SKOKOMISH, Wash. (AP) - Police are searching for two people accused of kidnapping and murdering a woman and dumping her body near Lake Cushman.
KING-TV reports the Mason County Sheriff’s Office received a call Oct. 2 about a body off of U.S. Forest Service Road 24 near Highway 119. The woman was identified as Rachell Rene Roberts after an autopsy on Oct. 5.
Roberts was assaulted, and the medical examiner found evidence of suffocation, according to the sheriff’s office.
“It was apparent from the evidence at the scene that this was a homicide,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement.
Law enforcement are still working to determine where Roberts was killed, but detectives do not believe the crime happened where Roberts was found, according to Mason County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy of Investigations Jason Dracobly.
Police believe one of the suspects rented a U-Haul van and used it to take Roberts’ body to the dump site. The U-Haul was found near the body.
Dracobly said police believe there was a connection between Roberts and the suspects, but they haven’t identified it yet.
The suspects are associated with a 2013 red Hyundai Elantra with Washington license plate, according to the sheriff’s office.
The suspects are considered armed and dangerous, according to the sheriff’s office.
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