AUTHOR'S NOTE: The information on the call in sequence included in paragraph three was incorrect as initially published (italicized below) through error of public information officer Mike Weland. Bettilyon called the Boundary County Sheriffs dispatch from his home on the Idaho side of the border; the victims left the home after the incident and went to the State Line Tavern, which is in Montana, where they called 911 and informed a dispatcher in Lincoln County, Montana. I regret the error.

Mike Weland

Public Information Officer

Boundary County

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Arrest made in State Line shooting

5:25 p.m. March 3, 2004

A Bonners Ferry businessman was arrested late this afternoon in connection with a shooting incident near the Montana/Idaho state line Tuesday evening in which three people were injured.

Taken into custody on a charge of aggravated battery was Verden “Kit” Bettilyon, 59, owner of the “Almost a Wharf” gift shop on Highway 2 near the state border.

Bettilyon reported the incident from a telephone at the State Line Tavern, telling the dispatcher his home had been broken into and that he’d been assaulted and two people had been shot.

The victims were Bobbie Ann McGee, 45, who has lived with Bettilyon for about two years, and her former husband, William Eugene Tramell, also 45. Tramell suffered a grazing gunshot wound to the chest and the bullet pierced his arm, McGee suffered wounds from bullet fragments. Bettilyon was injured during the scuffle at his residence, during which the weapon discharged. None of the injuries was life-threatening.

McGee and Tramell remain at St. Johns Hospital, Libby, Montana, and Bettilyon has been booked into the Boundary County Jail. He is expected to make his first appearance on Thursday.

The Boundary County Sheriffs Office has been assisted in their investigation, which is continuing, by the Idaho State Police and the Lincoln County, Montana, Sheriffs Office.