On September 1, 2022, a 16-year-old boy left his home in Olympia, Washington, to attend football practice. He never arrived.
His truck was found abandoned with traces of blood inside, along with his shattered cell phone just outside. A search was immediately launched, with authorities asking for the public’s help in locating the missing teen, NBC News reported. The teen was found safe later that night and returned home to his family, but the story didn’t end there.
On the day that he went missing, Pierce County sheriff’s deputies went to the home of a 51-year-old man who “had not shown up for work for 4 days,” according to a press release from the department.
“Deputies were able to gain access into the house to do a welfare check and they located the man deceased inside the home,” the press release said. “The man had a gunshot wound, but no firearm was nearby. Deputies called for detectives and forensic investigators to respond to the scene.”
Pierce County Sheriff’s Department (PCSD) Sgt. Darren Moss told NBC affiliate KING 5 that the circumstances around the older man’s death were “suspicious.” He also said that evidence collected at the scene was linked to two 16-year-olds.
“Our detectives did a lot of work finding evidence at the scene as well as talking to other people and just developing good probable cause to find a connection between the suspects and the victim and ultimately they were able to get all the evidence they needed by Friday afternoon to make these arrests,” Moss said.
One of the two teens arrested in connection to the murder was the 16-year-old who had gone missing.
Moss told KING 5 that Washington state law prohibits police from interviewing juvenile suspects until they have received permission from an attorney, so they don’t know why the teens allegedly killed the man.
“Trying to figure out why these kids did this, we don’t get to sit them down and talk to them,” Moss told the outlet. “The law makes it so the juveniles have to have the attorney present before we can do the interviews.”
Source: Dailywire
