MACHIAS — Forensic scientists say the blood collected in 2012 from the windshield of a Lake Stevens man’s car belongs to a woman who was found in a ditch along a rural Snohomish County road.
Red fibers taken from the windshield also appear to have come from Kathryn “Kay” J. Hyde-Donohue. She had on a bright red coat when detectives found her battered body on the side of South Machias Road. Hyde-Donohue died from a brain injury. She also had multiple broken bones. The medical examiner concluded that she was had been struck by a car.
Prosecutors allege that the man who hit her and drove off was drunk. Brandon Michael Jones, 33, was charged earlier this week with vehicular homicide. He also is charged with fleeing the scene of a fatal accident.
Jones was convicted in 2004 of drunken driving.
Everett police first encountered Jones on Dec. 4, 2012, after his girlfriend reported that he refused to leave her apartment. It was about 4 a.m. and Everett officers found Jones lying on a bed. They concluded that he was drunk. The officers told him he had to leave but warned him not to drive, Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Tobin Darrow wrote.
He reportedly told police he would get a friend to pick him up at a nearby 7-Eleven. Officers saw him walking toward the store.
Later that day, Snohomish County sheriff’s deputies were called to Jones’ parents’ house for a domestic disturbance. There, someone showed them the man’s car. The windshield was shattered. The hood was dented and there was damage to the front turn signal and bumper, Darrow wrote.
Blood was visible on the windshield along with what appeared to be human hair.
Jones told police he was driving home from his girlfriend’s house when his windshield imploded. He said he thought he hit a deer along S. Machias Road. When the cops went to the location he described, they found Hyde-Donohue’s body.
They also found broken car parts in the road, a red hat, a shoe and a purse. Hyde-Donohue had been walking on the north edge of the road, Darrow wrote.
Jones has since moved to North Carolina. He is expected to return to Snohomish County for arraignment.
Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463, hefley@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @dianahefley.
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