Guns, ‘Time of Death’ notes among evidence seized at South Hill house where 4 found dead
Two firearms, ammunition and notes affixed to a refrigerator leaking unknown fluids were seized by law enforcement last week at a Pierce County home where four people were found dead on New Year’s Eve, according to a search warrant.
The two-story house in South Hill is the site of a homicide investigation, the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department’s request for a search warrant shows. Deputies have said they believe the incident was contained to the home, and there are no outstanding suspects.
What happened inside the house remains unclear. According to the search warrant, a woman was found “obviously deceased” on a bed in an upstairs room on the northeast side, and a male was found dead in a master bathroom on the same floor. He was behind a locked door with a bullet hole in it.
A .45-caliber handgun was on the floor near a toilet. It was booked into evidence along with other items found in the bathroom: a fired shell casing, a bullet fragment, an ammunition cartridge and a cell phone.
Information contained in the search-warrant request shows that a Dec. 29 welfare check at the home was prompted by a call from an online friend of one of the homeowner’s sons. The friend, who lives in Florida, told deputies that the son’s girlfriend made a post on social media Nov. 12 stating that “she was considering suicide with (the son).”
A deputy attempted to make contact at the home that day but got no answer. There was no smell, and the deputy didn’t see anything to make him or her believe someone was deceased inside.
The first two bodies were found during a Dec. 31 welfare check. After an initial sweep of the home, two family members still had not been found, according to the search warrant request. On a secondary sweep, two notes were found on a leaking kitchen refrigerator that read, “Time of Death July 24th 5:45 AM” and “Time of death July 24th 3:00 PM.”
The fridge was partially open and had a door propped up against it, records state. In a report, deputies described the house as “very messy.”
Two more adult bodies were found after the search warrant was obtained later that afternoon, according to the Sheriff’s Department, but deputies weren’t able to distinguish their approximate ages or genders just by looking at the bodies. Documents don’t describe where they were found.
Another note was found on a large refrigerator or freezer leaking unknown fluids in an attached garage, the search warrant states. It had notes on it “indicating something to the effect of ‘Date of Death,’” according to the document. The detective said it had dates on it from earlier in 2024, possibly around July.
Deputies also wanted to search a blue 1992 Corvette that was parked in the driveway and two vehicles of unknown make and model that were in the garage, which was described as being packed full of items.
A shotgun found behind a leather chair in an upstairs hallway was seized. An envelope on a leather chair in the hallway containing a “message on papers” was booked into the Sheriff Department’s property room.
From a bedroom on the northwest side of the home, deputies found a fired .45-caliber shell casing, a gun magazine containing .45-caliber cartridges, a gun holster, a cell phone and a box of shotgun shells in a nightstand. Also seized in the search was a note found in the threshold of the front door and a note that was under the garage door.
The search was requested by a detective in the department’s domestic-violence unit. The Pierce County Medical Examiner has yet to identify the names of those found dead.
A couple owns the house in the 18900 block of Eastwood Avenue East, according to the Pierce County Assessor-Treasurer’s website. A neighbor told deputies on the initial welfare check Dec. 23 that she hadn’t seen them or their son since August.
Three welfare checks were done in the week before the bodies were found. Deputies lacked legal justification to enter the house until the fourth check Dec. 31, after the son’s friend from Florida helped a deputy contact another another son, who said he hadn’t spoken to his father since September.
That son said it wasn’t strange to not hear from his father due to the holidays, but it was weird that a truck had been repossessed from the driveway, and the father was always outside working on his vehicle, so it was weird that no one had seen him.
The deputy told the son he could come over and do a welfare check since he was the next of kin and was concerned. The son called the deputy Dec. 31 to ask for him to stand by while he and another brother entered the home. One of them reportedly had to remove an AC unit from a second-floor window to get inside.
This story was originally published January 7, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
