MONROE — A Monroe man won’t face charges for a text message he sent offering to pay someone $750,000 to kill his wife and the couple’s young daughter.
Prosecutors say an investigation didn’t turn up any evidence that the man took legitimate steps to hire a hitman.
The Monroe man’s former boss received a message in February that seemed to be arranging a deal between the suspect and someone named Shayne. That guy called 911 to report the suspicious text.
The suspect denied trying to hire anyone to kill his family. He told detectives that he’d written the message several months earlier as a way to vent his anger at his wife.
They had been fighting about him talking to another woman. He told detectives he left the message in the draft folder on his phone. He suspected that his daughter accidentally sent it to his former boss.
The message was addressed to “Shayne.” Investigators were never able to confirm that the man existed or had ever received the text, according to prosecutors. Monroe detectives also were never able to find a life insurance policy for the man’s wife or daughter.
“Since we cannot prove Shayne is real, and cannot corroborate this disturbing text from (the man) in any way, we cannot prove a crime occurred,” Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Tobin Darrow wrote in a May 16 letter to detectives.
The Daily Herald is not naming the man because he hasn’t been charged with a crime. His arrest in February made national headlines.
The text was first reported to Snohomish County sheriff’s detectives. The message said the man was willing to split equally the proceeds from his family’s life insurance policies with “Shayne.” He proposed that the man make it look like a botched robbery or accident.
Deputies contacted the man’s wife at her place of work. She verified her husband’s phone number and told police she believed there was a family life insurance policy, according to court records. She verified that the couple was having some financial problems because her husband was out of work.
She said she wasn’t aware of any marital issues that would motivate her husband to take out a hit on her and their daughter.
The man was arrested and interviewed by Snohomish County detectives. He denied actively seeking anyone out to hurt his family. He explained it was a way to vent his frustrations.
He told detectives he didn’t have any known mental health issues and didn’t use drugs. He was later booked into the Snohomish County Jail for investigation of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. A judge found probable cause to hold the man in jail.
He was released about three weeks later after prosecutors didn’t file charges into Superior Court.
Monroe police had taken over the case because the message was written in the city. Detectives obtained a judge’s permission to search the man’s phone records.
They found communication between the man and the other woman. They didn’t find any other messages about efforts to hire someone to kill his family.
The man’s wife also told investigators that she is “110 percent sure” that her husband would never hurt her. She said she doesn’t know anyone named “Shayne.”
“If Shayne is fictional, then there cannot be a conspiracy with a fictional person,” Darrow wrote.
Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463; hefley@heraldnet.com.
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