Brothers sought in U.S. manhunt may be fleeing to Mexico: police
By Eric M. Johnson
SEATTLE (Reuters) - Two brothers suspected in the presumed murder of a married couple who lived next door to one of the men in Washington state may be trying to flee to Mexico, a county sheriff's office said on Tuesday.
Detectives believe the brothers, one of whom according to court records was locked in an "ongoing and constant" property dispute with the couple, ditched a Volkswagen on Monday in Phoenix and were in possession of an Acura, the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office said in a statement.
The Acura's license plates were electronically scanned at an unspecified location near the Calexico, California, which borders on Mexico, the office said.
The exact location of the brothers, John Reed, 53, and Tony Reed, 49, was unknown, but there "is reason to believe they may be trying to flee to Mexico," the statement said.
A search for the two men was launched on Sunday after detectives found evidence linking them to the disappearance of Patrick Shunn, 45, and his wife, Monique Patenaude, 46.
The couple was reported missing April 12 by neighbors in a sparsely populated area in the foothills of the Cascade mountains about 60 miles (97 km) northeast of Seattle.
Though their bodies have not been found, the couple is presumed to be "the victims of homicidal violence" based on evidence collected at the scene of their vehicles, which authorities found abandoned in a remote wooded area, as well as at John Reed's former residence, the sheriff's office said. Reed lived on a neighboring property.
In a search warrant affidavit filed on Monday in a Snohomish County court, detectives portray John Reed as a disgruntled and aggressive former neighbor of the couple.
In 2013, according to the affidavit, Shunn reported to sheriff's office officials that John Reed had threatened him and his wife over "the cutting of brush between their properties," and that Reed repeatedly said he would "shoot or assault" them if they did not leave him alone.
Two or three weeks ago, a Snohomish County parks employee told detectives that he became aware of complaints made by Patenaude that John Reed was living at his former property illegally after he had sold it to the county at the end of March.
John Reed was "very unhappy" about being ordered to leave for trespassing, the parks employee recalled, according to the affidavit.
(Reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle; Editing by Dan Whitcomb, Alan Crosby and Leslie Adler)
