Pubdate: Sun, 23 Jul 2006 Source: Wisconsin State Journal (WI) Section: Front, A6 Copyright: 2006 Madison Newspapers, Inc. Contact: http://www.madison.com/wsj/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/506 Author: George Hesselberg Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis) SECRET ROOM HID INTERESTING STUFF For Openers, It Held About $500,000 Worth Of Marijuana Plants. It had something to do with the pegboard. What Eddie Harris and Jaeson Shepard died for, the reason Erin Van Epps was shot at, and why police suspect Brad Fandrich took his own life, was behind the pegboard in the basement. Harris, Shepard and Van Epps drove to Brad and Jeanna Fandrich's home on Highway N in the town of Argyle in March because, police believe, they had heard marijuana was growing there, and they wanted to steal it. But that morning, the police did not know why the three came to the house. The surviving member of the trio, Van Epps, escaped in a minivan. The surviving homeowner -- Jeanna Fandrich -- was sobbing in the room where her husband had killed himself. And deputies, who had just witnessed the suicide, were technically off the case. They discovered, after responding to Jeanna Fandrich's call, some painkillers, elements of a possible marijuana-selling operation, and weapons. But their searches stopped when he killed himself, and the state Department of Criminal Investigations took over. It was the curiosity of Jeanna Fandrich's uncle Steve Jones, of Rewey, a small-town police chief, that led to the discovery of a hidden room in the basement. Jones went to the house three days after the shootings with other relatives to move some of his niece's things. Outside the house, Jones said, he noticed "a couple of the electric meters going around and around." But in the house, they found nothing using much power. Then, "as we were moving stuff out, we happened upon a couple of wires coming through the wall that didn't make any sense." In the basement, he pondered the tool-filled pegboard on the wall next to a workbench. "That wall never used to be there," said his companion, another uncle. The pegboard could be pulled back and clipped to the ceiling. Behind it, they found a locked steel door. State investigators returned, with another search warrant. Not until then did they discover 497 marijuana plants, valued at $500,000, along with 45 baggies of marijuana, measuring equipment, air filters, grinders, tumblers, instruction manuals, plant food, grow lights and ventilation fans. More weapons, ammunition and surveillance equipment were added to the cache discovered two days earlier. Fandrich was equipped to not only grow marijuana, but to detect intruders and protect his investment. Jones said he did not know his niece's husband very well, but "he seemed like a real nice guy, at first." A neighbor, Mary Erickson, said the couple did not invite contact. During deer hunting season last year, she said, a friend went hunting on land behind the Fandrich property. Brad Fandrich came out and sat on the porch and shot, constantly, into the woods. When the hunters left, he went back in the house, Erickson said. Erickson said she spoke briefly with Jeanna Fandrich about a week before the shootings. "She looked just terrible." Jones said his niece "has become an entirely different person since this happened. She looks good." He would not elaborate, except to say "the truth will come out eventually." - --- MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman