Neighbor's request leads to 1st of 2 bodies near Burien

By Ken Armstrong
Seattle Times staff reporter

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A neighbor's request for help in loading a piece of luggage into a Cadillac early yesterday led a South King County man to make an unusual discovery.

Visible under see-through plastic were human remains.

"You couldn't miss it," said Phillip Woodson Sr., the man asked to help. "It was a body."

The discovery was part of a series of events in what became an apparent murder-suicide, said Sgt. Jim Fuda of the King County Sheriff's Office.

After police were notified about the body, the suspect shot and killed himself, Fuda said.

Authorities did not release the names of the two dead people last night.

The incidents took place in the 12200 block of Second Avenue Southwest, in an unincorporated part of King County between Seattle and Burien.

Shortly after midnight, Woodson said, a neighbor asked for help putting some luggage in the trunk of his Cadillac, saying he had a bad back.

"I said, 'Are you going on a trip or something?' " Woodson said. "And he said, 'I'll tell you later.' "

When he went next door, Woodson said, the neighbor "opens the back door and wheels out a body on a dolly."

The suspect offered Woodson $50 to help put the body in the trunk, Woodson said. When Woodson refused, the suspect offered him $50 to not say anything about the body.

Woodson went back to his house and had a friend call police.

When sheriff's deputies arrived, the suspect had gone to a different neighbor's house, Fuda said. Deputies heard a gunshot, then called for help from a SWAT team, hostage negotiators and the major-crimes unit.

Police tried to talk the suspect into coming out of the house, Fuda said.

Around 5:30 a.m., members of the SWAT team went into the house and discovered that the suspect was dead, Fuda said.

Around 7 a.m., police found a body, presumably the one Woodson's friend had called about. It was inside the trunk of a Cadillac in the suspect's driveway.

The suspect, in his mid-20s, was described by neighbors as a friendly man who liked to talk and was fond of music.

Neighbor Andrea Slingsby said the man was quick with a favor, and on the Fourth of July bought fireworks for her sons.

"For a while he was part of the family," Slingsby said. "He would come over and have dinner with us."Ken Armstrong: 206-464-3730 or karmstrong@seattletimes.com

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