OSO — The manhunt for two brothers suspected of killing an Arlington-area couple has crossed state lines and could jump the border into Mexico.
Detectives on Tuesday morning said they located the vehicle driven by brothers John and Tony Reed, who are suspected of murdering Patrick Shunn, 45, and Monique Patenaude, 46, last week before fleeing the Pacific Northwest. The red 2007 Volkswagen EOS Coupe was found in Phoenix.
A Snohomish County Superior Court judge Tuesday signed arrest warrants for the brothers, setting bail at $5 million each. Also Tuesday, prosecutors charged the Reeds with two counts of first-degree murder and unlawful gun possession.
The couple’s bodies haven’t been recovered, and it’s unclear how they were killed. However, significant amounts of blood were found in their vehicles, in John Reed’s pickup truck and at his former property, Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Craig Matheson wrote in court papers.
“The circumstances surrounding the disappearance of Patrick Shunn and Monique Patenaude lead to the inescapable conclusion that they are dead,” he wrote.
Detectives now believe the Reed brothers are driving a 2002 Gold Acura 3.2 TL with Arizona plate BNN-9968. A car with that license plate was spotted near Calexico, California, on Monday, about three miles from the border between the U.S. and Mexico.
“The exact location of the Reed brothers is unknown, but there is reason to believe they may be trying to flee to Mexico,” said Shari Ireton, a spokeswoman for the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office.
Sheriff’s detectives are working with the Phoenix Police Department homicide unit and U.S. Marshals to try to find John Blaine Reed, 53, and Tony Clyde Reed, 49. They are considered armed and dangerous.
John Reed reportedly visited his parents’ home in Ellensburg after the killings but had left by Thursday. He left behind his red pickup truck, and detectives found blood on the passenger side floorboard. The suspects’ father denied knowing where his sons were headed. He said even if he knew their whereabouts he wouldn’t tell police.
Two men in Phoenix told investigators that they’d been contacted Saturday by John Reed, who admitted he was on the run. The two men gave the Reeds $500 cash and the keys to the Acura, according to charging papers. The Reeds likely left Phoenix sometime Sunday or early Monday morning.
As the dragnet shifted south, more than two dozen searchers Tuesday also were tromping through the brush and hovering overhead in a helicopter as they tried to find the missing couple.
At least 25 sheriff’s deputies and volunteers were searching a 23-square-mile area in a remote and heavily wooded area north of the Oso home of Shunn and Patenaude. They disappeared April 11.
The group included Snohomish County Search and Rescue man trackers, a swift water team and a human remains-detection dog team as well as the helicopter rescue team in SnoHAWK1, and an operations support unit, Ireton said.
Ground teams will search areas off nearby roads and spur roads, wooded areas and waterways, Ireton said.
Forensic scientists are testing blood evidence collected a various crime scenes, including the missing couple’s vehicles, according to court documents. Detectives found blood-stained coveralls at John Reed’s former home. They also located bloody clothing stuffed in sacks outside the home near a fire pit. The clothing reeked of gasoline.
Police also found guns and ammunition at Reed’s former house. They located three spent 9mm casings inside. A 9mm shell casing also was discovered just outside the locked gate at the driveway that leads to the missing couple’s home and Reed’s former property. It appeared that the round recently had been fired, Matheson wrote.
Searchers using a helicopter and armed with cellphone data located the couple’s vehicles Thursday. The Jeep and Land Rover had been driven or pushed down a steep embankment and covered with cut branches and limbs. At the top of the embankment searchers found a number of tools under a tarp, which also was covered with freshly cut branches, according to search warrants.
The Reeds might have been using all-terrain vehicles to access the site in the days after the couple disappeared, police wrote.
Sheriff Ty Trenary said his department’s top priority in the case is to find the couple, who bought their property in 2012. Family said their passion was their 20-acre farm and the animals they raised there.
Search warrants made public Monday point to an ongoing property dispute as a possible motive in the couple’s disappearance.
John Reed was squatting on the land he sold to Snohomish County earlier this year, according to court papers. Patenaude recently complained to the county that her former neighbor remained on the property. The county told Reed to collect his personal belongings and leave.
Patenaude had told a friend that she feared John Reed “as he had made threats to harm her and her husband, often acted ‘crazy’ and aggressive, was upset by the manner in which the aftermath of the Oso slide had been handled and was very angry about the condemnation of his property and being subsequently trespassed from it,” Matheson wrote.
The neighbors lived along Whitman Road on the western edge of the Oso mudslide. Their properties were eligible for county buyouts related to the March 2014 disaster. Reed opted for a buyout. The missing couple declined.
The brothers are convicted felons. Tony Reed also has 40 misdemeanor convictions.
Anyone who has information about this investigation should call the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office anonymous tipline at 425-388-3845.
Reporter Rikki King contributed to this story.
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