`Complicated Web Of Deceit' Leads To Officer -- Sergeant Charged With Murder
A trail of deceit and deception - as confounding as the most unpredictable murder mystery - ultimately backfired against King County Police Officer Mathias J. Bachmeier, according to King County prosecutors.
As Bachmeier's claims of burglary and arson at his Renton home, and the people involved, changed and grew more improbable during the course of the police investigation, detectives became more suspicious, charging papers allege.
That suspicion led to his arrest Wednesday in connection with the arson and the disappearance of a man Bachmeier claimed set the fire.
Yesterday, the King County Prosecutor's Office filed aggravated first-degree murder charges against the 25-year police veteran, alleging Bachmeier orchestrated the disappearance and death of James Wren in a desperate attempt to conceal the role Bachmeier played in a July 9 arson committed at his home.
Prosecutors allege Bachmeier set his house on fire to collect insurance money. But when Bachmeier became the primary suspect, he sought a scapegoat for the crime.
He is alleged to have forced Wren to admit in writing that Wren was responsible for the arson, then killed him and dumped his body where it couldn't be found to make police think the person responsible for the arson had fled, charging papers allege.
While no body has been found, prosecutors claim a search of Bachmeier's patrol car revealed the presence of blood, including some that had soaked through the back-seat upholstery and penetrated the foam padding beneath it. A DNA examination of the blood taken from the car concluded that it likely came from Wren, according to charging papers.
"This crime is a complicated web of deceit," King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng said yesterday. "It is a case that began as an arson for profit and ended as an aggravated murder to conceal the identity of the arsonist."
Maleng said Bachmeier and Wren had not known each other before the defendant's decision to use Wren as his scapegoat, saying that the suspect "latched onto Wren to fulfill his scam."
Maleng said the fact that Wren's body had not been recovered would not preclude a conviction. "We have convicted several people of murder when the body wasn't discovered," Maleng said. "It has been done before in several cases."
But Bachmeier's attorney, John Wolfe, said: "I think that the prosecutors are a bit premature in the filing of these charges.
"The King County prosecutor cannot look anyone in the eye and give any expressed assurance, given the state of the evidence as we understand it today, that Mr. Wren is deceased," Wolfe said.
If convicted, Bachmeier could be sentenced to death or life without the possibility of parole. Maleng has 30 days from Bachmeier's arraignment to decide whether he plans to seek the death penalty.
Bachmeier is scheduled to be arraigned at 9 a.m. Tuesday in King County Superior Court.
He is currently being held without bail at the King County Jail.
According to charging papers, a fire was reported July 9 at Bachmeier's house at 211 Garden Ave. N. in Renton. But fire investigators determined the fire had been deliberately set.
Bachmeier told Renton Police Detective Mike Glenn that he was three miles away at a bowling alley at the time of the fire. Several witnesses supported his statement, but a neighbor told Glenn she had seen a man on a motorcycle similar in appearance to Bachmeier drive off shortly before the fire.
Over the next several weeks, as police interviewed Bachmeier as well as his friends and colleagues, they received differing accounts of the fire as well as a burglary Bachmeier claimed preceded the blaze.
Bachmeier's girlfriend, fellow King County Police Officer Roberta Meyers, told investigators that Bachmeier had moved many household items before the fire. She also said he claimed the burglary had preceded the arson.
But he told Meyers differing accounts of what followed the burglary. In one, Bachmeier told Meyers he was contacted by the burglars who offered to return the stolen items in exchange for $500. In another, he claimed the burglars were drug dealers seeking the return of drugs and cash Bachmeier had earlier confiscated.
In another version of the story, Bachmeier allegedly told a fellow King County Police officer that an individual by the name of Jesus "Pepe" Hernandez, an associate of Wren's, had set fire to his home. Bachmeier claimed Hernandez had burned his house because he had seized $50,000 worth of drugs from him. Bachmeier told the officer he had obtained the statement from Wren in which Wren admitted to setting the fire with Hernandez.
At 7:45 p.m. on Aug. 10, Wren called police to complain that he was being threatened by a neighbor, according to charging papers. Two officers were dispatched to his home in Preston.
Bachmeier, however, announced on the police radio that he would handle the call himself. When he arrived, Bachmeier told Wren's neighbors he was going to take Wren to the station and take a statement from him. The neighbors saw Wren get into the back seat of the patrol car.
It's the last time Wren was seen by neighbors.
Bachmeier later told his girlfriend that when he responded to Wren's 911 call, he immediately recognized Wren as an associate of Hernandez. He said he took Wren to the Fall City police substation to take a statement from him about the burglary and fire. After the interview, Bachmeier told Meyers, he returned the money and drugs he'd taken from Hernandez to Wren.
Bachmeier told a similar story to Detective Glenn on Sept. 4, saying Hernandez had begged him not to arrest him and promised to lead Bachmeier to his suppliers.
Bachmeier handed Glenn five photocopied pages of a statement, on King County Police forms, that he said were made out by Wren on Aug. 10. The statement began with Wren's admission that he and Hernandez burglarized Bachmeier's home to recover drugs and money that had been taken from them by Bachmeier.
Later, Bachmeier suggested Wren might have taken the money he had returned to him and left town. But Bachmeier later told an officer he had dumped the drugs along Highway 203.
Wren's mother relieved
When told of the charge filed against Bachmeier, Wren's mother, Shirley Wren of Malaga, Chelan County, said yesterday, "I'm just relieved that somebody's been charged with something."
She said she did not think her son had anything to do with the arson at Bachmeier's home. "I'd stake my life that he knew nothing about the arson," she said. "He was just convenient."
In a press conference yesterday, King County Sheriff Jim Montgomery said the case has shaken his department and hurt morale. Next week, a department counselor is scheduled to visit the Fall City substation where Bachmeier had been assigned since 1991.
"Last night I spent some time with officers who worked side by side with Sgt. Bachmeier," Montgomery said. "There was shock. There were tears. There was disbelief. There was anguish. There was also the realization of the possibility that one of their own who has been with them for years may have very well committed a horrible crime."
Information from Seattle Times staff reporters Charles Brown and Lily Eng is included in this report.