Sad news but not unexpected: James Hogan's body found

The body of James Hogan, 79, who had been missing since his family's car crashed into a Walnut Creek canal has been found and identified, authorities say.

Hogan's body was located Wednesday evening east of Buchanan Field Airport in Concord. A Contra Costa County Sheriff's helicopter crew spotted the body. An autopsy performed Thursday showed Hogan, a Walnut Creek resident, died of drowning.

Hogan had been presumed dead since Sunday evening. That's when a Honda Accord he was riding in lost control on San Miguel Drive near Mt. Diablo Boulevard during a downpour and crashed into the canal. The canal, also known as Walnut Creek, runs behind the downtown Safeway and along the Iron Horse Trail.

Hogan's 40-year-old son, Tim Hogan, was driving, and Hogan's wife, Janet, 74, was a passenger. Tim Hogan, a Walnut Creek native who more recently lived in San Diego, didn't make it out of the car after it flipped and landed upside down in the rain-swollen waterway.  He was found in the car dead. The cause of his death is pending.

James and Janet Hogan somehow made it out of the car. Media and rescue personnel spotted James and Janet Hogan being carried downstream--north--in the cold, fast-moving water. Janet Hogan was seen struggling to keep her head above water for about two miles, while James Hogan was seen floating face down.

Janet Hogan was plucked from the water by a Contra Costa Consolidated Fire District engineer, working with a CHP helicopter. She was transported to John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek.

James Hogan was a 16-year volunteer with the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Department. He was also a head usher at St. Mary Catholic Church in Walnut Creek, the San Francisco Chronicle says. Janet Hogan gave a reading at the church on Sunday, just hours before the crash, church officials told the Chronicle.

Piedmont Lumber was on "brink of financial ruin"

Thanks to some enterprising court-records-digging reporters at the Contra Costa Times we know Monday some more details about the financial struggles at the Piedmont Lumber and Millwork company, whose Walnut Creek lumber yard and retail store were destroyed by a four-alarm fire Saturday.

Fire investigators, however, can't say whether these difficulties, which include foreclosure proceedings and a lawsuit by the Teamsters union, have anything to do with the fire, which covered an acre of building and construction materials. The cause of the $5 million blaze is still unknown, with Contra Costa Consolidated Fire investigators searching through a 7,800-square-foot structure. Investigators also have no evidence linking Saturday's blaze to an arson fire at the Pittsburg facility on August 21.

But here are some details of the company's legal and financial troubles, per the Contra Costa Times:

--"A bank filed a lawsuit March 1 against Piedmont Lumber and co-owners William C. Myer Jr. and Victoria Myer, alleging the company is in default on nearly $15 million in loans obtained since 2007. The 14-count complaint seeks judicial foreclosure on Piedmont Lumber properties in Pittsburg, Tracy, Mendocino County and Lake County."

--"County Costa County records show a bank lien filed March 2 began foreclosure proceedings related to the Pittsburg property."


--"Another lawsuit was filed federal court March 1 against the company by Northwest Administrations, which handles the Western Conference of Teamsters Pension Trust Fund on behalf of union employees. The complaint alleges that since November, the company has failed to make fringe benefit contributions as required in the union contract."