Puyallup neighbor charged in killing of developmentally disabled teen

Tyler Wolfegang Savage, 18, was charged Tuesday in the rape and killing of 16-year-old Kimberly "Kimmie" Daily, a developmentally disabled girl who had lived in his South Hill Puyallup neighborhood.

If convicted of aggravated murder, Savage could face the death penalty, according to a news release from Pierce County Prosecutor Mark Lindquist's office. The release said Lindquist hasn't decided whether he will seek that sentence or life in prison without parole.

On Monday, Savage led detectives to Kimberly's body, according to charging documents. She was hidden beneath her bicycle in a large thicket of blackberry bushes and brambles just blocks from her home.

Kimberly had been missing since Aug. 17, when she left her home to bike to a friend's house. The next day sheriff's deputies began a full-scale search, which included going door to door to interview neighbors.

"There's nobody who isn't a person of interest when something like this happens," said Detective Ed Troyer, a spokesman for the Pierce County Sheriff's Office, about Kimberly's disappearance.

As detectives investigated, "we weren't able to eliminate" Savage as a person of interest "and as we talked to people in the neighborhood, he became a stronger suspect," Troyer said.

According to charging documents, detectives said Savage provided them with the following account:

He saw Kimberly the day she disappeared and persuaded her to cross the street and accompany him more than 50 feet into the brushy area of a vacant lot near his home.

After about 15 minutes, he said, Kimberly told him she needed to leave. When she got up to go, Savage said, he grabbed her around the neck and choked her until she died.

Savage also told detectives he'd had sexual contact with Kimberly. After she was dead, he told detectives, he left her body in the brambles and threw her bicycle on top of her, according to court documents.

By 4 p.m. that day, he said, he was at a neighbor's house playing the Dungeons and Dragons Online video game in an effort to "forget," according to the documents.

Savage told detectives he had known Kimberly for more than two years.

Cecil Daily, Kimberly's father, told detectives the girl was developmentally delayed and three years behind a normal physical growth pattern. He said she had been a Special Olympics participant.

"The rape and murder of Kimberly Daily, an innocent child and Special Olympian, is a horrible crime," Lindquist said in the news release. "This is a tragic loss for Kimberly's family, her neighborhood, and the entire community."

A spokeswoman for the Puyallup School District said Savage is enrolled as a senior at Emerald Ridge High School.

He is being held without bail in the Pierce County Jail.

Seattle Times staff reporter Sara Jean Green contributed to this report.

Carly Flandro: 206-464-2108 or cflandro@seattletimes.com