Three dead in Highway 20 wreck

Three people were killed in the early morning hours of Sunday, July 6, when their vehicle crashed into a tractor-trailer rig on Highway 20 between Camp Sherman and Suttle Lake.

The wreck was an indirect result of the Link Fire.

According to Oregon State Police, Richard Caudle of Prineville was hauling a large Caterpillar bulldozer on a lowboy trailer, westbound enroute to the Link Fire west of Sisters.

Caudle was making a left turn onto a Forest Service road when an eastbound vehicle struck the right, rear area of the trailer.

The three people in the passenger vehicle were killed; Caudle was uninjured, according to OSP reports.

Due to lack of identification at the scene, the Oregon State Police latent print section located at the Bend Crime Lab used the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) to identify the victims.

Rear passenger Kathy Rose Stout, 45, of Bend was one victim; also killed was Bernadine Arlene Mattson, 45. The driver of the 1983 Chevrolet Cavalier was 41-year-old Glen Howard Kraus, Jr.

Mattson and Kraus lived in the Bend-LaPine area.

Deschutes County Sheriff's deputies, Black Butte Ranch Police, Oregon Department of Transportation personnel and Sisters-Camp Sherman Rural Fire Protection District personnel also responded to the accident.

Highway 20 remained open during the fire, but officials continued to urge drivers to drive slowly through the fire area.