Gig Harbor man among 3 arrested in 2017 quadruple killing of Seabeck family
A 50-year-old Gig Harbor resident is among three men who detectives with the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office suspect in a 2017 quadruple homicide that took the lives of a Seabeck-area family.
The Gig Harbor man and the two other suspects, a 43-year-old man and a 49-year-old man both from Bremerton, were arrested Monday morning. They have not been publicly identified. According to a Sheriff’s Office news release, the suspects will be arraigned Tuesday at the Kitsap County Courthouse in Port Orchard.
Bail was set at $20 million for each suspect, according to the news release. They were booked into Kitsap County Jail on felony arrest warrants that list 16 different charges for each person, including first-degree aggravated murder, first-degree murder, first-degree arson and first-degree burglary.
The murders of the Careaga family rocked the rural communities of the Kitsap Peninsula, prompting highway signs near Bremerton bearing one victim’s dying words along with an FBI tip line, as well as a $20,000 cash reward from Crime Stoppers of Puget Sound for information leading to an arrest.
Three of the family members were found dead on Jan. 27, 2017, when 16-year-old Hunter Schaap called 911.
“Help, I’m dying!” he said, according to the Peninsula Gateway. “My family is dying! Come now!”
Schaap and 16-year-old Jonathon Higgins, along with Christale Careaga, 37, were found fatally shot in the home, which was set on fire.
Two days later, 43-year-old Johnny Careaga was found shot in a burned-out truck near a tree farm on Northwest Dewatto Holly Road in north Mason County, according to the Gateway. Authorities said they believed he was likely murdered elsewhere and that his body was dumped in the truck before it was set aflame.
Nearly three years after the murders, the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office said it believed “members and associates” of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club were directly involved in the murders. It’s not clear if the three suspects arrested Monday are linked to the organization.
Investigators are still seeking information on the killings. In its news release, the Sheriff’s Office said investigators know citizens in its community still have valuable information. Anyone with information was asked to call and speak with detectives at 1-800-225-5324.
