Standoff ends peacefully

By NICHOLAS LEDDEN and JOHN STANG

The Daily Inter Lake

The suspect in the murder of a Columbia Falls mother of six surrendered to authorities Monday after a 31-hour armed standoff with police.

Robert Dean Kowalski, 46, quickly was surrounded by members from three SWAT teams after slowly exiting his Montana 35 home with his arms raised.

"We're very happy this standoff is over," Flathead County Sheriff Mike Meehan said. The incident shut down a portion of Montana 35 for about 24 hours.

Kowalski's 6:08 p.m. surrender followed a barrage of approximately 15 ferret rounds - 40 mm canisters that discharge non-flammable irritant gas.

"We really didn't want to escalate the situation if we didn't have to," Meehan said.

Negotiators had been communicating with Kowalski throughout the day, sometimes with the aid of a wheeled robot with a mechanical arm and sometimes by bullhorn.

Authorities would have resumed negotiations had the gas failed to drive Kowalski out of the house, Meehan said.

Investigators believe Kowalski fled to his residence Sunday morning after murdering his girlfriend, 45-year-old Lorraine Kay Morin.

Morin was found shot to death Sunday morning in her home on Montana 206, a few hundred feet north of Elk Park Road.

Kowalski's roommate, who was not in their home at the time, called the Sheriff's Office at 11 a.m. Sunday to report that Kowalski told him he had killed his girlfriend and was feeling suicidal. Investigators believe that Morin died hours before the 911 call.

Deputies responding to Morin's home found her body sitting upright in a living-room chair. She had been shot once in the mouth, possibly with a small-caliber handgun. Her body was sent to the state crime lab in Missoula for a forensic autopsy.

Morin is the mother of six children, ages 9 to 28. The younger children reportedly are staying with their adult siblings.

Investigators on Sunday afternoon found Kowalski's Ford Ranger pickup truck at his house on Montana 35, just east of Fairmont Road.

The Flathead County SWAT team, which later would be joined by teams from Kalispell and Missoula County, began surrounding the house at about 2 p.m.

For five hours, no one knew if Kowalski was alive, dead or even in the house. Several phone calls from negotiators went unanswered.

Officers parked the Kalispell Police Department's Ballistic Engineered Armored Response vehicle, or BEAR, within 20 feet of Kowalski's home and tried to reach him on a phone dropped on his front door. Kowalski did not respond.

Shortly before 7 p.m. Sunday, authorities closed Montana 35 between Fairmont and Montford roads. After officers broke some windows in Kowalski's home and used cameras to map the inside of the five- or six-room house, Kowalski began swearing at officers - which confirmed his presence in the house.

Just before midnight, police heard a single shot ring out from the rear of the residence. Investigators are unsure whether the shot was aimed at law enforcement, Meehan said.

Kowalski continued to talk with negotiators until about 3 a.m., after which he was silent until Monday afternoon.

Kowalski has been charged in Flathead County District Court with one count of deliberate homicide in connection to Morin's death.

If convicted, he faces up to 110 years or life in prison.

"We were all worried this would happen to [his ex-wife] Beth" Stanislow of Libby, said Kowalski's former sister-in-law, Dawn Stanislow of Carlsbad, Calif.

Kowalski suffers from bipolar disorder, according to both Dawn Stanislow and Kowalski's friend and former employer, John Endsley of Bigfork, who has a tree-digging business.

"If he was on his meds, he was a pretty decent fellow. If not, he could get pretty wild," Endsley said.

Dawn Stanislow said: "He has a very split personality. He's very bipolar. My first encounter with him - I thought something was off."

"He was very sweet at times. He had a quirky sense of humor," Dawn Stanislow continued. Once, he mowed a heart for Beth Stanislow in the weeds of their lawn.

But he could switch personalities quickly - often with alcohol as a trigger.

"When he was drunk and wanted something his way, he could be a temper-trantrum-throwing little boy," Dawn Stanislow said.

When Sunday's siege began of Kowalski's house, law officers heard from one of his friends that he was suicidal.

That was in character with his past.

"He has been threatening to hang himself for years," Dawn Stanislow said.

Kowalski, who reportedly had a stormy relationship with Beth Stanislow, has a history of domestic violence, Meehan said.

He and Beth Stanislow were married for five years, splitting for good last year.

"She kept going back and forth with him," Dawn Stanislow said.

Beth Stanislow could not be reached for comment Monday.

Flathead County Justice Court records show that authorities cited Kowalski for:

n Assaulting a family member and violating a restraining order at his Bigfork home on July 25, 2003.

n Threatening, kicking and pushing Beth Stanislow plus threatening a stepson on Nov. 23, 2005, in the Bigfork area. He also was cited for drunken driving on the same date.

Kowalski pleaded guilty and was fined in both cases, court records show.

More recently, on Feb. 21 this year, Kowalski sought a restraining order against Stanislow to keep her away from him, his girlfriend Morin and two of her sons, his shop and his home. Kowalski alleged that Stanislow poured gasoline in his shop and broke some windows.

His shop, Commercial Machine Services, is located at the same site as Morin's house - 2575 Montana 206.

Lincoln County court records show that Beth Stanislow and Kowalski feuded in late 2006 over whether he owed her money relating to her house in Libby. That case was dismissed.

Kowalski had been married prior to meeting Beth Stanislow, and has two sons, Dawn Stanislow said.

Kowalski reportedly has worked a variety of jobs: in a grocery store, at Semitool, as a self-employed machine mechanic and has a yard man. Many years ago, he was an engineer for the Boeing Co., Dawn Stanislow said.

"He was kind of a jack-of-all-trades," Endsley said.

According to Mary Bissell of Bigfork, who has employed Kowalski as a yard man for four years, "He was very good at whatever he did. … Everyone I know who has met him, likes him."

Kowalski was creative at figuring out solutions to mechanical and yard problems, said Bissell and Carol Roda of Bigfork, who with her husband, Richard, also employed Kowalski as a yard man for at least two years.

Roda, Bissell and Endsley described Kowalski as friendly but quiet - as well as a good and reliable worker. Bissell and Roda never saw any indication of Kowalski having a temper.

"He's a doll. I'm just really shocked," Roda said. "I'm really upset about this."

Kowalski routinely set up a stand at Bigfork's annual Festival of the Arts and taught children how to sift and pan for gold flakes, Bissell said.

"He really likes children. He's excellent with children," she said.

Kowalski also enjoys the outdoors, including hunting and fishing.

Reporter Nicholas Ledden can be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at nledden@dailyinterlake.com and reporter John Stang can be reached at 758-4429 or by e-mail at jstang@dailyinterlake.com