BOTHELL — Hours after a hit and run killed a man and a woman on Highway 524, a Chevy Malibu rolled up to a Bothell gas station, with its front windshield caved in and cracked all over on its right side.
Just at that moment, around 1 p.m. Friday, a state trooper was inside the 7-Eleven tediously searching for security footage of the potential suspects driving past the mini mart at 19222 Filbert Road, about a mile west of the crash scene.
“The clerk points out the window at this car that just pulled up to the gas station,” state trooper Rocky Oliphant said.
The man had parked near the gas tanks, as well as a marked Washington State Patrol cruiser, for a pit stop.
The Bothell man, 27, was detained. He reportedly told state troopers he’d driven to work around 5:30 a.m. on Highway 524. He admitted he thought he hit something, but claimed he thought it was a garbage can — a story troopers did not believe, given the massive damage to his Chevy’s front right end. He proceeded to go work, then returned on the same route close to eight hours later, according to the state patrol.
The man was arrested for investigation of two counts of hit and run in a fatal crash.
A jogger first discovered the two bodies around 10 a.m. about 15 feet off the side of the highway near Nellis Road, on a stretch of asphalt with no sidewalks and a skinny shoulder. If the man’s timeline is accurate, the pair may been on the roadside for five hours before someone noticed.
Troopers said the deceased were a man, 32, and a woman, 40. Their names had not been released as of Friday evening. Investigators were working to notify next of kin.
Detectives recovered debris and other potential evidence at the scene. Crash scene investigators believe the Chevy was traveling west, and they were working to confirm when and how exactly the crash happened. It’s unclear where the pedestrians were, relative to the road, when they were hit. Oliphant said they were believed to have died on impact.
Much of the front right end of the car sustained obvious damage.
The suspect was “cooperative” with investigators, Oliphant added. Troopers interviewed him into the evening. He was expected to be booked into the Snohomish County Jail late Friday.
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