Alex Paul
The actions of an alert 11-year-old Sweet Home boy and his hunting friends Thursday, led to the safe recovery of a Mt. Angel boy abducted by his mother’s boyfriend earlier that day.
The boy’s abductor, Jeffrey Eggiman, 38, was fatally shot and killed by Linn County Deputies, after they approached the 1999 Ford Ranger he had parked off a logging road near Camp Tadmore, north of Sweet Home.
Deputies said Eggiman pulled a pistol and pointed it at them, resulting in the shooting. Per department regulations, Corporal Mike Harmon and Deputy Micah Smith were placed on administrative leave pending an official investigation by the Marion County Sheriff’s Office.
It was a series of coincidences that ultimately led to the successful recovery of Tanner Kahn, 11, reportedly missing since about 7:30 a.m. Thursday morning by his mother.
Since there were no classes in the Sweet Home School District Thursday and Friday, due to parent-teacher conferences, Mike Lattrell took his son, Michael, 10, and their neighbor, Matt Dixon, 11, hunting. The families live on Brushwood Road, a couple miles west of Sweet Home.
The hunters ventured along McDowell Creek Road, eventually meandering to the top of a road past Camp Tadmore.
“We took a couple roads to the left that eventually led us to a clear cut,” the elder Lattrell said. “I saw a nice stand of old growth, so we drove down there.”
Near the stand, Lattrell said they found a Ford Ranger pickup parked with its front end facing outward at an intersection of a skid road.
“So, we four-wheeled in and about a half mile down the road, we ran into a guy and a kid walking toward their truck,” Lattrell said of meeting Eggiman and Kahn.
As hunters do, Lattrell asked Eggiman, “Did you guys see anything?” to which Eggiman responded, “No, just some squirrels.”
“I had a funny feeling that something didn’t add up,” Lattrell said. “He and the boy were about two-tenths of a mile from their pickup and they didn’t have a rifle with them. The boy had a walking stick.”
Lattrell said he told the two, “It’s a great day to be out enjoying things.” To which Eggiman said, “Yeh, we’re hunting.”
Lattrell said the comment struck him as odd, since again, there were no visible rifles.
“It just seemed bizarre,” Lattrell said. “Things just didn’t add up.”
Lattrell and the two boys continued driving down the logging road until they came to the end and a turn around area. They began driving out of the area when they again met up with the duo.
“They were approaching their vehicle and I tried to let them cross in front of us, but Eggiman said for us to go ahead,” Lattrell said. “I told him to have a good one and he told us good luck.”
Lattrell said he noticed the license plate on the pickup and thought it was odd as well, “X-KAHN.” (The pickup belongs to Tanner’s mother, Tanya Kahn who is divorced and the plate was a reference to that.)
Lattrell, who is an Oregon Department of Transportation employee said, “I wondered why the state would issue such a plate,” Lattrell said.
Lattrell said he and the boys talked about the incident and Matt Dixon said he thought he had seen Eggiman carrying a pistol. Lattrell’s son, Michael, said he did not see a weapon.
The trio returned home, where the Lattrells continued packing for their move to a new home in Eastern Oregon. Lattrell’s wife is a dispatcher at the John Day Police Department and Lattrell has been promoted to a position with ODOT in LaGrande.
Matt played outside and because there was no school on Friday, was allowed to stay up late and watch the 10 o’clock news with his mother, Jessica.
That’s when the Amber Alert, was broadcast and young Matt took notice.
“My mom didn’t believe me at first because I lie sometimes,” Matt said.
But his mother was soon convinced.
“He told me what the truck would look like and then what the boy and the man would look like,” Jessica Dixon said.
So, they called neighbor Mike.
“Matt was really hyper when he called,” Lattrell said. “I tried calling the Amber Alert phone number but couldn’t get through, so I went on line and found the phone number for the Mt. Angel Police Department.”
Lattrell pulled out a Sweet Home Ranger District topographical map and pinpointed the location of where they had made contact with Eggiman and Kahn.
Lattrell said he warned deputies to be careful and that the way the pickup was parked and the fact that there was a landing right behind them would make it difficult for law enforcement officers to sneak up on them.
Linn County Deputies located the vehicle about 12:25 a.m. Friday, when the shooting occurred. Eggiman was reportedly sleeping in the front driver’s seat and the Kahn boy was asleep in the back seat of the pickup.
Eggiman was reportedly shot by both officers, once in the hand and once in the leg. The officers applied first aid and Sweet Home paramedics were dispatched to the scene.
Matt Dixon said the incident left him shaken up.
“I started sweating and couldn’t sleep that night,” he said. “I was very upset.”
All involved said they were very concerned about the boy’ safety.
“After a while, reality began to set in for us,” Mike Lattrell said. “You start wondering what he could have done to any one of us.”
Lattrell said Eggiman may not have acted after realizing that the hunters were well armed.
Jessica Dixon said she was amazed at the amount of detail her son had remembered about the encounter.
“He remembered everything, including what the boy was wearing,” Mrs. Dixon said.
Mike Lattrell said he has pondered what would make Eggiman abduct a child.
“You have to wonder what was going through his mind at the time,” Lattrell said.
Linn County Sheriff Dave Burright said the fatality is the first he can remember by an on-duty officer.
“We had a shooting in 1996, of an armed robber, but he was wounded, not killed,” Sheriff Burright said. “Before that, two sheriffs were killed in the 1920s.”
The two deputies are “doing as well as can be expected,” Sheriff Burright said.
“I have never known an officer who got into this business to hurt somebody,” Sheriff Burright said of the impact on the deputies.
The Salem Statesman-Journal reported Saturday that the Amber Alert program has been activated seven times in Oregon since 2002 and each time, the child has been recovered.