Exclusive: Tri-Cities woman threatened officials to stay away. Then her mom was found dead

A large hole cut into the shared wall of a Richland duplex led police to discover a 67-year-old woman’s body inside her home.

Richland officers and a state welfare investigator spent several days trying to check on the well-being of the woman and her daughter after the neighbor called 911.

But Angela Greiner refused to let them near her mother, yelling at authorities to get off her property every time and leaving threatening notes inside the hole in the wall and on her windows and doors, court documents show.

So, out of concern that Greiner’s mother had been neglected and abused, and might even be dead — especially after noticing a “terrible” odor — authorities got an injunction demanding immediate access to Claudia Kinney.

Her body was found Thursday afternoon in her 1421 Mahan Ave. home. She is believed to have been dead for several weeks, if not longer.

An out-of-state relative last spoke to Kinney in August and said she’d been unreachable since then, and a neighbor reported to authorities that Kinney had not been seen outside the house in the last year, according to documents.

Greiner, 45, was at home when Benton County sheriff’s deputies and Richland officers served the court order Thursday.

The department’s Mobile Outreach Team took Greiner to a Tri-Cities hospital for mental health treatment, police said.

Her condition was not known as of Friday night, but online records show she was not in the county jail or yet charged with a crime.

Police have not released any more information on the death investigation since Thursday evening.

Benton County Coroner Bill Leach confirmed to the Tri-City Herald that Kinney was the woman who died.

He said an initial examination did not turn up any obvious wounds, but an autopsy, planned for next week, is necessary to make sure.

Longtime Tri-City family

Kinney’s family history dates back more than seven decades in the Mid-Columbia.

Her late father, Harry Kinney, was recruited by the federal government in the early 1950s to open the new McKay’s Variety Store in Richland, where he helped develop the Uptown area.

He also was a co-owner and partner in the longtime Spencer-Kinney real estate and insurance business and one of the Port of Benton’s first commissioners.

Claudia Kinney had two sisters and two daughters.

At some point in recent years, Greiner became a caretaker for her mom. The two women lived together on one side of the Mahan Avenue duplex.

Relatives told police earlier in the investigation that Kinney had health issues and had started losing her teeth several years ago, and suspected Greiner of interfering with her treatment by changing the older woman’s medications, according to court documents.

Police also learned that Kinney had some tests done at a hospital in June. When staff sent a letter for a follow-up appointment that same month, they received a written response from someone claiming to be Kinney instructing the hospital to stop sending notices, documents said.

Injunction petition

In seeking the injunction, an eight-page petition states that Kinney was considered to be a vulnerable adult under state law based on reports that she may have been “neglected and mentally abused by her daughter.”

The petition was filed by Assistant Attorney General Kevin Hartze, representing the Washington state Department of Social and Health Services, and Derek Wachter, an Adult Protective Services investigator.

The case was referred to them on Jan. 27 by Richland police Officer Jacob Hubby.

According to the petition, the mom and daughter’s duplex neighbor called police after checking on their unit and finding a hole had been cut through a shared wall.

Hubby responded to the neighbor’s side and tried to speak to Greiner through the hole. She “behaved like she had paranoid schizophrenia and her behavior was unstable,” the petition states. Greiner “was not willing to give information about Claudia Kinney.”

Police knocked on different doors and windows all around the home, but Greiner’s only response was through the hole, which they added “smelled terrible.”

Officers consulted with a mental health professional, who said that Greiner’s behavior was unstable enough that they could have worked toward an involuntary commitment if she had stepped outside the home. They could not enter the house without a warrant, the petition states.

Police returned to the house Jan. 28 and “banged on the windows.” No one answered, the blinds were shut and signs were posted saying, “I swear I will kill you. Stay away from my house.”

A resident in the neighborhood with security cameras told police that in the past day they had seen Greiner leave in a cab and return with groceries.

Family had tried calling the home, both before police were notified and during the investigation, and either got a busy signal or someone answered and then hung up.

Police again told the Adult Protective Services investigator that they didn’t believe they would be able to get a search warrant and couldn’t operate on assumptions, but that “there is a fear that Ms. Kinney may be deceased inside the residence.”

Wachter and police went to the home Jan. 29, where for a third consecutive day they tried to offer help and get answers from Greiner through the hole.

Warning notes

Notes taped to the front door now warned visitors they would be arrested, and, “I will literally tear you limb from limb if you try to cross in to here!! Don’t try to bang on the windows + doors either! I have nine abandoned kitties you’ve upset very much!!”

The investigator said he removed the cut out piece of drywall and insulation and found a note written by “me.” It referred to some “losers” with curse words, and said any talking would have to be through the sheet rock wall because the hole was “jammed up.”

Wachter wrote in the petition that he knocked on the wall asking to speak with Kinney. After three knocks, each one harder, a woman replied, “What are you doing in there? You shouldn’t be in there, that’s my property.”

Greiner confirmed she was the one speaking and said the investigator had nothing to say to her mom and needed to leave.

He tried yelling for Kinney and asking if she was in trouble or needed medical help, but got no response. He then asked Greiner if she was sick or scared or needed to talk about something, but she continued to curse at Wachter and threaten his arrest for breaking and entering.

“I asked Angela if Claudia was still alive, or, if Claudia died. Angela did not reply to this question,” said Wachter. “I attempted to sympathize with Angela and talk with her about how it was OK if her mom passed away and that people pass away. It’s a part of life.”

Then, when told Wachter wanted to make sure Greiner was safe and got the help she would need if her mom was dead, she repeated that he must go.

“I have nothing to say to you. I don’t want to talk to you,” the petition states.

Hubby and Wachter made another visit Feb. 2 — this time joined by the family’s out-of-state relatives who’d come to Richland to “try and find resolution to this situation — but their attempts at getting inside the house or talking reasonably with Greiner again were unsuccessful.

Greiner only responded that they were not welcome on her property and had to get out of the neighboring house.

This story was originally published February 6, 2021 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Exclusive: Tri-Cities woman threatened officials to stay away. Then her mom was found dead."