Two dead, homicide investigation underway after Tuesday fire, standoff at Yelm area home
A fire crew’s discovery of a dead body in the Yelm area led to a protracted standoff with law enforcement Tuesday, and ended with an apparent suicide.
The incident began at about 7 a.m. Tuesday as Yelm police responded to a “suspicious situation” in the 10500 block of Old McKenna Road Southeast, according to a news release from the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office.
The local fire department initially responded to the block to extinguish a fire involving a motor home and a boat. At the scene of the fire, the release says fire crews discovered a “suspected deceased person.”
Yelm police and Sheriff’s deputies and detectives investigated the area. At around 11:30 a.m. that morning, deputies attempted to execute a search warrant at an adjacent property, Lt. Mike Brooks with Sheriff’s Office said.
Deputies found two individuals inside the home of the suspected deceased person, the release says. Brooks clarified these individuals were found at property adjacent to where the fire occurred and where the deceased person was found.
Brooks said one of individuals at the home, a man in his 30s, displayed a gun, and that prompted a prolonged stand-off with law enforcement. KOMO News reported the second person was a hostage, but Brooks told The Olympian they were neither a hostage nor an accomplice.
“That probably sounds crazy for us normal folks,” Brooks said. “This is sort of the criminal underground world and they do weird stuff. ... It doesn’t make a lot of sense but sometimes these things don’t.”
Brooks described the second person as a woman in her 20s who was in a brief dating relationship with the armed man.
The Thurston County SWAT Team was called in and tried to negotiate with the armed man, according to the release. In a Facebook post, Sheriff Derek Sanders said Washington State Patrol bomb squad also was on scene and the roadways in the area were closed.
The man with the gun ended the stand-off at about 7 p.m. by fatally shooting himself, Brooks said. The woman was not injured and deputies allowed her to leave the scene once it was secured, Brooks said.
Brooks said Wednesday he does not anticipate the woman will be charged with any crime related to the homicide or stand-off.
Later that evening, law enforcement confirmed the presence of the dead body spotted earlier by fire crews and resumed their investigation, according to the release.
Brooks described the deceased person as a Yelm area man in his 60s. Brooks said investigators believe he was at least an acquaintance of the man who caused the standoff.
“The homicide investigation is ongoing as investigators continue to review evidence and conduct follow-up interviews,” the release says.
The Sheriff’s Office asks anyone with information about this incident to contact detectives at detectives@co.thurston.wa.us.
