One of two fugitive brothers suspected in the disappearance and presumed deaths of an Arlington couple agreed to be extradited during a hearing Wednesday morning in San Diego.
Tony C. Reed, suspected in the disappearance and presumed deaths of an Arlington couple, agreed to his extradition during a hearing Wednesday morning in San Diego and will be returned to Washington to face first-degree-murder charges.
Reed, 49, appeared briefly before San Diego County Superior Court Judge David Szumowski, where he agreed to be returned to Snohomish County.
“It’s just a matter of us going down to get him,” said Snohomish County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Craig Matheson, who heads the office’s violent-crime team.
Reed has been ordered held on $5 million bail. He will be arraigned on the murder and a felony gun charge when he returns.
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Reed surrendered Monday night to U.S. Marshals at the San Ysidro Port of Entry at the U.S.-Mexico border at a meeting arranged by his attorney.
Tony Reed and his brother, John B. Reed, 53, have each been charged with two counts of first-degree murder for the presumed slayings of Patrick Shunn, 45, and Monique Patenaude, 46.
Both brothers have been the targets of an international manhunt after fleeing to Mexico. Reed’s attorney, James Kirkham, of Ellensburg, said he arranged the surrender because Reed was concerned about his safety.
Authorities allege the Reeds killed the missing couple — John Reed’s former neighbors — who were last seen April 11. The brothers allegedly dumped their bodies in the Oso area, and then traveled to their parents’ home in Ellensburg before fleeing the state April 14, charging papers say.
Since then, there have been several reported sightings of the two fugitives in Mexico, according to search-warrant records filed by sheriff’s investigators in Snohomish County Superior Court
Authorities contend the men are tied to the couple’s disappearance and slayings by a variety of evidence, including blood and other items recovered from the scene where the couple’s vehicles were found in the remote woods near Oso.
Investigators contend the missing couple had an “ongoing and constant” dispute with John Reed and feared him.
In 2013, Shunn called 911 to report John Reed had threatened to shoot the couple after they cut brush next to his property. Charging papers also describe Reed as an aggressive neighbor angered by various people after the deadly landslide next to his property in Oso that killed 43 people in 2014.
After the slide, Reed voluntarily sold the land to the county for $245,700 under a flood-mitigation program, according to Kent Patton, spokesman for the Snohomish County executive.
County parks officials who administer the buyout program were preparing a “right of entry” document to allow Reed to return to get his belongings, but they first wanted to fix a damaged road to the property before granting him access, Patton said.
Reed, who was cooperative during the sale, expressed frustration over that delay, Patton said.
Several weeks before her disappearance, Patenaude had complained Reed had been illegally squatting there, according to charging documents.