MARYSVILLE – Two men sought in the killing of a 73-year-old Marysville woman were arrested Monday night in Missouri.
“It’s really a needle in a haystack that they found them,” Marysville police Cmdr. Robb Lamoureux told reporters late Tuesday at a press conference. “This is where the investigation really starts.”
The woman was found dead Monday inside her Marysville home. Police were looking for Joshua Gilliam, 25, and Ryan Miller, 22 in connection with the case.
“At this point, it is safe to say that they are suspects,” Lamoureux said.
The men allegedly left a trail for detectives: They reportedly had been using the victim’s credit cards.
Detectives suspected the men were traveling in a red Buick along the stretch of highway from Iowa to Missouri, Lamoureux said. They notified Missouri police.
The suspects were arrested just before 9 p.m. Tuesday at a rest stop, Lamoureux said.
“We are actively pursuing murder warrants,” he said.
Marysville detectives were expected to travel to Missouri on Wednesday morning.
The 73-year-old woman who was found dead in her home Monday filed for a protection order last year against one of the men police say may be connected to the slaying.
The woman in September told a Snohomish County judge she was afraid of Joshua Gilliam, her granddaughter’s ex-boyfriend, according to the request for the protection order.
Gilliam and Miller were seen on video surveillance at a Snohomish County store where one of the homicide victim’s credit cards was used sometime over the weekend.
Gilliam, a convicted sex offender, used to live with the victim and her adult granddaughter, according to court documents. The protection order was dismissed in the fall after nobody in the case showed up for a hearing.
Detectives would like to determine the men’s level of involvement, if any, in the slaying, Marysville Cmdr. Robb Lamoureux said. Police had released still photographs of the surveillance tape, asking for the public’s help to find the men.
The men were believed to be driving a red 1998 Buick Century. The car was spotted early Sunday in Butte, Mont. Neighbors say the victim owned a car matching that description.
The victim’s credit cards were used about three times at stores in Snohomish County and once again as the men apparently headed east, Lamoureux said.
Lamoureux said police consider Gilliam a “person of strong interest.”
The victim asked a judge in September to prohibit Gilliam from contacting her granddaughter, 24, whom he had been dating.
The younger woman’s mental health problems made her incapable of caring for herself. The victim in 1999 was appointed as her guardian. The victim alleged that Gilliam had coerced her granddaughter to steal and to give him money to buy drugs.
She also alleged that Gilliam assaulted her granddaughter. Her granddaughter was opposed to the protection order because “she is afraid of being alone,” the older woman wrote in court documents.
Detectives have interviewed the granddaughter, Lamoureux said.
“We do not believe she has any involvement,” he said.
The woman who was killed explained at the time how her granddaughter had lived with her since the girl was 4. A guardian ad litem told a judge that the younger woman’s “grandmother is her only constant source of support and success in her life,” according to court documents.
Court records show that Gilliam was dating the victim’s granddaughter and lived with them beginning in 2003. At the time he was undergoing sex offender treatment after being convicted as a juvenile in 2000 for sexually assaulting a young relative. Gilliam was diagnosed as having schizophrenia, according to court documents.
Gilliam was charged in January with drug possession after he was caught with a needle and syringe full of heroin, court records show. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two months in jail. He also has convictions for violating a no-contact order, assault and displaying a weapon, according to court documents.
An Arlington police detective recognized Miller in the surveillance photos. He also has a criminal history, including numerous misdemeanor assault convictions. Most recently Miller pleaded guilty to second-degree attempted theft after he stole a safe full of jewelry from a woman who had let him live in a tent on her property.
Miller was a ward of the state and spent time in group homes. He has been diagnosed with mental health problems. While he was in jail in 2007, a counselor reported that he stripped himself naked and crawled under the bed in his cell. He also fouled his cell with urine and feces, court papers show.
Washington State Patrol crime scene investigators and Marysville police continued Tuesday to search the victim’s home for evidence. The road remained blocked off to traffic.
Officers were called Monday morning to the slain woman’s home in the 7100 block of 70th Avenue NE.
Neighbor Julie Griffith often heard loud arguments coming from the home. Last summer, Griffith’s father was visiting and painting the exterior when he, too, heard raised voices coming from the home.
“It’s scary,” Griffith said. “I don’t feel like it’s somebody random going around doing these horrible things.”
Still, she said she reminded her teenage boys to stay safe.
“I hope they find whoever did it,” she said.
A few doors down, Barbara Prajzner said she recognized Gilliam’s face. She saw him about a month ago taking garbage cans out from the same house where police on Tuesday still were working to collect evidence.
While she didn’t know the woman who lived there well, “She seemed like a nice lady,” Prajzner said.
Jackson Holtz: 425-339-3437, jholtz@heraldnet.com
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