A 33-year-old Puyallup-area man is suspected of killing his parents last summer and storing their bodies in a fridge or freezer in the garage, then agreeing to suicide with his girlfriend, according …
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A 33-year-old Puyallup-area man is suspected of killing his parents last summer and storing their bodies in a fridge or freezer in the garage, then agreeing to suicide with his girlfriend, according to the Pierce County Sheriff's Department.
The Pierce County Medical Examiner's Office identified William Vosler, 68, and his wife, Eileen Vosler, 66, on Friday and ruled their deaths homicides. William Vosler died from a stab wound to the chest and blunt force injuries to the head while Eileen Vosler died from multiple stab wounds to her head and neck.
Their son, Shane Vosler, and his girlfriend, 34-year-old Sue Bin Lee, each died from a gunshot wound to the head, according to the medical examiner and Sheriff's Department. Shane Vosler's death was ruled a suicide but Lee's manner of death was undetermined.
The bodies of all four people were discovered Dec. 31 inside a house in the 18900 block of Eastwood Avenue East. Built in 2015, the house is in the Hillsboro at Silver Creek development, midway between South Hill and Graham, online records show.
"We're going to be closing this case because we don't have anyone to charge," said sheriff's Deputy Carly Cappetto, a department spokesperson. "The medical examiner's report is a key piece of evidence and matched up to what we were leaning towards."
She said Shane Vosler is the suspect in his parents' homicides but it's unclear if Lee participated in the killings or aided him after the fact. Detectives found evidence showing Shane Vosler, who lived with his parents, and Lee "had collaborated suicide" but Lee "had clearly been deceased longer than he had" when the bodies were found, Cappetto said.
Lee's manner of death was ruled undetermined because "it's hard to say" from the angle of the bullet wound whether she shot herself or was shot by Vosler, according to Cappetto.
The investigation did not turn up a possible motive.
A neighbor first requested a welfare check on the house's residents on Dec. 23 after she saw William Vosler's new truck towed from the driveway, according to a search warrant filed in Pierce County Superior Court. A sheriff's deputy went to the house but left after his knock went unanswered because there was no evidence at the time of foul play.
The deputy stood by on Dec. 31 when one of the Voslers' adult sons broke into the home through a second-story window and discovered a deceased woman's body in a bedroom, the warrant said. Deputies entered the house and found a male's body on the floor of the master bathroom and notes on the fridge indicating "Time of Death" — presumably for the elder Voslers — in July, according to the warrant.
William and Eileen Vosler "weren't very involved in the community" and had minimal contact with people outside their home, which is why their deaths went unnoticed for so long, Cappetto said.
"The son and his girlfriend were living in that home for six months before any of this was discovered," she said.
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