Grief counselors to help students deal with Jenise Wright murder

BREMERTON -- On the first day of school, grief counselors will be available for students and teachers after the murder of 6-year-old Jenise Wright.

The Central Kitsap School District announced Tuesday it will launch the crisis response team at two schools when classes start Sept. 3.

The move comes several days after authorities arrested Olympic High School student Gabriel Gaeta, 17, in connection with the rape and murder of Jenise.

Gaeta and Jenise lived in the Steele Creek Mobile Home Park and attended schools in the same district. Jenise was a student at Cottonwood Elementary, according to a district official.



Gaeta, a high school wrestler and athlete, is expected to be charged as an adult with first-degree murder and first-degree child rape in Kitsap County Superior Court.

Investigators said DNA evidence linked Gaeta to the murder. Wright’s body was found last Thursday submerged in a muddy bog adjacent to the mobile home park in East Bremerton where she lived. A small wood pallet was lying over the body, further concealing it in mud, deputies said.

In court documents released Monday, a Kitsap County sheriff’s investigator said that when Gaeta was asked in a police interview if he was the only one involved in Jenise’s death, he “clearly nodded yes.”