The woman who saw Rachel Burkheimer bound and gagged in her garage last month said she didn’t call police because she feared for her safety and the safety of her 7-year-old daughter.
Trissa Conner said it was about 15 minutes after she saw the woman sprawled across an old rug in her garage when she watched friends of her boyfriend’s carry a large black bag from the garage and place it into the back of a sport-utility vehicle (SUV).
Police say Burkheimer was inside the bag. They say a group of men drove the 18-year-old Marysville woman to a gravel pit outside Gold Bar, where she was shot to death. Her body was found by police Friday.
Snohomish County prosecutors yesterday filed first-degree murder and first-degree kidnapping charges against John P. Anderson, 20, of Mukilteo; Maurice C. Rivas, 18, of Lynnwood; Matthew A. Durham, 17; and John Alan "Whit’’ Whitaker, 22, of Everett. Durham, who is being charged as an adult, was arrested Friday; Anderson and Rivas were arrested Sunday.
Two others, Yusef "Kevin’’ Jihad, 32, and Jeffrey Scott Barth, 22, both from the Everett area, were charged with first-degree kidnapping. Police are still looking for Jihad, Barth and Whitaker.
Burkheimer, a 2002 graduate of Marysville-Pilchuck High School, was last seen by friends Sept. 23, when she said she was driving a friend to the airport. Her family reported her missing four days later.
Jan Jorgensen, spokeswoman for the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office, has declined to discuss a possible motive for the slaying.
According to a police booking report, Durham told investigators he was hanging out with Burkheimer when he received a phone call from Anderson, Burkheimer’s former boyfriend. They agreed to meet at the duplex where Jihad and Conner live, according to the booking report.
When Anderson arrived at the duplex minutes after Burkheimer and Durham, he started yelling and forced Burkheimer into the garage, the report said.
Conner said yesterday she had just returned from shopping with her daughter Sept. 22 — one day before Burkheimer was reported last seen by friends — when she heard the radio was on in the garage. She knocked on the locked door thinking Jihad was inside.
But she said another man opened the door. "He looked suspicious," Conner said yesterday. "I looked in the garage and that’s when I saw her."
Conner, 24, said she didn’t know the blond woman and asked her name. Through her mouth gag, the woman said, "Rachel." Conner repeated "Rachel" and the woman nodded.
"I told her, ’I’m going to get you out of here,’ " Conner said. But Anderson shoved her out of the garage and into her kitchen.
When Anderson shoved her out of the garage, Conner said she went to her room in shock. After about 10 minutes, she said she heard Jihad yelling at the nearly half-dozen teenagers and college-age boys in their house and garage. She said he told them to leave.
After the group drove away in the SUV, Jihad promised his girlfriend that Anderson was forbidden from returning to their house, Conner said. She said Jihad did not leave with the group.
A friend of Conner’s family called 911 later that week. The family friend, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said she became worried after hearing Jihad had ordered some friends to scrub the garage floor with bleach.
It wasn’t until Conner met with sheriff’s investigators Thursday that she told them Burkheimer had been bound and gagged in her garage. "I know I should have called sooner," Conner said yesterday. "But I have a daughter I have to think about. I didn’t want to put her or me in harm’s way."
Jorgensen said Conner was not under investigation for failing to report the incident to police sooner. "We believe the people who did not contact us were acting out of fear," Jorgensen said. "It is not too late for people to respond and come forward."
Conner said she hadn’t spoken with Jihad. But she said if he calls she would tell him to come back and "get it over with." Meanwhile, Burkheimer’s parents issued statements yesterday about their daughter’s slaying.
"Rachel saw only the good in all people and had a tremendous future ahead of her. This senseless and heinous act has robbed Rachel and her family of that future," Bill Burkheimer wrote.
"I have peace in knowing Rachel, my sweet child who I adore and love, is with Jesus," wrote her mother, Denise Webber.
Jennifer Sullivan: 425-745-7801 or jensullivan@seattletimes.com.
