EVERETT — Fugitive John Blaine Reed was captured in Mexico Thursday, a day after Snohomish County prosecutors filed aggravated murder charges against him for the execution-style killings of his former neighbors.
Reed, 53, was booked into the Pima County Jail in Arizona, Snohomish County sheriff’s Lt. Doug Jeske said Friday. The former Oso man had evaded police since April 11, when Patrick Shunn and Monique Patenaude were reported missing. Reed and his younger brother fled to Mexico days after the killings.
Reed is accused of shooting Shunn and Patenaude at close range. The Oso couple was found in a shallow grave May 24 after Reed’s brother led detectives to the rural burial site.
“I know that the Shunn family is relieved. Hopefully they are one step closer to John Reed being brought to justice and made accountable for his horrible actions,” said Steven Robinson, a Seattle attorney who represents Shunn’s father in a wrongful death lawsuit.
The family was holding a memorial service Friday for Shunn, a former Army Ranger.
Reed was captured by Mexican authorities who expelled him from the country for immigration violations, Jeske said. He was taken into custody at the U.S.-Mexico border and turned over to jailers in Tucson, Arizona. The U.S. Marshal’s Office has been working with authorities from the Policia Estatal Investigadora in Sonora, Mexico, to root out the fugitive, Jeske said. There had been a $5 million warrant for Reed’s arrest.
It wasn’t clear when he would be moved to Snohomish County to face charges. Lawyers with the Snohomish County Public Defender Association have been assigned to represent him.
Reed could fight returning to Washington. If that happens, prosecutors will seek a governor’s warrant. In that case, they’ll have to prove that Reed is the same man facing the murder charges, Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Craig Matheson said. That could delay his return to Everett.
“It’s just good to hear he’s been captured alive and that now Monique and Patrick will hopefully get some justice,” Matheson said.
The deputy prosecutor filed aggravated murder charges against Reed on Wednesday, alleging that the defendant is responsible for killing more than one person as a part of a common plan or in a single act. Prosecutors could seek the death penalty. The only other punishment under state law is a life sentence without the possibility of release.
In support of the new charges, Matheson detailed the slain couple’s injuries. Patenaude was shot three times. The medical examiner estimated the gun was just six inches from Patenaude when fired into her neck. That bullet pierced her heart and right lung. She also was shot in the back of the head and right forearm.
Detectives believe Reed killed her first, shortly after she arrived home from running errands in Arlington.
Shunn was last seen alive leaving work that afternoon. He suffered a single gunshot wound to the back of the head. The gun muzzle was no more than three inches away when it was fired, court papers said. Shunn likely had no chance to defend himself, Matheson wrote.
Investigators suspect the killings were motivated by a long-standing feud over a driveway. The only access to Reed’s former property on the Stillaguamish River was an easement road across his neighbor’s land.
“Over the course of the last several years prior to the murders, John Reed and Monique and Patrick had a number of disputes regarding the easement road, its maintenance and access,” Matheson wrote in court papers.
That dispute grew even more acrimonious after the Oso mudslide. Patenaude and Shunn reported that their neighbor was using heavy equipment in the river to move debris to prevent flooding to his property. That led to a misdemeanor conviction for Reed.
He eventually agreed to sell his land to Snohomish County as part of a buyout program for property owners affected by the slide that killed 43 people.
Witnesses told detectives that Patenaude feared her former neighbor’s temper. He was angry about the condemnation of his property and, later, being trespassed from it, court papers said. He allegedly had threatened the Oso couple on multiple occasions.
Patenaude had complained to the county that Reed was squatting in his former home. That led county officials to order Reed to pack up and stay off the land.
Reed allegedly told two people on April 11 that he was going to his former home on Whitman Road to collect his belongings. Investigators believe Reed showed up there just about 30 minutes before Patenaude returned home.
Detectives suspect that after the killings Reed recruited his brother and parents to assist him in cleaning up after the shootings and to flee the state.
Reed’s brother told authorities that the suspect showed up in Ellensburg during the evening of April 11. Reed asked his brother to accompany him back over the mountains. Tony Clyde Reed denied knowing anything about the shootings until he reached his brother’s former property and saw the neighbors’ vehicles parked outside the house.
Patenaude’s body was inside the Jeep and her husband was in the Land Rover. The brothers allegedly waited until about 3 a.m. April 12 to bury the couple and drive their vehicles off an embankment, according to the court papers filed this week. The Reed brothers reportedly then drove back to Ellensburg.
Once there John Reed tried to cash a $96,000 cashier’s check. The money came from the sale of his property. The bank refused to hand over the money in a lump-sum. It provided four checks for $14,000 written to relatives and a $40,000 check to Reed. Detectives worked with the bank to stop payment on the checks and freeze other transactions.
The Reed brothers swapped vehicles and headed south. Their parents, Clyde and Faye Reed, are accused of helping the men elude capture. They recently were charged with rendering criminal assistance and are expected to be arraigned next month.
Tony Clyde Reed surrendered May 16 on the U.S.-Mexican border. He provided information that led detectives to the burial site. He pleaded guilty last month to two counts of rendering criminal assistance. Prosecutors dropped murder charges after confirming Tony Reed was in Ellensburg when the couple was killed.
Searchers likely wouldn’t have found Shunn and Patenaude without his help, Matheson wrote in court papers.
The grave was at the foot of a large upended root-ball in a clear-cut area. The slain couple was buried together. The site was covered with tree branches.
Snohomish County Search and Rescue and trained volunteers from other groups spent thousands of hours scouring the rough terrain for signs of the pair.
Some 60 people gathered in late April at the Oso Fire Station to remember Shunn and Patenaude, including their families, who came from Canada and Oregon after the pair was reported missing.
The mourners remembered a loving couple who spent a lot of time outdoors. Shunn won people over with his dry wit and practical jokes. His wife was an animal lover whose home-cooked meals were legendary among her many friends.
Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463; hefley@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @dianahefley.
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