As family and friends await new leads for the investigation of Valerie Claplanhoo’s death, they plan to honor her life in the coming week and months with special services across the peninsula.

The 57-year-old Makah tribal member was found deceased on Jan. 2 in her Sequim apartment at the Sunbelt Apartments.

Clallam County coroner/prosecuting attorney Mark Nichols said she died of traumatic injuries from homicidal violence.

Friends host a celebration for Claplanhoo’s life at 5 p.m. Monday, Jan. 21, at Port Angeles’ Veterans Memorial Park, 217 S. Lincoln St.

Brandan McCarty, Claplanhoo’s oldest child, said family members originally agreed to wait for a ceremony in the spring but many friends in Sequim and Port Angeles such as Brianna Kelly, who is organizing the PA Celebration of Life, wanted a way to memorialize her.

“They need closure just as much as we do,” McCarty said.

Kelly told the Peninsula Daily News friends wanted an opportunity to grieve and celebrate Claplanhoo’s life.

Family members host a second Celebration of Life at 1 p.m. Saturday, May 4, at the Makah Tribal Community Hall, 81 Third Ave., in Neah Bay.

Residents of Sunbelt Apartments plan to hold an in-house memorial in the near future for her too, said Claplanhoo’s friend Rebecca Ruby.

Remembered

Claplanhoo is survived by her three children, six grandchildren and her three sisters, McCarty said.

She was born in Tacoma and lived on and off the Olympic Peninsula much of her life, including the past seven years in Sequim.

McCarty said she served in the U.S. Army before she was discharged due to health issues.

Early in her life Claplanhoo canned and pickled, McCarty said, and later she was a housekeeper at Days Inn in Port Angeles during tourist season. She also rang bells and collected donations for the Salvation Army at Christmas time.

“She did a lot of volunteering and wherever she was she’d help at the food bank,” he said. “My mom was always a busy-body.”

For her hobbies, McCarty told the PDN his mom weaved baskets, baked, cooked and wrote poetry in journals, which he hopes to publish.

“My mom had a loving heart and she was always helping someone, even if it was the coat off her back or the food she was eating,” McCarty said. “She was always willing to give to others without thinking.

“All I can think about is that she’s such a wonderful person and I don’t know why she was taken from us,” McCarty said. “All she did was love.”

Ruby, a Sunbelt Apartments resident down the hall from Claplanhoo, said they knew each for about 11 years but that their friendship blossomed in recent years in Sequim.

“I never had a friendship like that ever,” Ruby said. “It gives me a lump in my throat. We gave each other permission to be the little girls we never got to be because of childhood trauma.”

For example, the pair went to Sequim Goodwill and tried on outfits together, and peeled bark off trees like girls, Ruby said.

Claplanhoo loved cooking for fellow tenants, too.

“She loved doing that. She was an excellent cook,” Ruby said.

“It was a big deal to share her meals and have conversations. That was huge to her. It didn’t matter if we had two nickels between us.”

Ruby said Claplanhoo didn’t speak much about her time in the military, but they did participate in recovery events together.

“She loved recovery and respected recovery and the people that were in it,” Ruby said.

In the days following Claplanhoo’s death, Ruby said the apartment complex, that’s owned by the Peninsula Housing Authority and operated by Serenity House of Clallam County, has been quiet.

“We just started coming out and talking about things,” Ruby said.

She said Sequim Police Department offered the day of Claplanhoo’s death for residents to speak with a trained professional, if needed.

Investigation

Sequim Police Chief Sheri Crain said the homicide investigation is ongoing and officers haven’t arrested a suspect or suspects yet.

She wouldn’t comment on the narrowness of the suspect pool, but said, “the public at-large has no reason to be concerned about their safety.”

Police first responded to the apartments after a 9-1-1 call at 1:41 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 2.

Nine residents, including Ruby, were sent to an unnamed hotel for two nights as police investigated the scene.

With any information regarding the death of Claplanhoo, contact Sequim Police Department, 152 W. Cedar St., at 360-683-7227.

Reach Matthew Nash at mnash@sequimgazette.com.

Peninsula Daily News reporter Jesse Major contributed to this story.

Family members of Sequim’s Valerie Claplanhoo, 57, say she loved weaving baskets, baking and cooking, writing poetry and spending time with company. “My mom had a loving heart and she was always helping someone, even if it was the coat off her back or the food she was eating,” said her son Brandan McCarty. “She was always willing to give to others without thinking.” Photo courtesy of Brandan McCarty