The Wright House

Dedicated to my brother Darby. Thank You for always being my safe place. I love you   so much!

On Saturday, August 15, 1985, at 9:15 a.m. an anonymous telephone call is made to the 911 emergency call center.

Please send police officers to check on the people who live at 1313 Marina Coffee Place. The front door is open but no one answers when I call out. They are very old. I am very concerned. I, um, I brought a coffee cake for them.

Ma’am? What is your name?

The caller hangs up.

Dispatch sends for a unit to meet at 1313 Marina Coffee Place, to do a welfare check.

Patrol, the caller is an unknown female. The call originated from a pay phone.

Five minutes later, the first officers arrive, they knock on the kitchen door, and call out, Police, anyone home? The kitchen door is unlocked, they open it and look in. Officer Petri sees an elderly male lying face down in a pool of blood, a large kitchen knife protruding from his back. There is a lot of blood surrounding the body. Officer Petri carefully tries to feel for a pulse but there is not one. He puts his finger to his lips, telling the other officer to be quiet, and motions for Officer Griffin to follow him to search the rest of the house.

They remove their guns from their holsters and check in case the killer is still in the house. A second victim, an elderly female is in the hallway. She is deceased and is in full rigor mortise. Officer Griffin is fairly new on patrol and he is upset to see the old lady in that condition. Her hand is up in the air trying to block the blows that came her way. The house is clear, there is no one else in the house.

Officer Griffen is more than a little shaken up. This is his first dead body. The police academy didn’t prepare him for this. The woman’s body looks like a mannequin, posed like that. It appears her arm is raised, however, the elderly lady’s elbow is resting on her rib cage propping up her arm. Her eyes are wide with terror. The dirt and broken clay pot mean she has been hit over the head with a large flower pot. A jagged piece of the flower pot has been used to stab her in the jugular vein. She is in a pool of blood. The officers do not check her for a pulse. She has a house arrest monitor on her right ankle.

About 8 feet from her is a small poodle. The poodle has been decapitated. Its body appears to be severely abused. The officers can see its ribs under its skin.

Officer Petri calls dispatch on his radio.

Dispatch, will you please contact homicide detectives and the coroner, and get them en route to this address? We have 2 deceased victims, one elderly male, and one elderly female. We also need Sgt Wiley to 9010 (meet) with us here please.

Sgt. Wiley is their Patrol Sergeant. He is listening and breaks into the radio conversation and instructs them to go to channel 4, to free up the main channel. I’m en route to you right now. Secure the area.

10-4 Sgt.

Officer Petri says to the other officer, Griffin you secure the back door and I will take the front door until homicide gets here. Man, this is a bad scene, you okay? He notices Griffin looks pale.

Yeah, but I am definitely calling my grandma when I get off. This is nothing like they describe it in the Academy.

Yeah, nothing takes the place of real life. Some days this job sucks. We just have to do what we can. I’m not saying you will get used to scenes like this, but someone has to do it, and we are it.

They both go guard the doors so no one but other officers can come into the house.

There is something morbid about death. It brings out the worst in some people...voyeurs. They will camp out in the yard, or even trees just to get a glimpse of a suspect, a body, or even a murder weapon. Blood incites some people into a frenzy. Last year they had 14 murders in their small town, which believe it or not is not a big number. Larger cities have hundreds of murders a year and even more deaths by other means.  But even in their small town, the neighbors come out in droves to see something, anything, so they can talk about it, speculate, and analyze it. The police chief always has to add to his statement, Anyone caught adding lies to the investigation will be prosecuted with filing a false report and hindering an investigation. The penalty is up to 3 years imprisonment and a $10,000 fine.

This became necessary after Police Officers and Sheriff Deputies wasted hundreds of man-hours chasing the wrong suspect due to gossip, lies, and false statements in previous cases. There was a mean, hated man, Roger Tilman, the entire town hated the guy. They wanted him to be the one who took the child so badly. They wanted him out of their neighborhood and community. He was a registered sex offender. He had been arrested numerous times in his youth for being drunk and disorderly and only once, for having sex with a minor. She was 16 years old. He claims she told him she was 18. Her parents pressed charges. He served 5 years and had to register as a sex offender. So, when a child went missing, fingers were pointed at him, lies were told, and countless hours of investigations were wasted trying to make a case against him, when in fact it was the child’s stepfather who had kidnapped and killed the child. 

Detective Kevin Nugent enters the residence through the kitchen door. He nods to Officer Griffen but does not speak.

It is like walking into his grandmother's kitchen in the late 1960’s. Avocado green refrigerator and stove, green appliances line the counter, green and white checkered pattern linoleum floors, and the countertops are white Corian. The only difference in the kitchens is the dead guy face down on the floor with the knife sticking out of his back. His grandma’s kitchen didn’t have one of those.

The second detective comes through the front door, Mark Tope calls, Nugent is that you?

Yes, I’m visiting the dead guy in the kitchen.

Um, join me in the hallway, and let me introduce you to the dead woman.

Detective Nugent shakes his head and wipes his face with his hand. This job is making him and his partner crazy.

The elderly lady’s eyes are open, not just open, open wide with terror. Not something they are used to seeing. Most victim's eyes are closed or just have a generic stare. This lady knew she was being killed. Her right arm was raised to try and block the final blow that pierced her jugular vein, causing her to bleed out and die. She knew her attacker.

Detective Tope hands Nugent some paper booties to put over his shoes. It is standard practice nowadays to protect the crime scene.

The crime scene photographer, Brad Plant comes in and Tope yells, Stop! Booties!

Hello to you too! I’m putting them on now. Plant says with a disgusted tone. He hates wearing those stupid paper booties.

Tope grumbles under his breath. Plant is forever forgetting the booties and Tope doesn’t want to lose any evidence. He has a feeling this will be a difficult case.

If Plant wasn’t such an amazing photographer the homicide detectives would have begged for his transfer, but the guy is a genius. He seems to find details with his camera lens that 20 pairs of eyes miss. There are problems, Plant is incredibly arrogant. He knows he is good and the second problem is he is getting famous. Other agencies are constantly trying to steal him away. There was a big meeting with the squad Lieutenant, The Captain, The Major, and the Chief of Police. They asked him to stay 7 years and then they would recommend him to the FBI academy, he counteroffered to stay 5 years, with a fast-track promotion to Captain, then a recommendation to the FBI academy. They reluctantly agree as long as he trains his replacement. He agreed as long as he could hand-pick his replacement. He wants to train him as an assistant and move him gradually into his spot. He also requests a dark room be built next to his office; the brass agrees They have no choice. He has them by their brass balls.

As Detective Plant is taking his pictures, he calls out, Hey guys, your victim, he is Boyd Wright. He used to have the largest Ford dealership in the entire state of Washington.

Nugent answers, "Then I wonder why is he living like this. There is barely any furniture in here. The car in the driveway is a Dodge and it is at least 5