Two suspects are arrested in witchy bank job, three other holdups

Published 9:00 pm Thursday, November 17, 2005

OLYMPIA – A woman is being held for investigation in four bank holdups, including one in which a robber dressed as a witch vanished in the smoke of an exploding dye pack on Halloween, police said.

Vanessa D. Molina, 22, was arrested at her apartment before daybreak Wednesday morning, along with her boyfriend, Donald E. Jefferson, 36, who was caught hiding in some bushes, police Cmdr. Tor Bjornstad said.

Molina was identified partly because of security videotape showing her distinct nose, mannerisms and a tattoo on her right middle finger, investigators said.

Parts of a witch costume were found in the apartment, and Molina had red ink under a fingernail, which she told investigators was from the exploding dye pack, detective Samuel Costello said.

Jefferson was being held for investigation as a potential accomplice in at least two of the bank holdups, as well as in a drug delivery case in neighboring Pierce County, and he had been sought on a warrant accusing him of parole violation in California, police said.

The holdups occurred Oct. 12, Oct. 21 and twice on Oct. 31.

In the first Halloween heist, a woman wearing a witch hat, cloak and long blond wig was running from a Washington Mutual branch in Lacey when a dye pack inserted by the teller went off. The robber fled, leaving behind the hat and the money.

Less than an hour later, at a Washington Mutual branch in Olympia, a woman in a blue sweat shirt and black pants handed the teller a note and escaped with an undisclosed amount of money.

An officer later noticed similarities between the robber and a woman shown on security videotape using stolen identification to withdraw money from an account at the bank in Lacey in early November, police said.

Further investigation showed license plate numbers recorded by employees were associated with Molina through a drug case in which she was arrested by Tacoma police in September, Costello said.