SEATTLE — Michael Chadd Boysen, 26, the felon accused of killing his grandparents hours after he was released from prison March 8, plotted the slayings from behind bars, according to two law enforcement sources.
A day after Robert and Norma Taylor were strangled in their Renton-area home, detectives learned that Boysen had talked about robbing and killing the couple while he was in prison, the sources said.
Boysen said at the prison that he was angry at his maternal grandparents and wanted them dead, said the sources, on the condition of anonymity. He apparently wanted to steal cash and their car, they said.
Chad Lewis, spokesman for the state Department of Corrections, confirmed that “sources” in the prison told investigators about threats Boysen made against his grandparents. He declined to say whether the sources were inmates or staff.
The reason Boysen was angry at his elderly grandparents is unclear, the sources said. Melanie Taylor, Boysen’s mother and daughter of the slain couple, has said that her parents adored Boysen despite his troubled history, which included two stints in prison.
Melanie Taylor found the bodies of Robert, 82, and Norma Taylor, 80, in their home on March 9. They were strangled, according to the King County Medical Examiner’s Office.
The slayings sparked a manhunt; on March 12, Boysen was arrested at a Lincoln City, Ore., motel after a nearly 10-hour standoff with police.
The law-enforcement sources said Wednesday that one possible motive being pursued is that Boysen strangled his grandparents so he could steal from them. After the couple were found dead, numerous items were found missing from their home.
Many of the items were pawned at AC Coins, a Kent pawnshop, according to the sources. An employee at the pawnshop declined to comment Wednesday.
Boysen is not fighting extradition to Washington. He now is being held in the Multnomah County Jail in Portland on a fugitive warrant, but he is expected to arrive at the Washington Corrections Center in Shelton, Mason County, by Friday, said Lewis, the DOC spokesman.
