Friends raise funds for Scanlan's funeral

MOSES LAKE - Police confirmed the body of a young man pulled from Moses Lake Wednesday is Robert B. Scanlan, a 25-year-old reported missing last weekend.

While there were no immediate signs of foul play, detectives are investigating the matter to determine the cause of Scanlan's death, police stated Thursday.

Scanlan was "a very loving, generous, caring person" who had a passion for art and music, his mother, Sieglinde Mueller, said. Scanlan was a guitarist and a founding member of the local rock band Sally's Army.

Scanlan, who lived in Moses Lake all his life, was scheduled to visit family in Texas this week according to Mueller, who said her son was excited to meet his niece for the first time. Instead, she and Scanlan's sister Steffanie Caudle were driving to Moses Lake from their home in San Angelo when they received confirmation of his death.

"We were on our way to help look for him," Mueller said from the road Thursday.

Meanwhile friends of Scanlan held two fundraising car washes yesterday afternoon to help the family with travel costs and funeral arrangements.

Renea Bowman brought her young son Gabe down to pitch in.

"Help Bobby go to heaven," Gabe yelled to passing cars while clutching a cardboard sign.

Bowman said she attended the same schools as Scanlan for many years.

"He was one of those really nice guys who got along with the jocks, the preppies, the goths - he was someone everybody seemed to like," she said.

Kyndra Wright stood nearby with her own sign, flagging motorists toward a parking lot where volunteers were busy lathering up one of several waiting cars. Wright said she only recently started hanging out with Scanlan, who she described as a "humble and down to earth guy" who preferred walking to driving and would "gladly give you the shirt off his back."

The loose-knit group plans to keep the fundraiser going "as long as it takes" to earn enough to pay for the family's trip to Moses Lake as well as to help defray the cost of a memorial service that is still being arranged, according to car wash organizer Michelle Bresnan.

Another car wash will be held Friday afternoon at either the Sun Mart gas station, at 640 North Stratford Road, or on the corner of Alder Street and Fourth Avenue downtown, Bresnan said.

Bailee Nelson, another of Scanlan's close friends, said she helped put up and then take down missing person fliers for Scanlan this week. Despite receiving the difficult news on Wednesday, Nelson said she's been heartened by the outpouring of support.

"Bobby was just an all-and-all great person," Nelson said. "He's going to be missed."

Donations toward memorial service costs can be made to Kaysers Chapel in Moses Lake or to the U.S. Bank Bobby Scanlan Memorial Fund account. Funeral information will be posted in the Columbia Basin Herald newspaper and the "in loving memory of Bobby Scanlan" page on Facebook.

Anyone with information regarding Scanlan should call Detective Juan Rodriguez at 509-764-3887 or the dispatch center at 509-762-1160.