In a Federal Way home early Thursday, police said they found a dead woman, a woman with a gunshot wound and an 85-year-old woman injured from strangulation.
Police initially said they suspected the 85-year-old woman beat one of her roommates to death and shot another, then tried to strangle herself. But Thursday evening, the department said it had not determined which of the women were suspects and which were victims. Detectives also now believe the woman died of a gunshot wound, not blunt-force trauma.
When detectives began examining evidence, they saw it didn’t match up with what they initially believed, said police spokesman Cmdr. Kurt Schwan. Detectives hope to soon interview the gunshot victim at Harborview Medical Center and have been unable to interview the 85-year-old because of her injuries, he said.
Police don’t believe any other people were involved.
Officers were called to a home in the 2000 block of Southwest 306th Lane shortly after midnight by a woman in her 30s who reported she had been shot. Another woman, also in her 30s, was dead inside the home when officers arrived, Schwan said.
Schwan said the 85-year-old woman had owned the home until recently, and was able to continue living there after someone else purchased it. Her two roommates moved into the home in recent months, he said.
Crime-scene detectives were at the scene, which Schwan described as “complex,” Thursday night and will return Friday to continue investigating.
This post was updated Thursday evening, as the Federal Way Police Department said it could no longer confirm the information it initially provided about the case.
Seattle Times reporter Asia Fields contributed to this report.