Tri-Cities man suspected in New Year’s Eve killing. His mom is accused of hiding the body

A worried son and an anonymous tip led to the discovery of a suspected gruesome murder on New Year’s Eve in the Tri-Cities.

Michael Ray Golden, 23, was arrested Thursday morning in Kennewick on suspicion of second-degree murder. He is being held in lieu of $1 million bail.

His mother, Kari Ann Golden, and his girlfriend Coral Ochoa, 33, are also in jail on suspicion of felony rendering criminal assistance for allegedly helping her son dispose of the body. They are being held in lieu of $100,000 bail each.

Golden is accused of killing his roommate Oscar Munoz, 38, on New Year’s Eve.

His body has not yet been found, but investigators claim Golden admitted to the killing during questioning, according to court documents filed in Benton County.

Both Golden and his mother made initial appearances in Benton County Superior Court on Thursday.

New Year’s Eve killing

Earlier this month, Munoz’s son, Damien Munoz-Navarro, became worried because he had been unable to get reach his father. He filed a missing persons report on Feb. 7 after going to his father’s former residence, a mobile home on the 9000 block of Arrowhead Avenue, and was allegedly told that his father had been “dealing with dangerous people” and they may have hurt him.

Munoz-Navarro was told by a relative of the Goldens that “if Michael got spooked, your family is in danger,” but could not get more information out of the person he spoke to.

After attempting to talk with other residents, he was lied to about his father’s whereabouts. Michael Golden reportedly said that Munoz had been dropped off at a bus station to go to Quincy to see family.

A second person told Munoz-Navarro that she had talked to Golden’s girlfriend and been informed that she heard gunshots while Michael and Munoz were outside on New Year’s Eve. They sometimes referred to Munoz by the nickname “Lucky.”

On Feb. 13, Kennewick police received an anonymous tip that Michael Golden had killed Munoz and that Golden and his mother had dumped the body, according to court documents.

Kennewick police later contacted others who lived at the home and the roommates told police that Michael Golden had been hearing voices and thought Munoz was “going to get him and his girl” so Golden “had to get him first.”

Investigators asked a judge for a search warrant this week and brought Golden, his mother, girlfriend and other relatives, including an elderly family member, to the police department late Wednesday, Feb. 21, to be questioned.

When investigators told Golden that Munoz was missing and they were trying to find him, Golden allegedly told them, “you know what happened.”

Golden first told detectives that it was actually a friend who had killed Munoz, but later admitted that person was never present, according to court documents.

After Golden allegedly admitted to the killing, he told investigators he was hearing voices that made him believe that Munoz was going to possibly shoot him and believed he had to defend himself. He said he confronted Munoz with a shotgun and pointed it at him several times before shooting and killing him, said the documents.

Court documents say Golden’s mother was not present when Munoz was shot, but she lived nearby and came over after.

Golden allegedly told investigators that he, his girlfriend and his mother later used a wheelbarrow to move Munoz’s body from the bedroom where he was shot to the garage. They then took the body to an unknown location in Benton County and buried him in a shallow grave.

Golden said he couldn’t tell officers the exact location, but his mother could. Investigators tracked Kari Golden’s cellphone data to a location near the Yakima River and the Van Giesen Street bridge, but were unable to find a body.

When police served the search warrant this week they found the wheelbarrow with blood all over it. There also were bags and a sheet on the ground covered in blood. One tip police received said they attempted to burn Munoz’s body using diesel fuel, but it’s unclear if police found any evidence of that when they searched the home.