Kitsap County sheriff's detectives make arrests in Careaga family cold case
PORT ORCHARD — Kitsap County Sheriff's detectives have arrested three men in connection with the 2017 killings of four members of the Careaga family, the office announced Monday morning.
A 43-year-old Bremerton man, 50-year-old Gig Harbor man and 49-year-old Bremerton man are being held on $20 million bail each until their first appearance in Kitsap County Superior Court on Tuesday, said Kitsap County Sheriff's Lt. Ken Dickinson.
The sheriff's office is not releasing the identities of the three men, but the three men listed on Kitsap County Jail's in-custody list were Danie J. Kelly Jr. 43; Robert J. Watson III, 50; and Johnny J. Watson, 49.
Kelly was previously listed as a "person of interest" in the murders in January 2018 but previously had not been charged in the murders.
Members of the trio were each arrested on Monday morning in a roundup that included the sheriff's office, other local police agencies and federal law enforcement, Dickinson said. Each of the three men will be charged with 16 different crimes, including aggravated first-degree murder, a penalty that is a life sentence without the possibility of parole if convicted.
Cold cases: Here are all the unsolved murders in Kitsap and Mason counties
'My family is dead!'
The quadruple homicide was a shock to the wider Kitsap community and has remained among the highest-interest unsolved murder cases in the region in recent memory.
The crime occurred on Jan. 27, 2017. Investigators said three members of the blended Careaga family — Christale Lynn Careaga, 37, Hunter E. Schaap, 16, and Johnathon F. Higgins, 16, were shot at a house near Tahuya Lake in Seabeck before the house was set on fire.
The incident began when a person called 911 at 11:28 p.m. on Jan. 27 and said violence was being committed in the house on Tenino Drive and then hung up.
A 911 call recorded the last words of 16-year-old Schaap: "Help! I'm dying...My family is dead! Come now!"
The apparent target of the attack, Johnny Careaga, 43, was found shot and burned in his 2005 Ford F-150 truck on a rural tree farm in Mason County two days later.
More: Five things to know about the Careaga family murders
The Careagas owned Christale's Java Hut, and later, Juanito's Taco Shop, on Kitsap Way near Kitsap Lake. Schaap was a junior at North Kitsap High School; Higgins was a junior at Klahowya Secondary School.
Investigators found shell casings outside the home, at 13417 Tenino Drive West. They also located about $60,000 in cash in a bedroom and 33 mature marijuana plants in a garage, according to court documents.
Detectives had also previously released surveillance footage from the Camp Union Grocery taken at about 9 p.m. the night of the homicides, showing Johnny Careaga's truck pulling up and parking next to an unidentified vehicle before leaving after a few minutes.
In 2018, detectives publicly named Kelly as a "person of interest" at a news conference, showing him in a Jan. 12, 2017, video at the Silverdale Target and wearing what investigators said was clothing associated with the Bandidos motorcycle club. The video was taken just 12 days before the homicides.
In January 2020, the sheriff's office said it believed "members and associates" of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club were involved in the murders, but the office did not elaborate on how it knew that information.
A press conference Tuesday will be held to reveal more information, Dickinson said. The three suspects are also slated to appear before a Kitsap County Superior Court judge.
This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: 3 arrested in connection with 2017 Careaga family killings
