MARYSVILLE — Investigators still are unraveling a messy home-invasion robbery in Marysville last year that left one man dead and put a half-dozen people behind bars.
The case so far has led to at least five arrests, three gangs and a body found buried near Granite Falls, court records show.
Snohomish County sheriff’s Major Crimes detectives have been rounding up clues and suspects for weeks. They’ve repeatedly declined to release details.
“It’s very complicated,” sheriff’s bureau chief Kevin Prentiss said.
The robbery was reported in December and went something like this:
Multiple people were at a Marysville-area home. Some of them allegedly robbed a man of money and drugs and stole his car. The man later returned to the home with a posse. They were outfitted with bulletproof vests and toted rifles and shotguns.
The group reportedly held a married couple who lived at the home at gunpoint for several hours. They threatened to kill them and family members, and stole some of their property. During the commotion, one of the suspected robbers reportedly went outside and donned a hockey mask. When he came back in, he apparently was gunned down accidentally by one of his cohorts.
Some of the robbers reportedly came back to the home later to clean up the mess and retrieve the body.
Police wrote in court papers that when they served a warrant at the home, someone had made “extensive remodel efforts” in a hallway where the shooting took place, including cutting out and replacing the carpeting. Crime scene technicians also found evidence of blood in the area with new carpet.
The body of Patrick D. Buckmaster, 30, of Tacoma, was recovered earlier this month near Granite Falls. He died from a gunshot wound, and his death was ruled a homicide.
Court papers say detectives believe he was killed in the Marysville home invasion.
Prentiss declined to discuss that information. However, he did say that detectives working the home-invasion robbery are trying to identify possible motives and figuring out who is responsible for what.
Almost everyone involved in the case has significant criminal history. Several have ties to drug-trafficking and criminal gangs, court records show.
The latest arrest related to the case came Saturday after an overnight SWAT raid in the Martha Lake area. Police were there to arrest suspects in an unrelated Everett burglary.
One of the men arrested near Martha Lake is believed to have participated in the fatal Marysville robbery, according to court papers.
Police also believe the man played a role in destroying evidence of the shooting as well as helping to bury the man who died, court records show.
A clearer portrait of what happened is expected to emerge as detectives continue their investigation, and as the people who’ve been arrested are prosecuted in Snohomish County courts. The case likely won’t wrap up anytime soon, Prentiss said.
Rikki King: 425-339-3449; rking@heraldnet.com.
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