House in Pierce County where 2 found dead has history of domestic-violence calls
Pierce County sheriff’s deputies have been called to the house on Herron Island where a man and a woman were found dead last week multiple times for reports of physical and verbal domestic violence, according to a copy of a search-warrant application.
The victims have been identified by the Medical Examiner’s Office as Wendy Teresa Walker-Carnagey, 64, and Chad Thomas Malloy, 39.
Deputies found them deceased in the lower-level bedroom of the house Dec. 11 after responding for a welfare check. A search-warrant application authored by a detective said both of their throats were slit, and an 8-inch kitchen knife with apparent blood was found at the base of the bed. It was booked into evidence along with three other knives found around the residence, along with other items.
The Medical Examiner’s Office said Walker-Carnagey’s cause of death was a stab wound of the neck. Malloy’s cause of death was listed as multiple sharp force injuries of head and neck. Both deaths were classified as homicides.
A SWAT team arrested a 63-year-old suspect early Friday morning at a Kent motel. Deputies said he was found with self-inflicted knife wounds and remained at a hospital Monday morning.
Malloy was dating Walker-Carnagey and living at her house with her 63-year-old ex-husband, according to a police report incorporated into the detective’s search-warrant application. Pierce County property records show the home, a three-bedroom, 1,520-square-foot house with two stories in the 700 block of East Herron Boulevard Northwest, was purchased by Walker-Carnagey and her ex-husband in November 2023.
The News Tribune generally does not name suspects until they have been formally charged with a crime. Efforts to reach relatives of Walker-Carnagey and Malloy by phone Monday were not successful.
The most recent domestic-violence report from the residence was Dec. 3, according to the search warrant. The incorporated police report states that along with a history of domestic-violence calls to the location, there was a history of firearms being shot in the air.
The deputies who discovered the crime scene noted that a front door to the lower level of the home was wide open when they arrived. Walker-Carnagey was reportedly found on her back in the middle of a bed. Malloy was found on his back to the right of the bed.
It’s unclear when the homicides occurred. When deputies announced Dec. 11 that they were investigating, a spokesperson said deputies believed the victims had been dead over the past week.
Walker-Carnagey’s ex-husband is a registered sex offender, according to court records. He has prior felony convictions in Pierce County since 2018, including failure to register as a sex offender, third-degree domestic-violence assault, custodial assault and harassment. He also has felony convictions from 1997 and 1998 in Utah for forcible sex abuse and aggravated assault and more than two dozen misdemeanor convictions.
Herron Island is a private island accessible only by ferry or boat and is about five miles west of Lakebay. In 2020 the population was 150.
