Mother of slayings suspect pleads innocent to charges she helped him flee country

Associated Press

EVERETT, Wash. - The 77-year-old mother of a man charged with killing a rural Washington state couple and burying their remains pleaded not guilty Thursday to helping him flee the country.

Faye Reed, of Ellensburg, pleaded not guilty to rendering criminal assistance, The Daily Herald reported.

Her husband, 81-year-old Clyde Reed, asked to delay his hearing on the same charge for two weeks so he can hire his own attorney.

Snohomish County prosecutors said the parents gave money and a vehicle to John Reed and their other son, Tony Reed, and helped them escape the country after the slayings.

Mexican authorities arrested John Reed, 54, last month and turned him over to authorities in Arizona.

Reed had been on the run since the killings near Oso, a rural community northeast of Seattle that was devastated in 2014 by the nation's worst landslide disaster.

John Reed waived extradition and was booked into the Snohomish County Jail Friday on two counts of aggravated murder for the deaths of Monique Patenuade, 46, and Patrick Shunn, 45.

Prosecutors said Shunn and Patenaude were shot April 11 and their bodies discovered about six weeks later. John Reed is accused of killing them over a long-standing property feud.

Reed then fled the country with his brother.

Tony Reed turned himself in and led detectives to the couple's gravesite. Tony Reed has pleaded guilty to two counts of rendering criminal

assistance.