Sex offender arrested in Monroe strangulation case
Published 2:22 pm Friday, September 17, 2010
MONROE – A sex offender was arrested in Seattle this morning in connection with the murder of a Monroe woman whose body was found in her apartment last month, police said.
Angela Pettifer, 36, was found strangled Aug. 15.
The 45-year-old suspect rented a business suite in the Savoy building in downtown Monroe and lived one floor below Pettifer. He has been arrested on suspicion of second-degree murder.
Police arrested the handyman at a job site in Seattle.
The arrest comes after DNA taken from Pettifer’s third-floor apartment was returned from the Washington State Patrol’s Crime Lab as a positive match to the suspect, Monroe Police Department spokeswoman Debbie Willis said.
The suspect was the last known person to see Pettifer that night., Willis said
A search warrant was served on his business suite Aug. 26. Three days later, he was served with an additional search warrant to obtain DNA from a swab inside his cheek .
Results of the tests were returned to the police department on Thursday.
Police found glass shards from a hot sauce bottle at the crime scene, Willis said. Their investigation revealed the suspect had bought hot sauce a few days earlier.
Monroe police have had previous contact with the suspect, a Level 1-sex offender through monthly registered sex offender checks, Willis said
Pettifer had been out with her father Aug. 14 in downtown Monroe. The two separated and he took a cab home.
A couple saw her outside the building as she attempted to find the right key to get inside. The couple tried to help her and identified the suspect as someone who offered to take her up to her apartment, Willis said.
All four went up to the third floor before the couple left.
No one had heard from Pettifer by morning.
The father of her 14-year-old son went to check on her. He found her unresponsive and summoned help.
Family members said Pettifer had moved to Monroe about a year before to make a fresh start. She’d been severely beaten by a boyfriend in 2008.
Pettifer lived with her sister for awhile until she found her own place. She found a job as a waitress at the Red Robin in Monroe and quickly made friends.
Pettifer “had a wonderful heart, a catching smile and a great sense of humor,” her family wrote in her obituary.
She loved spending time with her son and daughter, 7, her family said.
Eric Stevick: estevick@heraldnet.com.
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