Man convicted of dismembering half-sister, dumping remains near Maltby

MALTBY — A Kenmore man was convicted Tuesday of murdering his half-sister, dismembering her and leaving her body in a suitcase in south Snohomish County.

David Haggard and his half-sister Jamie had a “volatile” relationship, according to the King County Sheriff’s Office.

Jamie Haggard had reported being afraid of her half-brother. She reportedly told friends she was afraid he’d kill her.

In 2016, the siblings were arguing. David Haggard knocked out Jamie in the house they’d been staying in together in Kenmore. He told a friend he should kill her, according to court documents.

On June 7, 2016, David Haggard kicked his half-sister out of the Kenmore house, thinking she’d stolen from him and a housemate, police reported. That housemate let her return later that day.

The next morning, the siblings reportedly argued again. David Haggard assaulted his half-sister. He sent a picture to a housemate of Jamie Haggard tied up in the bathtub. The housemate called the police. When officers arrived, Jamie Haggard reportedly denied her half-brother harmed her and blamed the housemate, according to court papers.

Jamie Haggard spent that night in a friend’s house. The next day, she returned to the Kenmore home to pick up her belongings, according to a King County detective’s report.

When she arrived, David Haggard was there with his girlfriend. She told David Haggard “things were going to be different,” court papers say. The girlfriend left to take her child to school, leaving the siblings alone.

In the afternoon, the girlfriend received a profanity-laden text message from Jamie Haggard’s phone. The text said she and David Haggard needed to get out of the Kenmore house. The girlfriend told police she believed David Haggard sent the text.

When the girlfriend returned to the home soon after, Jamie Haggard was gone. David Haggard told her he’d left, and when he came back, his half-sister was gone but had started a fire near the back of the home before leaving, according to court documents. Police later found burned pants in the area of the fire.

Jamie Haggard was supposed to be picking up her boyfriend from jail that afternoon, according to police. After he was released, he repeatedly called her, to no avail. He went to the Kenmore home looking for her.

David Haggard said to him, “She didn’t come get you? That’s weird.”

A week later, Jamie Haggard’s father reported her missing.

The next month, King County sheriff’s investigators excavated her yard on NE 145th Street in Kenmore, searching for signs of her body. A tip a year later led a crew to return to the home, to dig again in the back yard. But no remains were found.

Over the next following months, several people reported seeing Jamie Haggard. Twice, David Haggard reportedly told them it wasn’t possible. He also told people he wouldn’t pass a lie detector test.

Nearly two years after her disappearance, a Snohomish County Public Works crew found a suitcase with remains and a red bed sheet while picking up trash off of the shoulder of Downes Road near Maltby. The brushy roadside is just north of the Echo Falls golf course, about 11 miles northeast of Haggard’s home. Almost all of that distance can be traveled via Highway 522.

Based on the remains, detectives assumed she’d been killed. But it was difficult to immediately figure out the victim’s identity or even their gender.

The Snohomish County Medical Examiner’s Office sent out evidence for lab testing, The Daily Herald reported at the time. The identity was confirmed two months later as Jamie Catherine Haggard. She had two daughters.

Police later found the red bed sheet belonged to the Haggards’ housemate. And GPS data showed David Haggard driving near where the remains were found days after the confrontation.

In Oct. 2019, King County prosecutors charged David Haggard with second-degree murder in his half-sister’s death.

“In this case, the defendant killed his own sister,” senior deputy prosecutor Carla Carlstrom wrote in the charges. “In order to conceal this crime, he dismembered her, burned her, stuffed her in a suitcase and discarded her by the side of the road, thus preventing her family (his own family), the opportunity to know what had become of her for almost two long years. In the meantime, he carried on with the charade of pretending to be worried about her and wondering where she was.”

When he was charged, the suspect had already been in custody since September 2016 for a first-degree arson charge. Last year, a jury found him not guilty of that allegation.

David Haggard, now 48, was previously convicted of second-degree arson and burglary in 2017 after breaking into a construction site, using a forklift to steal equipment and then setting the $140,000 forklift on fire, according to court records. For that crime, he was sentenced to 3¼ years.

After a monthlong trial in King County Superior Court, a jury convicted David Haggard of second-degree murder Tuesday.

Sentencing is set for Nov. 18.

Jake Goldstein-Street: 425-339-3439; jake.goldstein-street@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @GoldsteinStreet.