‘She just wanted her boy back.’ Family to hold vigil for woman killed in University Place
At her family’s farm in Orting, 40-year-old Kayla Vallee enjoyed helping out with the alpacas and the other animals, her family told The News Tribune.
She loved going to Seattle Kraken games with her loved ones and spending time on the water, doing river floats. Vallee worked hard at Walmart to make ends meet and was a medical dispatcher at the University of Washington.
Most importantly, Vallee loved her children and being a mother. Vallee had five children, four boys and one daughter. Vallee kept in contact with the girl after she was adopted by another family, and they spent some holidays together, said Christine Kingsbury, Vallee’s mother.
On the morning of Dec. 9, Vallee drove to a University Place apartment complex to pick up one of her sons from his father’s place. About 10:10 a.m., Pierce County deputies were dispatched to the complex in the 7300 block of 56th Street Court West and found Vallee dead from multiple gunshot wounds.
The father, a 42-year-old man, was arrested for first-degree domestic-violence murder, a previous News Tribune article reported. The News Tribune is not publishing his name because he has yet to be formally charged.
“Me and all of her friends and her stepfather told her not to go in that apartment by herself. But she didn’t want to listen — she just wanted her boy back. I don’t think any of us thought he was going to kill her,” Kingsbury said.
Vallee and her sons were living with Kingsbury in Orting at the time. Vallee had primary custody of her and the suspect’s 10-year-old son. At the time of her death, the boy was living with his father temporarily. Vallee was working to get an apartment. Once she did, she did not want to tell the boy’s father, Kingsbury said.
“Due to difficulties in the past, she knew if she told [him] that she had an apartment and (their son) was coming to live with her, that he would withhold. He’s done that in the past,” Kingsbury said.
She said that the boy’s father eventually found out.
“[Vallee] didn’t want to tell him, but he found out, so they were supposed to have this meeting that morning, where they were gonna get together, he said, as a family. He wouldn’t let her bring anybody, and they were going to talk, but that wasn’t his intention at all,” Kingsbury said.
Later that morning, when Vallee was still gone, the suspect drove to Kingsbury’s home, and her husband saw him park about a quarter mile down the street. The man was placing the boy’s items on the road, she said.
“And then [my husband] said to [the suspect], ‘You could have parked in the driveway,’ and [he] just said, ‘Oh, that was heavy,’ and off he went,” Kingsbury said.
Vallee’s stepfather told Kingsbury what happened. Kingsbury went outside, saw her grandson crying in the driveway and realized Vallee was not with him. Kingsbury said could not reach Vallee and called her close friend. Vallee’s friend went to the suspect’s address and found her car parked outside the apartment, she said.
Kingsbury said she and the friend called police. The apartment manager let police into the unit where they found Vallee deceased.
Police later located the suspect parked on a trail in Buckley. Law enforcement surrounded the vehicle and began negotiating with him. An hour-long standoff ensued, which ended with a stun-gun shot. The suspect was arrested and taken to the hospital. He was booked into the Pierce County Jail on Thursday, according to jail records.
Delilah Kieffer, a close family friend, said she wanted to emphasize that Vallee was a victim of domestic violence and that this happens to many “beautiful people.”
“She’s gone and these boys, they have to learn how to survive without their mother. And I really hope that he gets the full extent of the law and that we get justice because it’s not going to bring Kayla help, and we’ll help,” Kieffer said.
Vallee’s sons will live at Kingsbury’s home and they are trying to make life as normal as possible for them, she said.
A candlelight vigil will be held on Saturday, Dec. 16, at 6 p.m. The vigil will take place at 7310 56th St. W. in University Place. That is outside the apartment complex where Vallee was killed. Those attending are asked to wear blue in Vallee’s honor because it was her favorite color. Attendees should also park off site and walk to the building, Kieffer said.
Kingsbury said she is amazed at how many people have come forward to her to say that Vallee touched their lives. She hopes that there will a very large attendance for the vigil.
“My goal right now is to get as many people there as possible because I want to show this scum-sucking male that my daughter was loved and he didn’t just take out just anybody,” she said.
