Crime & Safety
JBLM Soldier Named Person of Interest in Scarlett Paxton Slaying
The 19-year-old soldier has not been charged but is being held by the Army for repeatedly going AWOL.
A U.S. Army soldier in custody at Joint Base Lewis-McChord for repeatedly going absent without leave has been identified as a person of interest in the of Kirkland.
Joe Piek, a spokesman for the base near Tacoma, said Tuesday morning that Kirkland Police notified the Army the day of the murder that the soldier was a person of interest.
The soldier is 19 years old, has been in the Army about a year and has never been deployed, Piek said. He has not been charged and has not been named. But the Army has no plans to release him at this time.
“Because he had been AWOL several times over the last several months, his unit considers him a flight risk,” Piek said. “While the unit is investigating the issue, he is in custody at the regional corrections facility here on the base.”
Piek said the soldier missed a mandatory unit movement.
Kirkland Police say Paxton was killed by a wound to the neck at about 2:50 a.m. while returning from a walk with her boyfriend to their apartment in the Hidden Firs complex in north Juanita on 100th Ave. NE. The pair had split up after the walk, and when her boyfriend, 19-year-old Michael Lawson, returned to the complex, he found her on a stairway and called 911. An aid crew was not able to save her.
Kirkland Police Lt. Mike Murray that the person of interest was questioned the day of the slaying on an unrelated 911 call, and that police have not been able to establish that Paxton knew him.
Friends have recently expressed frustration that no arrests have been made in the death of Paxton, a BEST High School student who as beautiful, creative, kind and spontaneous.
Services for Paxton have been scheduled for 1 p.m. this Saturday, Dec. 17, at the Life Community Church, located at 232 Fifth Avenue S in Kirkland. In lieu of flowers, the family is asking that memorial donations in her name be made to Families & Friends of Violent Crime Victims, 1-800-346-7555, fnfvcv.org.
