Police question man in fatal fire in University Place

UNIVERSITY PLACE, Pierce County — Authorities say a man considered a person of interest in a house fire where two bodies were found early Thursday had been the subject of a protection order filed a day earlier by a relative who owned the home.

They're investigating whether the fire may have been set in retaliation for the order, in which the homeowner claimed the man had struck her, and that she felt like a prisoner in her own home.

The person of interest, who lived at the home with the woman and a tenant, was questioned on Thursday, said Ed Troyer, spokesman for the Pierce County Sheriff's Office. The man, who has a history of mental illness and run-ins with police, was later released, Troyer said.

"We're not holding him ... he's talking to us voluntarily," Troyer said.

Authorities are actively investigating the case as a double homicide, he said.

The identities of the two found in the home weren't officially confirmed Thursday, but neighbors and relatives of the woman identified her as Rachel Kalebu, 62, and said the tenant was a former professional football player. Troyer said Thursday both were unaccounted for.

"We won't know their identities until the medical examiner confirms them," Troyer said. "There's no way of telling right now."

"They were good, quiet neighbors," said a neighbor who didn't want to be identified, "It's sad, very sad."

The blaze ignited shortly after 2 a.m. at the house in the 5500 block of 64th Avenue West, Troyer said. Authorities recovered both bodies later in the morning while sifting through the charred ruins of the house. The person of interest showed up while investigators were at the home.

"He just came roaming into the crime scene," Troyer said.

The man faces trial next month for allegedly threatening to kill his mother while living with her in 2008, according to court records. Deputies also had recently arrested him for obstruction and resisting arrest charges, records show.

The fire almost immediately raised suspicion because the homeowner had applied for a restraining order against the man on Wednesday, Troyer said.

The Times is not naming the man because he has not been charged in connection with the deaths.

According to Kalebu's petition, filed Wednesday in Pierce County Superior Court, the man has "threatened to harm me many times" and had struck her.

She said he "commands me and orders me around as if I am his junior ... I would like to have peace in my house."

The woman asked the court to prohibit him from coming within 20 feet of her. She also requested the court to direct him to take medication prescribed for mental-health problems, the petition shows.

Kalebu was granted a temporary restraining order until a court hearing to consider her petition for a permanent order, records show.

Kalebu's niece, Barbara Semakula, said the man had been threatening Kalebu for about two months before Thursday's fire. Kalebu's brother, Joshua, said that, given the man's illness, the fire came as no surprise to him.

"I was almost certain it was going to happen," he said.

"He's been diagnosed bipolar and, you know, he's gotten into trouble and been arrested a couple of times and Rachel bailed him out because she was an affectionate person," he said, adding "and the end result is what you see."

The man was facing trial for domestic-violence charges in King County, where prosecutors charged him last year with felony harassment and first-degree malicious mischief. The case is set for trial on Aug. 6.

In that case, prosecutors allege the man threatened to kill his mother after she confronted him in March 2008 for not taking prescribed medication for "bipolar and manic-depressive" conditions, a police affidavit states.

At the time of the man's arrest, he had been living in King County with his mother, her two small children, and another woman, court records say.

Among other things, the man told his mother to "enjoy your last day on earth," before leaving the house, according to records. He returned the next day and threw a large rock into the windshield of his mother's car, court papers say, then told her and others at the house, "You're all dead."

After his arrest, a state psychologist evaluated the man at Western State Hospital in May 2008. The evaluation found the man "did not have the capacity to rationally understand" the case against him at that time.

More recently, the man had lived with the woman in her University Place home. Pierce County deputies arrested him there June 29, after a neighbor called animal control to report he was allowing his pit bull to run loose, Troyer said.

"He got in a fight with a deputy, and we had to use a Taser and beanbag gun to get him subdued," Troyer said. "We arrested him at the scene."

Lewis Kamb: 206-464-2341 or lkamb@seattletimes.com