Four face charges in Vail firebomb.

Byline: Rebecca Nolan The Register-Guard

A pair of South Eugene High School graduates have been indicted along with two others in the 1998 firebombing of a Vail ski resort that caused $12 million in damage.

A federal grand jury in Colorado indicted Chelsea Dawn Gerlach, 29, of Portland, and Stanislas Gregory Meyerhoff, 28, of Charlottesville, Va., late Thursday for eight counts each of arson for the Oct. 19, 1998, firebombing - considered one of the most devastating acts of eco-sabotage in U.S. history.

Gerlach and Meyerhoff were classmates at South Eugene High. They are accused with Josephine Sunshine Overaker, 31, and Rebecca Jeanette Rubin, 33, of setting a series of fires that destroyed the Two Elks Lodge at Vail, as well as restaurants, ski patrol headquarters and four ski lifts.

Two days after the fire, the Earth Liberation Front claimed responsibility for the blazes, which it said were set to thwart a planned expansion. The group said the project threatened vital habitat for endangered lynx.

The resort has since been rebuilt and the expansion completed.

The whereabouts of Overaker and Rubin are unknown. Federal prosecutors have said the women may have left the country.

All four allegedly were members of a loosely organized group known as "the Family," believed responsible for politically motivated arson fires in five states over five years. A total of 14 people have been indicted in Oregon and Washington since December in connection with the blazes, which did millions of dollars in damage, prosecutors have said. The Earth Liberation Front and the Animal Liberation Front claimed responsibility for those fires.

Court papers identify Meyerhoff and another man as informants in the Oregon case.

Eugene attorney Rick Fredericks, who is representing Meyerhoff on the Oregon charges, said Friday that he hadn't seen the Colorado indictment yet. He said the grand jury's decision was not a surprise.

"He has acknowledged his responsibility in connection with this Vail incident," Fredericks said of his client. "He has previously expressed his remorse for his activities."

The federal public defender representing Gerlach did not return a telephone message Friday. Gerlach's family has maintained her innocence, and her sister, Shasta Kearns Moore, has said she does not believe Gerlach has ever been to Colorado.

If convicted, they face five to 20 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine for each count.

Gerlach is being held in the Lane County Jail. The U.S. Marshall's Service in Eugene said Meyerhoff is being held at the federal prison in Sheridan, but a man who answered the phone there would not confirm that information Friday.

Authorities said the new indictment was the result of seven years of investigation by federal, state and local officials in Colorado and Oregon.

"The message to any person or group that seeks to further its cause through crimes of violence is this: We will be relentless in finding you and bringing you to justice," said Lester Martz, special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.