Ex-Everett woman charged in Arizona slayings now suspected of two crimes in California

Six days after they allegedly killed a 9-year-old girl and her father in a home-invasion robbery in Arizona, Shawna Forde and Jason Eugene Bush checked into a motel in Cottonwood, Calif., under their own names.

During the three days they were in the Northern California town, Forde, 41, and Bush, 34, are suspected of orchestrating at least two crimes that preyed on family members and friends who lived in the area, according to Sgt. John Hubbard of the Shasta County Sheriff's Department.

According to Hubbard, a safe containing several hundred dollars was stolen from Forde's half-brother and nearly $12,000 was stolen in a home-invasion robbery that targeted a Shasta Lake couple who are friends of Forde's mother. Forde's mother lives in nearby Redding, Calif.

Charges have not yet been filed in connection with the California robbery and theft, but Hubbard said the information will be forwarded to Shasta County prosecutors.

"We just made the connections today," said Hubbard on Wednesday.

Forde, Bush and a third person, Albert Robert Gaxiola, 42, were arrested and charged last week in connection with the May 30 slayings of 9-year-old Brisenia Flores and her 29-year-old father Raul Flores in a small town near the Mexican border.

Investigators with the Pima County Sheriff's Department in Arizona have said that Forde, of Everett, believed there were drugs and cash in the home and was hoping to use proceeds from the crime to fund her freelance campaign to keep illegal immigrants out of the country.

According to Pima County sheriff's deputies, Forde, Bush and Gaxiola forced their way into the Flores home, and shot the girl, her father and her mother.

The mother survived, however, and shot Bush in the leg, police said.

According to Hubbard, Forde and Bush "were running back and forth between Everett and Arizona" when they checked into the Alamo Motel and RV Park in Cottonwood on June 6.

They told the hotel managers that Forde was an agent with the U.S. Border Patrol and that Bush was in the military.

"He said he was on leave because he had been injured and he even showed them his wound," said Hubbard.

According to the motel manager, who asked not to be named, Bush showed him "a hole in the side of his leg" that had been bandaged.

The motel manager said he and his girlfriend called police Wednesday after they recognized Forde and Bush on a television-news program.