Multiple welfare check requests for South Hill residence before bodies found
Investigators on Wednesday were still looking for answers after four people were found dead the previous day in a South Hill home.
Meanwhile, new details emerged over multiple requests for welfare checks at the home dating back to before Christmas.
Pierce County Sheriff’s Department spokesperson deputy Carly Cappetto told The News Tribune Wednesday afternoon via email in response to questions that there had been a total of four welfare checks at the site, including Tuesday’s when the bodies were discovered. On the first three checks, deputies lacked sufficient legal justification to go inside.
“The first welfare check was Dec. 23, then Dec. 29, Dec. 30 then the finding on Dec. 31,” Cappetto said via email.
“The requesting parties for the welfare checks were a broad range of people to include neighbors, friends, family members and others that had concerns no one had been seen for a while,” Cappetto continued. “A deputy was dispatched to each welfare check and gathered as much information as possible.”
Cappetto added that “What was reported to the officer was not enough to establish any exigent circumstances to make entry.
“It was new information on the 31st that established the exigency to go into the home,” she wrote, but did not disclose further details of that new information.
After receiving enough information at that point, deputies were able to claim exigent circumstances to go into the home and find the first man and woman dead, then obtain a warrant to search the rest of the home.
Earlier Wednesday, Cappetto told The News Tribune that the bodies had been turned over to the medical examiner for review and cause of death determination.
“It was not carbon monoxide,” Cappetto added in her emailed response. “The deaths appeared unusual and not natural but with time frame of deaths, it can be difficult to tell for sure.”
“We are still keeping this as a death investigation until the medical examiner can confirm,” Cappetto wrote.
On Tuesday, sheriff’s deputies, acting on the fourth requested welfare check, discovered a total of four bodies inside a home in the 18900 block of Eastwood Avenue East in South Hill.
Deputies found two bodies, a man and woman, dead upon entry to the house in their initial Dec. 31 visit; they discovered another two adult bodies after obtaining a search warrant and searching the rest of the home.
Cappetto told The News Tribune on Tuesday evening there were no outstanding suspects, and deputies believe the incident was contained to the home where the bodies were found.
This story was originally published January 1, 2025 at 10:52 AM.
