EDMONDS — An Edmonds man suspected of sexually assaulting two boys was arrested Sunday on a boat near the Florida coast, apparently during an attempt to flee the country, according to police.
The man, 34, is being held in the Lee County Jail in Florida. He is expected to be extradited to Snohomish County to face charges of child rape and child molestation.
According to charging papers filed in Snohomish County Superior Court last week, the man put vodka in a boy’s juice when they were playing video games in January. After he passed out, the man sexually assaulted him, the charges say.
The other boy reported to authorities that the man also had molested him.
Both boys were under the age of 14.
Police initially couldn’t find the suspect. Family members reported he had plans to go to either Alaska or Florida. He reportedly sold his sailboat in February. The new owner told police the suspect had mentioned plans of sailing a boat to the Florida Keys, then south to the Caribbean.
After obtaining a judge’s permission, detectives tracked the man’s phone to Pine Island, near the southern tip of Florida.
The Edmonds Police Department’s Street Crime Unit “determined that the suspect had fled to Florida and was preparing to flee the country via boat.”
Edmonds police determined the man suspected of sexually assaulting two boys “had fled to Florida and was preparing to flee the country via boat.” (Edmonds Police Department)
U.S. Marshals and Lee County sheriff’s deputies arrested him Sunday off the Florida coast. In an interview with detectives, the man “made many admissions related to the case,” according to a news release from the Edmonds Police Department.
Edmonds detective Stacie Trykar led the investigation, with help from the Snohomish County Violent Offenders Task Force.
Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Taryn Jones requested bail be set at $250,000, noting the man’s ex-girlfriend filed a protection order against him in King County Superior Court.
According to the woman’s petition, the man made “multiple homicidal threats” toward his ex-wife, as well as law enforcement and a judge. He “made statements about how the police would never take him alive and that he would kill as many as he could on the way out,” Jones wrote.
Detectives are investigating whether there are more victims.
Zachariah Bryan: 425-339-3431; zbryan@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @zachariahtb.
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