Seattle stabbing victim identified

Associated Press

SEATTLE — A stabbing victim has been identified as an up-and-coming Microsoft Corp. program manager and former singer in Linda Ronstadt’s troupe.

A 32-year-old man was under guard at Harborview Medical Center while being treated for an infection on his hand and could be charged as early as Thursday in the stabbing death and mutilation of David Barzilai, 25, said Dan Donohoe, a spokesman in the King County prosecutor’s office.

The man has no known criminal record, police said, and has lived for about three years in West Seattle after spending time in Hollywood, Calif., and Nampa, Idaho.

Barzilai’s remains were discovered in his apartment after the man drove to a Washington State Patrol office Sunday evening in Kelso, said he had stolen Barzilai’s car and told authorities about the death, authorities say.

Investigators in the King County Medical Examiner’s Office say they have had trouble scientifically identifying the remains, but Barzilai’s family in Phoenix confirmed his identity and published his obituary.

On Tuesday night, his mother traveled to Seattle for a memorial dinner with 40 of her son’s colleagues. Relatives in Phoenix would say only that they miss him and hope the case does not go unsolved.

"It’s definitely been unnerving, especially because of the circumstances, but we’re all trying to be there for each other," said Kim Panteleakos, a Microsoft manager and friend of Barzilai. "He met the wrong person at the wrong time."

Barzilai grew up in Phoenix, studied theater and the arts at the University of Arizona and spent about a year as a backup singer on the Ronstadt tour.

In two years at Microsoft, Barzilai earned two promotions in a six-month period and traveled overseas to represent the company.

As a lead program manager in the Internet Decision Support System of MSN, he helped develop and provided training in a system that monitors use of MSN services and products similar to the way a television rating system tracks TV viewers.

"We’re all taking this news really hard, as you can imagine," said Sean Foy, his former supervisor, "but we have a billion gazillion good things we could say about him. He had a presence about him, and that’s the legacy he leaves behind."