North Seattle man accused of fatally breaking his wife’s neck; judge orders him held on $2M bail


North Seattle man accused of fatally breaking his wife’s neck; judge orders him held on $2M bail

A King County judge on Thursday found probable cause to hold a 66-year-old Seattle man on investigation of domestic-violence homicide in the death of his wife, whose neck he is accused of breaking two times in a little over a year.

The man, who is expected to be criminally charged Monday, was arrested Wednesday afternoon at Seattle police headquarters and booked into the King County Jail, jail and court records show. He is being held in lieu of $2 million bail.

The Seattle Times is not naming the man or woman because he has not yet been charged in her death.

According to the probable cause statement outlining the Seattle police case against the man, he called 911 around 11:30 p.m. on Sept. 18 and claimed he had found his 55-year-old wife facedown on the floor of their TV room, unresponsive and without a pulse. Medics arrived at the couple’s house in the 2700 block of Northeast 110th Street and performed CPR for 30 minutes before the woman was pronounced dead at the scene, the statement says.

During an autopsy, death investigators with the King County Medical Examiner’s Office determined the woman “had multiple acute fractures” to the vertebrae in her neck, cuts to the tendons in her neck, and bruises scattered all over her body, including on her head and neck, according to the statement. She died from a neck fracture and her death was ruled a homicide.

Seattle police homicide detectives learned during their investigation that the woman previously suffered a broken neck in September 2018 and was unable to move her upper body for several months, the statement says. While hospitalized, the woman told hospital employees, a social worker and a close friend that her husband had assaulted her and was responsible for her broken neck but she did not want the assault reported to police, it says.

In the 2018 assault, the statement says, the woman was thrown to the ground by her husband outside their home, then dragged back inside. He was unable to get her into bed, so left her on the floor for up to five hours before he called 911, says the statement.

Police say when the man was interviewed by detectives this week, he “provided multiple accounts of the circumstances and events surrounding the prior assault and (his wife’s) death,” according to the probable cause statement.

A form accompanying the statement shows the man is a citizen of three countries, is currently unemployed and has no family ties to the community. Property taken from him upon his arrest included a Purple Heart, sunglasses, keys, a watch, two wallets, a cellphone and $85 in cash, according to the form.


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