Officers looking for cause

Investigators are searching for the car traveling immediately in front of Trooper Evan F. Schneider when his patrol car collided with a pickup Tuesday, killing the trooper and the driver of the truck, and claiming the life of a third victim late Thursday afternoon.

Ginger Wilborn, 30, of Hungry Horse died at about 5 p.m., according to a press release from the Flathead County Sheriff's Office.

The car, described only as light-colored, was pictured on Schneider's on-board video camera, Flathead County Undersheriff Pete Wingert said.

While Schneider was pursuing a vehicle at the time of the crash, it is unknown whether it was the same car pictured in the video, Wingert said.

Investigators have been unable to determine a make, model, or license-plate number from the grainy footage, but will forward the tape to the FBI for enhancement.

Schneider, 29, was eastbound on U.S. 2 at 7:15 p.m. Tuesday - about a quarter mile east of the House of Mystery - when his patrol car collided head-on with a half-ton GMC pickup traveling in the opposite direction.

Schneider and the pickup's driver, 42-year-old Roy Allen Moore of Hungry Horse, died at the scene.

Wilborn, who was riding in the pickup, suffered major head trauma and was airlifted to Kalispell Regional Medical Center.

Moore and Wilborn were ejected during the wreck.

According to a spokeswoman for the Montana Department of Justice in Helena, Schneider had been traveling west on U.S. 2 between Hungry Horse and Columbia Falls when he observed the driver of a vehicle traveling eastbound commit a traffic violation.

Schneider turned around and passed two vehicles with his emergency lights flashing. He was attempting to pull over the vehicle when a pickup truck traveling in the opposite direction crossed the center line and collided with the trooper's car head-on.

What caused the pickup to veer into oncoming traffic is unknown, Wingert said.

Funeral services for Schneider are scheduled for 2 p.m. Tuesday at the Christian Center Assembly of God Church in Kalispell.

A procession along U.S. 93 from the church to Glacier Memorial Gardens is expected to begin about 4:30 p.m.

"Trooper Evan Schneider was a … dedicated man whose quick wit and sense of humor will be deeply missed," Montana Highway Patrol Capt. Clancy King, who commands Schneider's detachment, said in a statement. "Our prayers are with the Schneider family during this sad time."

Schneider, who would have turned 30 in early September, joined the Highway Patrol in January 2004.

"He's a very squared-away young man," King said in an interview Thursday.

Schneider was a former U.S. Marine. The honor guard from Schneider's former battalion will travel from Spokane to attend Tuesday's memorial service.

Also an avid coin collector, Schneider was one of four troopers in the state trained in the post-crash collection of information from a squad car's video and data-recording module - a piece of equipment King likened to the black box in an airplane.

"He was really taking off with that whole side of investigation," King said. "It was becoming his forte."

Schneider was a member of the patrol's Special Events Support Unit, a highly trained squad that travels the state working major gatherings such as the Hell's Angels gathering in Missoula and St. Patrick's Day in Butte.

"We pick the best of the best for that," King said. "He was a tremendously intelligent man."

Schneider is survived by his wife, Carrie. His brother, James, is a Montana Highway Patrol trooper in Libby.

"When you enter a career in public service you give up something that is not required of other careers," King said in his statement. "A career in law enforcement requires an even higher level of commitment and unselfishness."

Schneider's death marks the second time in less than a year that a Highway Patrol trooper has been killed in the line of duty in Flathead County.

David Graham, 36, died Oct. 9, 2007, after his squad car was struck head-on by a distracted driver in a pickup truck that crossed the center turn lane on U.S. 2 north of Kalispell.

Schneider was the sixth trooper to lose his life in the line of duty since the Highway Patrol was created in 1935.

Moore, a meat cutter at Canyon Foods in Hungry Horse, liked to hunt, fish, and camp.

Family and friends will hold a memorial service for Moore at 2 p.m. Sept. 1 at the South Fork Saloon in Martin City.

Services for Wilborn have not been announced.

Anyone with information pertaining to the crash is encouraged to call the Flathead County Sheriff's Office at (406) 758-5610.

Reporter Nicholas Ledden can be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at nledden@dailyinterlake.com