Kassandra Cantrell’s ex charged. Blood found in basement; security cameras dismantled
Kassandra Cantrell’s ex-boyfriend denied seeing her in the last decade despite evidence that he was involved in the disappearance and death of the pregnant Parkland woman, court records show.
On Friday, Pierce County prosecutors charged Colin Patrick Dudley, 37, with first-degree murder.
He pleaded not guilty at arraignment, and Superior Court Judge James Orlando set bail at $2 million.
Cantrell, 33, was last seen leaving her family’s Parkland home the morning of Aug. 25. Her body was found Tuesday wrapped in garbage bags and dumped over a hillside in University Place.
An autopsy found she had been stabbed and suffered skull fractures.
Deputy prosecutor Lisa Wagner told the court Dudley didn’t have other known criminal history. In asking for the bail amount, Wagner noted: “he went through great effort to plan,” the homicide.
Charging papers provide this information:
Cantrell’s mother reported her missing after two days, concerned because it was out of character for Cantrell to disappear. It was especially odd for her to miss an ultrasound appointment because Cantrell was thrilled to be pregnant and had already picked out baby names.
Family members said the baby’s father was an ex-boyfriend Cantrell was still friendly with.
One of her friends identified the baby’s father as Dudley but said Cantrell was nervous to tell him because he did not want children and had an anger problem.
“Colin had reportedly made a statement before when they were dating that if any girlfriend of his got pregnant and wouldn’t get an abortion, he would sue to get full custody just to spite the mother for having the child,” prosecutors wrote in charging papers.
Cantrell found out she was pregnant July 16 and identified Dudley as the father to her obstetrician.
The doctor noted, “This pregnancy was not planned. Patient is feeling overwhelmed. FOB (father of baby) supportive of pregnancy, but not planning to be involved with raising child. He and mom are on good terms,” records say.
Detectives spoke with Dudley, who lived with his girlfriend of three years in a Tacoma home, but Dudley claimed he hadn’t seen Cantrell in years and didn’t know anything about her disappearance.
A neighbor’s surveillance camera captured a white car resembling Cantrell’s Mazda 3 sedan leaving Dudley’s neighborhood the morning she went missing.
It was later found in the 200 block of East 25th Street in Tacoma with the keys inside the center console.
Video surveillance from a nearby Sound Transit center showed a man in a hat and gloves parking Cantrell’s car, then walking to a nearby parking garage and driving away in a truck.
The truck belonged to Dudley, records say.
When she was missing, investigators tracked Cantrell’s cell phone and found it was in the area of Dudley’s house, then where her car was abandoned and last pinged off the Vashon Island tower near Point Defiance Park.
Divers found Cantrell’s cell phone in the waters off Owen Beach.
Phone records allegedly show Cantrell and Dudley were communicating as far back as February.
Detectives, assisted by the FBI, searched Dudley’s house Sept. 1 and found traces of blood in his basement. A K-9 that tracks human remains also hit on Dudley’s basement.
In another interview, Dudley told investigators he met Cantrell at a “Rocky Horror Picture Show” when he was the director and she was a cast member. They allegedly dated several months before breaking up in 2006.
Dudley said he had only seen Cantrell working at the mall since then, records say.
On the day she disappeared, he said he mostly did spring cleaning at home and gassed up his truck. The following day, Dudley claimed he took trash to the Dumpster at his work and got a bike repaired.
Investigators say they discovered Dudley bought 50-gallon trash bags at a store the morning Cantrell went missing. They also found a text message he sent her that morning.
On the day Cantrell disappeared, Dudley turned his phone off and on and at one point dismantled the security cameras at his house, records say.
GPS on his truck showed he stopped near a Chambers Bay treatment plant early Aug. 26, which led search crews to the area Tuesday.
They found Cantrell’s body wrapped in trash bags and tossed over a steep hillside near 64th Street West and Chambers Creek Road.
Cantrell’s mother, Marie Smith, told reporters outside court that she was at the arraignment “to represent Kassandra, so that he knows she’s here. She’s watching, and she’s waiting for justice.”
This story was originally published September 25, 2020 at 11:20 AM.
