EVERETT – Police are investigating an apparent double homicide that occurred late Monday in a home where hundreds of marijuana plants were found growing in the basement.
A man and a woman, both in their 20s, were shot multiple times, Everett Police Sgt. Robert Goetz said.
No arrests were made Tuesday.
Police were working to identify possible suspects, Goetz said. They do not believe the shootings were random acts.
Detectives from the Everett Police Major Crimes Unit and the Snohomish Regional Drug Task Force are investigating, Goetz said.
The home was the site of a “significant (marijuana) growing operation,” he said.
Up to 400 plants were removed, he said.
It is unclear if the drug operation and the shootings were connected, Goetz said.
On Monday night, the crime scene spanned south Snohomish County from the Alderwood mall to south Everett.
The shootings occurred sometime before 10:30 p.m., Goetz said. That’s when friends of the woman called 911 to ask for help along 164th Street SW. They’d tried to take her to the hospital, but apparently got lost on the way.
“They went south instead of going north,” Goetz said.
Snohomish County Fire District 1 paramedics responded and told south county dispatchers to notify Everett police.
Friends of the victim told medics the shooting occurred in a home in the 600 block of Dexter.
The woman was taken to Providence Everett Medical Center where she was pronounced dead, Goetz said.
About 11 p.m. Monday, Everett police entered the Dexter Avenue home and found the man’s body in the basement, Goetz said.
They also found the marijuana growing operation, he said.
Both victims appear to have lived in the home, but it was not immediately known what their relationship was to each other, Goetz said. Their names were not released Tuesday.
The home was purchased in September by a couple from Seattle, records show. The victims’ friends are cooperating with detectives.
Neighbor Les Layher said the people who lived at the brown-and-tan, single-story home kept to themselves. The shades were always drawn and the windows closed.
Police ordered Layher and other people on the street to leave their homes at about 12:30 a.m. Tuesday and didn’t allow them to return until about 5 a.m., he said.
Police asked for the evacuation as a precaution after they smelled gas, Goetz said.
Layher said he couldn’t believe the violence that occurred across the street.
“It’s kind of a sad situation,” he said. “It really is.”
Herald writer Diana Hefley contributed to this report.
Reporter Jackson Holtz: 425-339-3437 or jholtz@heraldnet.com.
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