Sound engineer fatally shot outside motel room

A sound engineer who worked on live performances by the likes of B.B. King, Nirvana and Alice Cooper has been shot to death at a motel in Twisp, Wash.

Tom Pfaeffle, 49, staying with his wife on vacation at the Blue Spruce Motel, apparently put his room key into the wrong door Friday night and was hit in the upper chest by a bullet fired through the closed door, Police Chief Rick Balam told KING Television of Seattle.

Pfaeffle died two hours later at Mid-Valley Hospital in Omak.

A second shot went through a wall into another room and landed harmlessly on a guest who was doing a crossword puzzle in bed, motel owner Randy Martin told The Wenatchee World newspaper.

A 57-year-old man surrendered without further incident and was jailed for investigation of second-degree murder and assault, Balam said.

"This is something that never happens in Twisp," Martin said. "That's why we all live here."

The 16-room motel was full, and "there'd been no sign of trouble, whatsoever, from either room," the owner said. "It was just kind of a shock to everybody."

According to a biography at The Tank Studio, which Pfaeffle ran in Black Diamond, southeast of Seattle, he worked as a sound engineer with B.B. King, Alice Cooper, Nirvana, Queensryche, Aerosmith and other bands and performers in live concerts.

"He is a Seattle icon of sound," said Phillip Peterson of Kay Kay and the Weathered Underground, an indie band for which Pfaeffle produced several songs and videos.

"When we were just starting out the group, he really believed in what were doing musically," band leader Kirk Huffman told KING-TV, "so he took out loans from the bank in order to put out records for us."

Pfaeffle taught audio production at the Art Institute of Seattle and worked in the recording, touring and audio mixing business for more than 30 years, according to his studio biography.

"He was always behind the scenes," said Nate Mooter, a Kay Kay band member. "He wasn't the guy that everyone looked at and said, 'Oh he's amazing' ... he was the one who made people sound amazing."