing, the teen advanced toward the homeowner. Stordahl fired a single shot, striking the youth in the neck. Stordahl then rushed back to the house and called 911. The young man died at the scene.

Investigators concluded that the intruder had entered through a side door and started a fire using boxes stored in the garage. He carried no identification and neither an autopsy nor a computer check of his fingerprints were able to identify him. Over the next few days no missing person complaint was filed fitting his description.

On April 22nd, the Salem Statesman Journal included a detailed physical and clothing description of the dead youth in a story about the incident. The young man's stepfather happened to read the account and brought it to the attention of the teen's mother, Wendy Vogt. The couple had separated a few months earlier, and in July of last year the youth's biological father had begun serving a six-year prison term for theft.

Vogt contacted police, met with detectives, and identified the deceased as her son, 16-year-old Anthony Chance Choate. She said that when Anthony did not come ...