Thursday, December 27, 2007 - Page updated at 12:48 AM

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GREG GILBERT

King County Sheriff Deputies gather near a home just south of Carnation where they found multiple bodies.


GREG GILBERT

Family friend Mark Bennett stands outside area police taped off. He's worried about who has died.


Suspect in Carnation slayings is related to victims, police say

Seattle Times staff reporters

One of two suspects in the slayings of six people near Carnation is the daughter of the oldest victims, police said.

The 29-year-old daughter of victims Judy and Wayne Anderson, who own the property in the 1800 block of 248th Avenue Northeast, has been identified as a suspect on the slayings that occurred on Christmas Eve. The suspect's boyfriend has also been arrested in connection with the slayings, authorities said.

The couple have been booked into the King County Jail for six counts of investigation of homicide.

Charges are expected to be filed by the end of the week, said King County sheriff's spokesman John Urquhart.

"We now have to process the [crime] scene," he said.

The suspects were arrested after they apparently showed up at the crime scene while police were there, Urquhart said. He said it wasn't his impression the two came to the home to turn themselves in.

The victims were slain on Monday, but their bodies weren't found until this morning.

Urquhart said authorities received a 911 call from the home sometime Monday evening, but the caller immediately hung up. Deputies were dispatched to the home, but encountered a locked gate. For some reason deputies didn't investigate further.

"From everything I'm hearing it wouldn't have made a difference," Urquhart said.

Authorities couldn't confirm the names of the other four victims. They are described as a man and a woman in their 30s, a 6-year-old girl and a 3-year-old boy.

A neighbor of Judy and Wayne Anderson's son, Scott and his wife Erica, said sheriff's deputies talked to him today about the whereabouts of the couple and their two children, a 6-year-old girl and a 3-year-old boy. Another neighbor said the couple left their Black Diamond home on Christmas Eve bound for Scott's parents' house in Carnation, but haven't returned.

Boeing spokesman Peter Conte said Wayne Anderson was a Boeing engineer. Conte said the company was contacted by authorities today and was told Anderson "was the victim of a crime." Conte said he could not elaborate.

Mark Bennett, 58, who identified himself as a family friend, said he spoke with the couple on Christmas Eve and tried to call them Christmas Day but could not reach them. He told reporters he came to the property this morning after seeing the home on television news.

"I didn't want to believe what I heard and saw," he said, "so I drove over."

Bennett said the Andersons have three children. One daughter, Michelle, lives on the property in the 1800 block of 346th Avenue Northeast in a mobile home, he said.

Bennett said he used to run a coffee shop with another daughter, Mary, who lives in nearby North Bend. A son also lives in the area, he said.

Detective Bob Conner called it a "complex and large" investigation involving the King County Sheriff's Office major crimes unit.

About 15 to 20 people are at the scene gathering evidence. The Medical Examiner will release the cause and manner of the deaths.

The deaths mark the state's worst mass slaying since Kyle Huff, 28, killed six people and wounded two others in a Capitol Hill house before fatally shooting himself on March 25, 2006.

Seattle Times staff reporters Christina Siderius, Rachel Tuinstra, Jack Broom and Jennifer Sullivan and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Jennifer Sullivan: 206-464-8294 or jensullivan@seattletimes.com.