Everett sex abuse suspect accused of girlfriend’s murder in Seattle

SEATTLE — Seattle police arrested a former paraeducator Tuesday for investigation of murdering his girlfriend as he awaited a verdict in Snohomish County on child sex abuse charges.

John Curran, 41, was a former volunteer volleyball coach at the Boys & Girls Club. He also worked as a special needs educator at Everett High School. In 2021, Snohomish County prosecutors charged Curran with sexually assaulting a student over the course of about a year in 2020. Earlier this year, prosecutors had added another charge of third-degree child molestation.

In January 2022, King County prosecutors also charged Curran with third-degree rape of a child in connection with alleged abuse of the same victim.

Curran pleaded not guilty to all counts. The defendant agreed to a bench trial in which Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Anna Alexander reviewed evidence to come to a verdict without a jury.

For the Snohomish County charges, Curran was scheduled to receive the judge’s verdict and potentially be sentenced next week. Since the initial charges, prosecutors did not object to Curran remaining out of custody.

On Sept. 29, Seattle police responded to a 911 call reporting a 32-year-old woman not breathing at a house in the 6000 block of Woodland Place N near Green Lake in Seattle, where Curran lived in the basement of his family’s home, according to a police report.

The 911 caller was later identified as the suspect.

“Uh, my girlfriend,” Curran said, according to court papers. “I don’t know. I think she’s dead.”

Arriving officers found Curran in the basement with his hands raised. He told police his girlfriend of over two years was staying with him that night. He claimed she drank about half a gallon of vodka, “repeatedly fell down” and rolled into a cinder block resting near the edge of the bed, according to court papers.

According to court documents, an autopsy showed she suffered nine rib fractures and numerous other grisly injuries throughout her body.

The King County Medical Examiner’s Office determined the woman died of internal bleeding in the lower stomach, likely caused by a “blow, a punch or a stomp on her body.” The blunt force trauma was inconsistent with “falling down from a standing position, rolling off a bed or falling to a cinder block,” detectives wrote. And alcohol was not believed to be a contributor in her death.

During an interview, Curran showed police three videos he took of her earlier that night — which he claimed he’d taken “to show her what she was like when she’s drunk.”

Curran reportedly told police he was “going to prison in 10 days,” according to the report. Curran reported he was innocent, but that he pleaded guilty anyway.

“You are all trying to pin something on me,” Curran reportedly told police.

More than a week later, police interviewed Curran again on Tuesday.

He provided inconsistent reports to police, detectives wrote.

In one interview, he reported he’d been watching TV and they watched the movie “Jumanji” together.

Later he reportedly said they’d been wrestling and having sex.

At one point, he claimed two men in Shoreline kidnapped his girlfriend on the night she died. He later asserted she cheated on him that night with two men from Shoreline.

Curran reported he couldn’t remember “half the night” because he was more drunk than he originally reported, according to the report.

Detectives asked Curran to clarify what he couldn’t remember.

“You already got me, man,” Curran reportedly told police.

He acknowledged he’d gotten into an argument with his girlfriend that night. Investigators showed Curran a picture of the deceased woman, asking “if it was possible he did this” to her.

“I don’t know,” he reportedly responded.

Police arrested Curran for investigation of second-degree murder. On Wednesday, he was booked into King County Jail with bail set at $3 million.

King County Prosecutor’s Office spokesperson Casey McNerthney said it was difficult for King County prosecutors to meet the burden required to set a bail amount in the child sex abuse case.

“Until the murder case, we didn’t have enough to make a successful bail argument or to ask for a warrant,” McNerthney wrote in an email. “If we had any of those factors, it would have been a very different analysis.”

Third-degree rape of a child is not classified as a violent offense under state law. Under state guidelines, there is a presumption of release unless a judge determines the accused person is likely to commit a violent crime, seek to intimidate witnesses, or otherwise “unlawfully interfere with the administration of justice.”

Curran did not have a conviction history or a history of failing to appear in court. Prosecutors weren’t able to successfully argue against the state guidelines for release, McNerthney said.

“Even with the seriousness of the King County charge,” McNerthney wrote, “it’s highly unlikely for a judge to hold a defendant with the requirements of that court rule and with the information available: no known criminal history, already out of custody in Snohomish County, not missing court dates when out of custody in Snohomish County, no new law violations, no evidence of trying to interfere with the case.”

Jonathan Tall: 425-339-3486; jonathan.tall@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @snocojon.