Seattle Landscaper Accused Of Killing College Instructor
Prosecutors said an unemployed landscaper accused of killing an Eastern Washington educator bragged that police "would never find the body."
Documents supporting a first-degree murder charge issued yesterday against Drew Richard Thompson, 30, also say genetic fingerprinting data tie him to the alleged slaying of Rita Bartschot last summer. Her body has not been found.
Bartschot, 40, a teacher at Columbia Basin Community College in Pasco, was last seen alive the morning of Aug. 24. She was working in the yard at her late mother's house in the 5500 block of 31st Avenue Northeast.
Deputy Prosecutor Rebecca Roe said there is probable cause to believe Thompson forced Bartschot to give him her bank card. Then, Roe asserted, Thompson killed her, disposed of her body and took her car and cash card. .
The alleged statements about Bartschot's body were made to two other King County jail inmates while Thompson was jailed on a first-degree theft charge last fall, the prosecutor said.
"While in jail on that charge, he told another jail inmate that he had `kept the victim' to get the access-card number, and that the cops would `never find the body,' " Roe said.
"He made statements to another jail inmate that he'd come across the victim at 65th and Roosevelt Northeast," Roe said in court papers. "He also bragged to that individual that the cops would `never find the body.' "
After Thompson was arrested Sept. 7 for using the woman's bank card, police found another bank card belonging to Bartschot in his north Ravenna residence. Her blue Honda was found Sept. 9 in the University District.
Crime-laboratory specialists reported finding several hairs in the back seat of Bartschot's car that are microscopically similar to those of Thompson. Forensic experts say blood found in the car's back seat is consistent with Bartschot's blood and only 11 percent of the white population, Roe said. Thompson was excluded as a possible source of the blood, she said.
The technique involved cloning a small amount of DNA at the scene of the crime and multiplying it about a million times. DNA, found in cell nuclei, is the essential component of all living matter that contains the genetic code and transmits the hereditary pattern unique to each person.
Thompson, who has pleaded guilty to the bank withdrawals, will be arraigned Monday on the homicide charge. Bail was set at $500,000.