Deputies conducted four welfare checks on a Washington state home last week before finding the bodies of four people inside on New Year’s Eve.
Investigators also found strange notes about “time of death” in July 2024 on two refrigerators in the two-story home, the Tacoma News Tribune said.
A search warrant says that a woman was found “obviously deceased” on a bed upstairs and a man dead in the master bedroom on the same floor. He was behind a locked door with a bullet hole in it.
In a bathroom, deputies found a .45-caliber handgun, a fired shell casing, a bullet fragment, an ammunition cartridge, and a cell phone.
Those items were found on December 31, when deputies entered the home with the assistance of the homeowner couple’s sons. Deputies had been asked to conduct a welfare check three other times, according to the search warrant, but they didn’t enter the home because they saw nothing to indicate anything was amiss.
In one of those calls, on December 29, an online friend of one of the couple’s sons contacted them to say the son’s girlfriend had made statements on social media about committing suicide with the son. Another welfare check call came in on December 23, when a neighbor said they hadn’t seen the couple or the son since August.
The online friend, who lived in Florida, helped deputies reach another son, who went with another brother to the house on December 31, calling deputies to accompany them. They removed an air conditioning unit and entered, finding first the bodies upstairs.
After obtaining a search warrant, two more bodies were found, although deputies did not say where they were located. Documents say deputies could not distinguish ages or genders by looking at the bodies.
They also found the notes, all attached to leaking refrigerators. Two notes on the kitchen refrigerator, which was partly open with door propped against it, said “Time of Death July 24th 5:45 AM” and “Time of death July 24th 3:00 PM.”
Another note was found in a large refrigerator or freezer in the home’s attached garage referenced “date of death” from earlier in 2024, possibly also July, the document said.
Other items found were a shotgun, behind a leather chair in an upstairs hallway and a “message on papers” in an envelop on the leather chair. Other notes were found on the threshold of the front door and under the garage door.
The documents said deputies were going to search a blue 1992 Corvette parked in the driveway and two other vehicles in the garage that were said to be packed full of items.
The son who helped deputies get into the home said he hadn’t spoken with his father since September but that wasn’t unusual. He said what was unusual was that truck had been repossessed from the driveway. His father was always outside working on the vehicle, he said.
The coroner has not released the identities of the victims. Police say there are no outstanding suspects.
