Kitsap County prosecutors back away from murder charges for 3 in 2005 killing

Kitsap County prosecutors have backed away from murder charges for three men who had been accused of killing a King County woman whose body was found in the water near Manchester in 2006. Prosecutors now say that further investigation has led them to believe that the three men they had charged last year for the murder of 33-year-old Shanan Lynn Read did not kill her and now attribute her death solely to a man who died in 2016.

Brandon Michael Reeve, now 43, Oscar Cash Gonzales, now 34, and Brian Anderson Bourquard, now 39, were each charged in August 2022 in Kitsap County Superior Court for Read's murder. Prosecutors said that additional investigation led them to believe that Anthony Martinez, who had previously been identified as being involved in Read’s death, had killed her by injecting her with a lethal dose of methamphetamine. They also said that they believe she was killed in King County.

Martinez, they said, died in 2016. Kitsap County Prosecuting Attorney Chad Enright said that law enforcement had reported that Martinez had choked on a chicken bone and died.

“I think we feel confident in knowing who murdered Shanan Read,” Enright said Monday. “And that person is dead.”

‘Where is the justice for my child?’

Prosecutors moved to dismiss a first-degree murder charge against Gonzales, and Judge Jeffrey Bassett did so on Jan. 27. Reeve and Bourquard have since pleaded guilty to misdemeanors for roles in covering up Read’s death, and both received suspended jail sentences.

During sentencing hearings for the two men, a statement written by Read’s mother, Diane Read, was read, in which she noted: “I ask, where is the justice for Shanan? It seems that there is little to none. Although I am saddened with this outcome, I will reluctantly accept it, but I ask again, where is the justice for my child, for the mother of four and for Shanan Lynn Read?”

Said Kary Read, Shanan’s daughter: “Seventeen years has passed and unfortunately there has been no justice for my mother or my family. I will never forget, and I will never forgive. I will make sure that my mother’s memory lives on.”

On Friday, Reeve, who had been charged with second-degree murder, pleaded guilty to second-degree rendering criminal assistance, a gross misdemeanor, and received a sentence of 343 days in jail, all of which was suspended.

More:Suspect in 17-year-old murder case pleads not guilty, provided assistance to detectives

On Monday, Bourquard, who had also been charged with first-degree murder, also pleaded guilty to second-degree rendering criminal assistance as well as a count of unlawful removal or concealment of human remains, a misdemeanor. Bourquard received a jail sentence of 364 days and 90 days for the counts, respectively, all of which was suspended.

Prosecutors noted that the statute of limitations had expired on any charges except murder and that both men had agreed to waive the statue of limitations to plead guilty to the charges. “We believe that these charges accurately reflect their conduct and both defendants have taken responsibility for their roles in this case,” Enright said in a statement provided to the Kitsap Sun.

Judge Sally Olsen imposed the sentences on both men. “This is a horrible situation for all parties concerned,” she said Monday during Bourquard's sentencing. “I want to recognize that, and my heartfelt empathy goes out to everyone, especially the victim’s family. I think, frankly, they were the ones that have suffered the most.”

A coverup

Enright said that new witness statements indicated that both Bourquard and Reeve assisted in covering up the murder but did not participate in injecting Read with the drugs that led to her death. He also said that while Gonzales was in the vicinity of the murder, prosecutors do not believe that he participated in the act that killed Read and that they don’t have evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he assisted in the coverup.

“Witness statements and physical evidence suggest that this person (Martinez) acted alone in killing Ms. Read, but relied on both Bourquard and Reeve to cover up his act,” Enright said. “Although jurisdiction for a murder charge would be in King County, we will not be referring this case to King County because the suspect … is dead and there is no action that could be brought by King County.”

When prosecutors charged the three men last year, investigators said that Read had been beaten with a metal baton in the head as retaliation for stealing from associates “during an ongoing criminal enterprise to forge financial documents and commit acts of theft and fraud,” according to court documents filed last year. They then identified Martinez as one of the four men who they said had killed Read and said that in August 2005, Martinez had initially assaulted her.

“As a direct result of the attack, Read died,” a Kitsap County sheriff’s investigator wrote in a report, noting then that the exact location of her death was unknown. She had been alive in King County, and her body was recovered in Kitsap County, he wrote.

More:Suspects arrested in unsolved murder of woman, 33, found in Puget Sound in 2006

The investigator wrote that Bourquard and Gonzales had placed Read's body in a container, sealed it with tape, took the container to Bourquard's vehicle and transported it to Kitsap County.

Reeve told investigators that he cleaned the apartment where Read had been killed. The investigator also wrote that Read's body was stored at the Bourquard family cabin in Port Orchard and that Bourquard and Reeve came to the residence two weeks after the murder to pour chemicals on Read's remains.

Read's body was dumped in Puget Sound. Her headless body was found in the water between Manchester and Blake Island in January 2006, and her decapitated head was later found in that same general area in March that year.

Said Enright: “We went back and continued to reinterview a lot of the witnesses, and the witnesses were cooperating from the beginning, and what they described happening that night, it ultimately just wasn’t consistent with the theory that there was an assault that occurred in King County and continued into Kitsap County. When you went back and looked at the autopsy report and compared it to what the witnesses were saying, and looking at the toxicology report in terms of what her drug levels were when the body was recovered, it was all consistent with this being a forced drug overdose.”

Returning to Kitsap County

In the years since Read’s death, the three men had dispersed throughout the country. Gonzales had been living in California, Reeve in Florida, and Bourquard in Pennsylvania, according to court documents.

Gonzales, held on $10 million bail, remained in the Kitsap County Jail as court proceedings moved ahead. Bail for Reeve and Bourquard was set at $1 million and $2 million, respectively, and both posted bail using bail bond companies shortly after their first court appearances in Kitsap County, according to court records.

Gonzales’s defense attorney, Aaron Talney, said there was no evidence that Gonzales was involved in a murder.

“This has obviously been a difficult road for Mr. Gonzales, that he was years later plucked from life in California and then incarcerated here in Kitsap County," Talney said. "I imagine how shocking that might be years later. I would also say that that I think this case is actually a sign of success for our justice system, this is how it’s supposed to work. I think what happened is the prosecutors ultimately made decisions based on the evidence that was before them, which can be a very difficult decision considering the charges that were originally filed.”

Jennifer Wellman, Bourquard's defense attorney, said she disagreed that there was evidence that Read had been murdered, but said that regardless, Bourquard did not kill her and only had a hand in disposing of her remains at Martinez's direction.

“Based on all the evidence, (deputy prosecuting attorney Jennifer Koo) and I disagree on whether there is, in fact, evidence of a murder,” Wellman said. “Really all we know based on all the evidence is that Ms. Read overdosed.”

Said Bourquard: “I want to say to the Read family, that I am truly sorry. I realize that nothing that I do or say will make you feel better, but I am sorry and I will always be sorry for what I did.”

Reeve’s defense attorney Jared Ausserer said his client had been a lost youth who had been staying at the apartment of those involved in the homicide. “He observed some of the acts, and actually observed Shanan once she had passed and saw what they were doing in removing the body from the location. He was terrified of these people and did clean up the apartment once they left.”

“This is a tragedy,” Reeve said, “and I’ve been trying to make it right for 17 years.”

This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: 3 suspects arrested in 2005 killing won't face murder charges