SEQUIM — "I work by myself," Kristine Fairbanks told the Peninsula Daily News just over a year ago.

"I don't have backup."

Actually, Fairbanks worked with a partner — a seven-year-old German shepherd named Radar, the third K-9 animal she had teamed with in her 15 years with the U.S. Forest Service.

Radar was found unharmed in Fairbanks' vehicle when a Clallam County deputy discovered her body at the Dungeness Forks campground off Palo Alto Road south of Sequim.

Fairbanks was a regular subject in the PDN, often for her investigations of timber thefts or salal "turf wars" in the 300,000 acres of national forest she patrolled in the Olympic Mountains.

An old-growth cedar could bring as much as $100,000 to a thief — often to bankroll drugs — and salal is valued by florists for flower arrangements.

Ferns, mushrooms, moss, cedar bark and grass also are prized — and poached.

Fairbanks once estimated that three-quarters of the greenery leaving the woods is harvested illegally, often by undocumented migrant workers.

She made the news almost as often, however, because of her K-9 partners.

Fairbanks' latest partner was Radar, who helped track down a robbery fugitive from Forks in April. Late in 2007, they helped arrest another robbery suspect.

The 15-year veteran of Forest Service law enforcement was the daughter of Peninsula College forestry professor John Willits.

He taught her a love for the outdoors, she said.

No one may know why Fairbanks left Radar behind in her patrol vehicle when she approached a suspicious van Saturday afternoon and was shot to death.

As always, except for her dog, she was alone.

The Peninsula Daily News is a media partner of KOMO News. To view the complete Peninsula Daily News story, click here.