Sultan man held in ID theft of dead Kirkland woman

A Sultan man stands accused of stealing from the dead.

A Sultan man stands accused of stealing from the dead.

The allegations surfaced in a police report after he was arrested last Friday.

A Kirkland woman, 72, died in May after falling from the fifth-floor balcony of her condominium at the Salix in Juanita Village. The suspect, 28, reportedly worked at the complex and knew the woman.

The cause of her death, initially deemed a suicide, recently has been brought into question, Kirkland police wrote in court papers. A witness told Monroe police she believed the suspect may have pushed the elderly woman to her death off the balcony, according to police records.

More than 90 credit and debit card charges were made to her bank account after her death, according to court records. Many were made in Snohomish County, particularly around Lynnwood and Monroe.

Video footage and still-frame images, as well as receipts, allegedly show the suspect using the woman’s card between June and September, court records state.

The Sultan man was arrested after Monroe police searched a suspected drug house.

“He just happened to be there,” Monroe police spokeswoman Debbie Willis said.

He was booked into the Snohomish County Jail for investigation of possessing stolen property and identity theft.

An acquaintance of the man told Monroe police after a disturbance in September that the suspect might have played a role in the woman’s death. Monroe police passed along the information to Kirkland detectives. The Kirkland police investigation led to the allegations that the suspect was pilfering the woman’s bank account after her death.

The suspect was being held in the Snohomish County Jail on $15,000 bail Monday. He could faces charges of first-degree identity theft and possession of stolen property in the second degree.

Earlier this year, he pleaded guilty to possessing heroin and was sentenced to 20 days in jail.

Eric Stevick is a reporter for Sound Publishing’s Everett Herald.