Seattle Police arrested a 24-year-old Kent man for investigation of attempted murder Monday after he allegedly placed an ad on Craigslist to meet a woman for sex and then kill her.
A King County Superior Court judge set bail at $1 million at a hearing for the man on Tuesday. Prosecutors are expected to file charges against the man on Wednesday. He is being held at the county jail in Seattle.
Seattle Police asked that the man not be released because of his progression from an indecent exposure arrest last year in Auburn and that he may decide to run, according to court documents.
Police arrested the man after he knocked on the door of a room at a Seattle motel where he had agreed to meet a woman (an undercover detective) for sex and then to kill her. The man had a length of heavy chain, a knife and two long shoelaces in his possession.
A person at Craigslist sent an e-mail to Seattle Police April 22 about a suspicious advertisement, entitled “A Strange Desire,” posted on the Casual Encounters section of the Seattle-Tacoma online bulletin board, according to court documents.
An undercover detective responded to the ad. That started an exchange of 30-plus e-mails over the next several days, said Seattle Police spokesman Mark Jamieson. The man and undercover detective then set up a time, date and location to meet.
The Kent man also wrote during an exchange of e-mails that he wanted to be paid for carrying out the plan to kill a woman, according to court documents. He also wrote he placed the ad to look for someone who wanted to be killed, but that he was willing to kill an unwitting participant.
Police said they decided to initiate contact with the man because of several recent incidents nationwide that involved online advertising sites and to evaluate any potential threat to the community, according to a police media release.
The man lives in Kent with his girlfriend’s great grandmother, according to court documents.
The man already faces indecent exposure charges in connection with an incident last November at Green River Community College in Auburn. Auburn Police arrested the man for exposing himself to a woman sitting inside the Technology Center, according to charging papers. That case is pending. The man lived in Auburn at the time of that incident.
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