Authorities find new details on last week’s fiery standoff, homicide-suicide in Yelm
The Thurston County Coroner has released details about the deaths of two men in the Yelm area last week.
Emergency responders were dispatched about 7 a.m. Tuesday, May 21, to a motor home and boat fire in the 10500 block of Old McKenna Road. Fire crews later discovered a dead man, prompting a wider investigation of the area by Yelm police and Thurston County Sheriff’s deputies and detectives, The Olympian reported.
About 11:30 a.m. that morning, deputies attempted to execute a search warrant at an adjacent property, Lt. Mike Brooks with Sheriff’s Office told The Olympian.
Deputies found a man and woman inside the home of the dead man. Brooks clarified these individuals were found at property adjacent to where the fire occurred and where the deceased person was found, The Olympian reported.
Brooks said the man displayed a gun and that resulted in a prolonged stand-off with law enforcement. He later took his own life, he said.
The man found dead at the scene was a 67-year-old Yelm resident. He died from a gunshot wound to the head, Coroner Gary Warnock said. The man who took his own life was identified as Abnel B. Quinones, 30, of Yelm, who died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
The older man has not been fully identified because there was an attempt to conceal the man in a burn pit and set it on fire, Warnock added Sunday. As a result, they can’t identify the man using dental records, so his office will take x-rays of the body and compare them to x-rays in the man’s medical records, he said.
The woman was not injured and deputies allowed her to leave the scene once it was secured, Brooks told The Olympian. He does not anticipate the woman will be charged with any crime related to the homicide or standoff.
Brooks added that investigators believe the older man was at least an acquaintance of the man who caused the standoff, The Olympian reported.
The Sheriff’s Office asks anyone with information about this incident to contact detectives at detectives@co.thurston.wa.us.
Two dead, homicide investigation underway after Tuesday fire, standoff at Yelm area home
