Bellevue murders

The Bellevue murders, or Bellevue massacre, occurred on January 4, 1997, 3:00 pm Pacific time, when Alex Baranyi and David Anderson, both 17 years of age, lured Kim Wilson, 20, into a Bellevue, Washington park to murder her. Afterwards, they entered her house and murdered Bill Wilson, his wife Rose Wilson and their other daughter Julia Wilson.^[1][2] Both were convicted and sentenced to serve four consecutive life sentences back to back without the possibility of parole.^[3]

Although their motives behind the murders were unclear, there was psychological problems and issues with the boys when they were brought into questioning. When Baranyi, who was the guy that was most motivated to kill between the two of them, was questioned about why he committed the crime when he was finally in custody, he calmly and simply replied that he wanted to kill someone because he was "in an nut". The evidence that was committed by both of the perpetrators led investigators in suggesting that they killed the Wilson family "for the sheer experience of killing."

Prior to their murders, both of the boys were high school drop outs, social outcasts, enjoyed fantasy games, and became followers of the growing goth culture at the time. The murders led people to question why children at a fairly young age are killing people right before adulthood, why were they dropping out of high school, why were they social outcasts with no involvement from their parents, and why going goth was the best way for individuals to express their feelings. ^[4]

January 4, 1997: The Murders

On January 4, 1997, two young boys were seen playing in a park in Bellevue, Washington located near a suburb east of Seattle. They spotted a pile of clothes that were near shrubs five feet of a walking trail. The next day, January 5, when the two boys returned the park, they noticed and realized what they saw the prior day was a body. They ran home and one of their mothers called the Bellevue Police Department what they saw.

The Bellevue detectives responded to the scene where they would eventually find the body of a young woman dressed in a white t-shirt, blue jeans, and wearing "waffle-stomper" boots. Detectives would later identify the body as Kimberly Wilson. She appeared to have been involved in a struggle with a cord wrapped around a neck. This led detectives to believe that she was strangled to death. They secured and processed the crime scene of Kim's body and then go to her house to deliver the dreading news to her family.

When detectives got to the Wilson residence, the house appeared to be dark looking from the outside of it. There were three cars parked outside and the Christmas lights were on, but there was suspicions that something wasn't right. The detective on the scene, Detective Jeff Gomes, went to check the premises of the house to see if there were any doors that were unlocked. To his surprise, Gomes found a sliding-glass door that was open. He leaned into the house and called out to see if anyone inside would respond. When Gomes called out again and heard nothing, he drew his gun out and stepped inside the house.

He went upstairs to see if the family was still sleeping. What he discovered was blood splatter all over the walls and ceilings. The master bedroom had the body of middle-aged woman lying her in bed with her head repeatedly crushed by blows from a heavy object, and around her throat contained multiple stab wounds. Near the foot of the master bedroom as well was a middle-aged man who had the same injuries and wounds just as the middle-aged women. Police authorities would later identify the bodies as Rose and William "Bill" Wilson. Down the hall, there was a body of a teenage girl. The teenage girl appeared to struggle against her attacker, containing stabbing wounds, broken arms, and had repeated stab wounds on her head and neck. The body would be later identified as Kim's sister, Julia Wilson, 17 years of age.

The Investigation

Bellevue Policeman and Detectives were motivated to find the attacker, or attackers of the murders of the Wilsons' so that this wouldn't happen again. They quickly began interviewing with neighbors, asking if there was any suspicious activity, noises that they might have heard and if they had anybody that would possibly want to hurt them. Co-workers of William said that he was well-liked with his boss describing him as "very loyal and a good employee" and co-workers of Rose saying that she was "friendly and outgoing". Julia was a senior at Bellevue High School and her classmates described her as "a sweet, shy young girl". There was no signs pointing to anyone that would want to hurt the family or who it could be, until investigators interviewed friends of Kimberly.

Kim graduated from the same high school as Julia was attending, and she was known as an individual who wanted things done her way or the highway. According to the high school counselor at Bellevue , she would say that Kim had clashes with her parents and that there was tension inside the Wilson household during her last couple years of high school. Records showed that a year prior to their deaths in 1996 that there was a domestic disturbance call from a neighbor for the Wilson household due to an argument between Kim and her parents. When detectives started to interview Kim's friends, they said that she was into the "Gothic" lifestyle, but didn't dress up or had the personality of an individual who was Goth. However, she would be around a group of friends who were actually Goth and would casually hang out late at a night with them at the local Denny's. They would call the group "The Saturday Night Denny's Club" where they would talk about their likes of role playing games and their themes of eroticism and death. The majority of the group have talked about it being a fun way to rebel against moral rights and establish their own identities, but none of them would actually seriously consider the thought of doing specific activities, such as wanting to commit murder. Detectives would discover from friends of the group that there was two individuals who would specifically talk about committing murder on a weekly basis in the group and identify those individuals as Alex Baranyi and David Anderson.

Investigators would question and interview both Baranyi and Anderson at their residences. They have both claimed that they were playing video games together at Baranyi's home all night long and knew nothing about the murders of the Wilson's. Police questioned each of the boy's shoes because there was a distinctive shoe-thread pattern that was discovered at each crime scene. Baranyi would show the detectives his pair of brown work shoes and claimed that there were his only pair. After interviewing the boys, detectives went to confirm the statements of both boys. They quickly learned that witnesses and neighbors of where Baranyi lived disputed the claims that both boys were at his house playing video games all night. A close friend of Baranyi would tell authorities that he had boots that a similar tread pattern to the ones found at the crime scene. Searching the Wilson household again, they would discover that there was two different kinds of bloody footprints, which indicated that there was at least two individuals that committed the murders.

Confessing & Sentencing

Five days later after speaking with Alex Baranyi the first time, he admitted and told detectives that he and his accomplice committed the murders of the Wilson's. He would tell authorities that he first strangled Kim at the park. He realized that Kim might have told her parents where she was going to meet him that night,which led him to decide to kill them. He went into the house with a baseball bat and a combat knife, beat Rose Wilson to death with the bat which woke up William Wilson. Baranyi would beat and stab William to death after he woke up. He finished Rose off with his knife and went down the fall to do the same thing their other daughter, Julia. Before leaving the house to return back to his home, Baranyi took a telephone, a CD player, and a VCR. However, he would not name his accomplice.

His accomplice would later to be discovered as David Anderson. Detectives re-interviewed Anderson and he claimed that he lied to detectives about where they were the night of the murders and said that he was driving a truck belonging to his girlfriend's father for hours at night between the cities of Bellevue and Seattle. Anderson also said that he knew Baranyi had been planning the murders of the Wilson's for a long period of time and that the relationship between Baranyi and Kim Wilson was friends, which he claimed to be the only connection for him between the two of them. Three people who lived near the Baranyi residence contradicted Anderson's statement as they saw the two boys leaving the house together at the same time the day and night of the murders. They would search the households of both boys and discover the stolen items that Baranyi took, the shoes and shoelaces that matched the shoe-thread patter with blood on them, and the DNA Tests on all of these items came back to Baranyi and Anderson.

Alex Baranyi and David Anderson was charged with his first degree murder at the age of 17. Prosecutors attempted to plan try them together when the trial began in October, 1998 but the court felt that they both needed separate trials for their individual roles in the crimes that they committed. Three weeks after the trial began, Baranyi was sentenced to four consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole. When he was asked if he had anything to say, Baranyi replied "No, I don't think so.". A week later after he was put away for life, Anderson went on trial for the his part in the murder. He fired and hired numerous of different lawyers as he wasn't trying to get the same sentence as Baranyi. His attempt didn't work and a month in a half later since his trial began, Anderson also was sentenced to four consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole. ^[5]

References