SEATTLE — Authorities said they have taken into custody in San Diego one of two brothers who were charged with first-degree murder in the presumed killing of a missing Washington state couple — Patrick Shunn and Monique Patenaude, who media reports said is a former resident of British Columbia.
Snohomish County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Shari Ireton said Tony Clyde Reed, 49, crossed into the United States from Mexico and was arrested by U.S. Marshals.
Reed had arranged to be taken into custody, she said. He has been booked into the San Diego County jail and Ireton said she didn't yet have information about extraditing Reed to Washington state.
The whereabouts of his brother, 53-year-old John Blaine Reed, remain unknown.
On April 12, neighbours reported Patenaude, 46, and her husband, Shunn, 45, missing when their livestock was left unattended.
Media reports have said Patenaude used to live in British Columbia.
CBC reported last month that a woman who has long known Patenaude said they worked together as care aids in Burnaby, B.C., for more than two decades. The report said they worked as care aids for people with developmental disabilities.
Detectives concluded the couple had been killed after they searched the vehicles and the home near the couple's where John Reed recently lived.
Ireton said Monday night that authorities continue to search for the missing couple.
"We're definitely glad to have one in custody," she said. "We're hoping for more information about the bodies."
Surveillance video linked the Reed brothers to the dumping of the couple's cars over an embankment north of Seattle, authorities said.
Authorities have said they had no information about any issues between John Reed and Shunn and Patenaude but noted that others had described a property dispute between them.
The Reeds have been described as armed and dangerous during the search.
John Reed's car was found previously in central Washington, and detectives said the brothers had taken their parents' red Volkswagen.
John Reed tried to cash a check for $96,000 on April 14 before he went on the run from police, according to court documents filed in April. The brothers had not been identified as suspects at the time. Ireton has said the bank wasn't able to cash the large check but issued five smaller cashier's checks to John Reed. One check had been cashed before authorities put a hold on them.
Authorities had said the brothers could have been heading for Mexico. Detectives found a car in Phoenix that had been driven by the Reeds and said the suspects took another car with an Arizona plate.
A license plate reader captured that plate near Calexico, California and the Reeds themselves had been spotted in the country several times, authorities said.
Tony Reed has dozens of arrests and twice was under state supervision — from 1989 to 1991 on drug charges, and from 1994 to 2003 for three misdemeanours, one count of attempting to elude police and one count of third-degree assault.
John Reed has been cited for mostly minor offences, including driving without a license and collecting wood without a permit. He served five years under supervision of the Department of Corrections in the late 1990s for attempting to elude police in Whatcom County.
