SEATTLE — Police are searching the Northwest for a man who they say killed his grandparents in the Seattle area and stole their car just hours after being released from a Washington state prison, and has since tried to obtain weapons.
Michael “Chad” Boysen, 26, was released from prison Friday after serving time for robbery, and his grandparents picked him up, authorities said. He is suspected of killing the 82-year-old man and 80-year-old woman Friday night or early Saturday at their home in the Fairwood area of Renton, police said.
“I can’t stress how dangerous this guy is,” King County Sheriff John Urquhart said at a Monday afternoon news conference. He said Boysen had made threats against family members and law enforcement officials, but he did not elaborate.
“We have to catch him as soon as we can,” Urquhart said.
Urquhart said the grandparents were not shot, but he declined to provide other details about their killings, pending autopsies.
Detectives believe Boysen is trying to find weapons, and Urquhart said authorities do not believe he had a gun when he left the crime scene. He had been searching the Internet for “gun shows” across the Northwest and Nevada, the sheriff’s office said.
Boysen had been in prison since 2006 on three robbery convictions in King County, said Judy Feliciano with the Washington Department of Corrections. He was released Friday from the prison at Monroe and was supposed to check in with a community supervision officer within 24 hours, she said.
Urquhart said Boysen’s grandparents had picked him up from the prison and fixed up a room in their home for him to stay in.
“We are at a loss as to why he killed them,” the sheriff said. “We don’t know what the motive is.”
Boysen is 5-foot-10, 170 pounds with hazel eyes. He may be driving the red, 2001 Chrysler 300, Washington license 046XXU.
Autopsies were scheduled Monday on the victims and their names would be released later, the King County medical examiner’s office said.
Friends and family members identified the elderly couple to TV stations as Robert R. and Norma J. Taylor. They were members of the local Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, neighbor Ronna Smith told KOMO.
When a family member became concerned that the Taylors didn’t answer their door Saturday, the daughter was called and found the bodies about 7 p.m. Saturday, KING reported.
“It’s really scary that it happened two doors down,” Smith told KIRO-TV. “We were home Friday evening, and we left the house at about two in the afternoon on Saturday. And when we came home, at about 8 o’clock, it was full of police cars.”
