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SubscribeSuspect arrested in slaying of Kent woman
Denise Kay Grigsby
King County Sheriff’s deputies arrested a suspect Friday night for homicide and arson in the case of a Kent woman found dead in a burned car last weekend.
The remains of Denise Kay Grigsby, 39, were found in the trunk of a burned Toyota Camry on rural road in Black Diamond. The King County Medical Examiner’s Office said Grigsby died of a skull fracture and cerebral contusions.
0 comments | More in The Blotter | Topics: homicide, Kent
Kent woman’s body in burned car: Deputies seek public’s help
Denise Kay Grigsby
The King County Sheriff’s Office is asking the public to help in the investigation the slaying of a Kent woman.
The remains of Denise Kay Grigsby, 39, were found in the trunk of a car on Sunday. The car had been on fire in a rural, wooded area in Black Diamond. Grigsby died of a skull fracture and cerebral contusions, according to the King County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Investigators are processing the car, a Toyota Camry, today for evidence, said sheriff’s spokeswoman Sgt. Kathleen Larson.
Anyone with information about Grigsby’s death is asked to call 911.
0 comments | More in The Blotter | Topics: homicide, King County Sheriff's Office
Jogger finds man’s body at Golden Gardens Park
Seattle police say a jogger at Golden Gardens Park discovered the body of a man on the shoreline at 8:45 this morning.
Homicide investigators and staff from the King County Medical Examiner’s Office spent about four hours at the park this morning after receiving reports of a body in the 8400 block of Seaview Avenue Northwest, according to police. There was no sign of trauma or foul play, said police spokesman Mark Jamieson.
3 comments | More in The Blotter | Topics: Golden Gardens, homicide, Seattle Police Department
Investigators await ID of body found in burned car
Investigators are waiting for the King County Medical Examiner’s Office to identify a body that was found yesterday in the trunk of a burned-out car east of Auburn
“We’re working and processing evidence, but we don’t know who the victim is,” Katie Larson, a spokeswoman for the King County Sheriff’s Office, said today. She said it was unclear when the identification, or a ruling on the cause of death, would be completed.
The case his being investigated by the department’s major crimes division.
Mountain View Fire firefighters found the burned remains in a car trunk early Sunday, after they responded to a car fire. The Sheriff’s Office said the car was engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived about 4 a.m. in the area of Southeast 328th Street and Southeast Auburn Black Diamond Road.
0 comments | More in The Blotter | Topics: Auburn, death investigation, homicide
Woman won’t face death penalty in Everett homicides
Snohomish County Prosecutor Mark Roe has decided not to seek the death penalty for Holly Ann Grigsby, who is accused, along with her boyfriend, of killing David “Red” Pedersen and Leslie Pedersen in Everett in September.
Grigsby’s boyfriend, white supremacist David Joseph “Joey” Pedersen, pleaded guilty to the killings in March and faces life in prison without parole. He is victim David Pedersen’s son.
Grisby, 24, is charged with two counts of aggravated first-degree murder and faces life in prison without parole if she’s convicted.
In deciding not to seek the death penalty against Grigsby, Roe cited her lack of prior violent criminal history and her age. He also noted that she appears to have been following the lead of her boyfriend in participating in the slayings.
Police allege that after killing Red and Leslie Pedersen, the couple drove Red Pedersen’s SUV to Oregon, where they shot and killed 19-year-old Cody Myers and stole his car.
Grigsby told police they shot Myers “because his last name made them think he was Jewish,” according to charging documents. Prosecutors said Grigsby claimed she and Pedersen planned to drive to Sacramento, Calif., to “kill more Jews.”
The couple also are suspected of killing Reginald Alan Clark, 53, an African-American man who was found shot to death in the back seat of his pickup in Eureka, Calif.
Pedersen and Grigsby were arrested Oct. 5 in Yuba City, Calif.
Pedersen was sentenced to two years in federal prison in 2001 for threatening to kill a U.S. District Court judge in Boise, Idaho.
2 comments | More in The Blotter | Topics: Everett, homicide, Snohomish County Prosecutor's Office
Man pleads guilty to 2009 West Seattle homicide
The last of four defendants charged with fatally shooting Steve Bushaw in 2009 pleaded guilty yesterday to second-degree manslaughter and first-degree rendering criminal assistance, according to the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.
Brandon Chaney, 33, was tried last summer, but a jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict, prompting King County prosecutors to seek to retry him before he entered the pleas. Chaney faces a sentencing range of five years to just under six years in prison when he is sentenced May 10.
Bushaw, a Seattle longshoreman, met a man named Bryce Huber at work and Bushaw began buying, then reselling, small amounts of marijuana from him, according to charging documents filed in King County Superior Court. In late 2008, Huber introduced Bushaw to a Seattle drug dealer.
On Jan. 19, 2009, three men forced their way into the dealer’s house, pistol-whipped him and threatened to kill him. The dealer wrongly believed Bushaw was responsible.
Prosecutors said Huber and Chaney enlisted the help of gunmen Danny E. O’Neal Jr. and John Sylve, who shot Bushaw after Huber lured him to a West Seattle pizzeria on Feb. 1, 2009. Chaney drove the gunmen to and from the scene, prosecutors said.
Huber, 30, was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to 32 years in prison. Sylve, 34, and O’Neal, Jr., 30, each pleaded guilty in 2011 to second-degree murder.
Sylve was sentenced to 20 years in prison, and O’Neal got 15 years
0 comments | More in The Blotter | Topics: homicide, Seattle Police Department, shooting
Everett homicide victim identified
Luis Verduzco (Everett police photo)
A man whose body was found outside an Everett home on Tuesday evening has been identified as 23-year-old Luis Verduzco, whose last known address was in South Everett.
Verduzco had been stabbed to death, according to the Snohomish County Medical Examiner’s Office.
A neighbor reported found Verduzco’s body behind a garage at 22 W. Madison St. about 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. It doesn’t appear that anyone lives in the house, and police believe the home is owned by a bank.
Detectives are looking into the likelihood that Verduzco had been stabbed at a different location, according to Everett police.
Anyone with information on the victim or the slaying is asked to call the police Major Crime Unit at 425-257 – 8400 and ask for the Major Crime Unit or as always the TIP LINE at (425) 257- 8450.
0 comments | More in The Blotter | Topics: Everett, Everett Police Department, homicide
Warrant issued for North Bend man in slaying of wife, daughter
Peter Keller
The King County Sheriff’s Office has obtained an arrest warrant for Peter Keller in connection with the slaying of his wife and daughter. Keller is being sought for investigation of two counts of first-degree murder and first-degree arson.
Read the charging documents here.
A King County Superior Court judge issued a no-bail arrest warrant after prosecutors charged Keller with the shooting deaths of his wife Lynnettee, 41, and daughter Kaylene, 19, and arson for allegedly torching his North Bend home early Sunday.
Inititally, investigators called Keller a person of interest in the deaths of the two women, whose bodies were found Sunday in their burning North Bend home. Both had been shot to death.
Firefighters responded to the home in the 47200 block of Southeast 159th Street near Twin Falls State Park around 8:30 a.m. Firefighters found several gas cans scattered throughout the house with varying amounts of gasoline inside them.
Keller, 41, is an avid hiker who remains at large and is possibly hiding out in the woods surrounding North Bend, sheriff’s officials said earlier this week.
According to Kaylene’s boyfriend, Keller – who owned several large-caliber rifles and handguns – was “preparing for the end of the world” and had stockpiled a fort in the woods with extra supplies, charging papers say. The boyfriend told investigators that he didn’t think his girlfriend or her mother knew the location of the fort, the papers say.
One of Keller’s coworkers told detectives Keller also owned rifle scopes, silencers and body armor, but kept those purchases a secret from his wife because of they were so expensive, charging papers say. The couple had been married for 21 years.
Keller, who worked in Preston, only worked Tuesday and Wednesday last week and had scheduled to be off Monday, Thursday and Friday, the papers say. When another coworker asked him when he was going to return to work, Keller allegedly responded “that he may not come back next week, the week after that or maybe never,” charging papers say.
Keller apparently purchased a new laptop within the last couple weeks, but it wasn’t found by detectives, who recovered the rest of the family’s computers, the papers say.
Two days before the shootings, Keller withdrew $6,200 from his bank account, charging papers say. Along with his guns, Keller’s mountain bike was missing from the home and a safe with a combination lock was left open, the papers say.
Arson investigators believe the fire was started in the kitchen: One of the gas cans was placed in a skillet on the stove and the stove was turned on, igniting the kitchen cabinets and spreading through the residence, the papers say.
The family pets – a dog and a cat – were also found shot inside the house, according to charging papers.
More coverage →
Previous Times articles
1 comments | More in The Blotter | Topics: arson, homicide, King County Sheriff's Office
Body found in yard of bank-owned house in Everett
Everett Police are investigating a suspicious death after a resident called 911 and reported seeing a man’s body behind a garage about 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Police arrived at 22 West Madison in Everett to find a dead man who appears to be in his late 20s or early 30s. The man looks to have suffered trauma to his body, so authorities are treating his death as a homicide, said Everett Police Lt. Robert Goetz.
Everett Police have called in the major-crimes unit and are awaiting a search warrant to enter the property and conduct an investigation, Goetz said.
It doesn’t appear that anyone lives in the house, Goetz said, and police research indicates that the home is owned by a bank.
“We won’t really know what we have until we’ve had an opportunity to go in and investigate,” Goetz said.
0 comments | More in General news, The Blotter | Topics: Everett Police Department, homicide
Western State CEO calls patient’s slaying ‘unexpected’
Friday’s slaying of a patient at Western State Hospital, allegedly at the hands of a fellow patient, was called a “tragic unexpected incident” by the hospital’s CEO, Jess Jamieson.
“A tragic death at our facility is extremely rare and we will do everything possible to prevent a similar occurrence,” Jamieson said in a statement.
The slain patient, 29-year-old Paul Montefusco, died ater being stabbed in the ear with a pencil or pen, according to Lakewood police. A 40-year-old patient was arrested in connection with the slaying.
Staff at the state psychiatric hospital discovered Montefusco dead in another patient’s room Friday afternoon and called police, according to a news release. Staff found the resident of the room hiding in another room nearby.
He has been booked into the Pierce County Jail for investigation of murder. The name of the suspect has not been released.
“Western State Hospital holds the safety of our patients, employees and the community as its highest priority,” Jamieson said. “Almost twenty years have passed since something similar occurred at the State’s largest psychiatric hospital.”
0 comments | More in The Blotter | Topics: homicide, Lakewood, Lakewood Police Department
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