Scott Swanson
When Paula Whitehead opened the back door to her newly finished beauty salon on Aug. 16, she faced devastation.
The Hair Colosseum, which she had opened in April, was in shambles.
Sheriff’s deputies eventually arrested John Lee Palmer, the boyfriend with whom she had broken up the night before.
Palmer, 46, of Sweet Home, allegedly entered the salon early on the morning of Aug. 16 and allegedly cut electric, cable and water supply lines, ripped holes in furniture – including a massage table, broke the mirrors, wrote on walls and sprayed shampoo all over the building.
But that’s only half the story.
Whitehead, 45, moved to Sweet Home after living for 23 years in Nevada, where she and her then-husband owned a construction business that specialized in painting and drywall installation.
Whitehead, who had grown up in Brownsville, decided to return to Oregon a year ago and eventually decided to move to Sweet Home.
“I took about a year off and came up and refamiliarized myself with Oregon,” she said. “I kept coming back to Sweet Home. I absolutely love it here. I said, ‘You know what, this is the place.’”
In Nevada, after working in the construction firm, she had decided to “follow my passion” and earned her hair dresser’s certification, then managed two salons for Regis while doing a little independent work on the side.
Back in Oregon, she’d met Palmer, who was a skilled craftsman, and he encouraged her to pursue her dream of opening her own hair salon.
They found the building at 1135 Long St. and began work in November of last year. Whitehead opened the shop April 22, replete with gleaming floors, rich colors and large mirrors.
“He put his heart and soul into it, as I did,” she said of Palmer. “He did an amazing job.”
The response was also “amazing,” she said.
“For me to have absolutely no clientele and absolutely know no one in this town, they’ve been very supportive.”
Then things went south. Whitehead and Palmer broke up on the evening of Aug. 15, she said.
“It was not a good break-up,” she said.
Police Chief Jeff Lynn said sheriff’s deputies took Palmer into custody for “an unrelated issue” and he was placed on a police officer hold at a local hospital for a mental evaluation after officers found him sitting in the parking lot behind the beauty salon early on the morning of Aug. 16.
Palmer, Lynn said, told police he couldn’t remember what had happened.
Lynn said the case will be forwarded to the Linn County District Attorney’s Office for review due to some complicating factors, such as the fact that Palmer had a key to the building, raising questions about the status of his legal rights of access at the time.
“Criminal mischief could come into play,” Lynn said.
The damage Whitehead discovered the next morning totaled more than $20,000, she said.
“I was in a daze.”
In tears, she, along with Joy Stokes, who works with her in the salon, began calling customers who had appointments, to tell them the Hair Colosseum wouldn’t be open.
The first was to Mollie Wolthuis, a Garden Club and Mormon Church member, and volunteer in the Manna free dinners program, who had reserved the first time slot of the day.
“Joy called me that morning, crying,” Wolthuis said. “She said she had to cancel the appointment. She was sobbing.
“I said I would go right down. I called my husband, who was working at our tree farm and some people from our church. Then some Garden Club people arrived, then some people from Manna.”
Whitehead said the response was immediate.
“Within seconds she was down here,” Whitehead said. “She made phone calls and by 11:30 she had about a dozen people here.
They went to work, cleaning up the broken glass, the shampoo and other easily removable damage. Wendy Smith, who works for Sweet Home Sanitation, arranged for the loan of a large trash can. Smith’s retired husband, John, showed up with a broom.
“We had people in here that I had never seen before,” Whitehead said.
Wolthuis said the shop was in “awful” condition. “I went right down to Sweet Home Sanitation and asked if we could borrow one of their bins so we could throw everything that was broken into it. We were very grateful for their generosity.”
By 2 p.m. the shop was as close to back to normal as it could be.
Whitehead said she’s thankful that a friend who works in the insurance industry had pressured her to insure the business.
Wolthuis, who said she’s been in already for “two or three” appointments since the incident and is impressed by the speed at which Whitehead has put the place back together.
“It was a “wonderful opportunity to give service” in a time of need,” she said, noting that she’s found Whitehead to be a “kind, generous person who is full of charity herself
“This was a tragic circumstance for her.”