3 charged in gruesome killing of teenage college student found in Tacoma ravine

TACOMA -- Murder charges were filed Thursday against three people in the death of a 18-year-old man whose dismembered body was found in a Tacoma ravine this month.

Wallace Jackson, 48,  Crystal Jackson, 30, and Darrel Daves, 49, were each charged with first-degree murder in Pierce County Superior Court.

Wallace Jackson and Crystal Jackson, who are not related, are being held on $2 million bail. Daves is being held in lieu of $5 million bail.

The remains of Jesus Isidor-Mendoza, of Lakewood, were found Feb. 8 in a ravine in Tacoma. He was last seen Oct. 22 leaving his mother's home to attend a class at Pierce College. His mother reported him missing in November.

Court documents show his body was cut in half at the waist, and sections were wrapped in plastic bags and stuffed into a red nylon bag.

Prosecutors say investigators found evidence of blood and other items at when they searched Crystal Jackson's home.

On Feb. 8, Tacoma police received a report of body in a Tacoma ravine near Interstate 5. Officers found a bag containing human body parts, which were badly decomposed. But investigators were able to identify the remains as that of Jesus Isidor-Mendoza.

The prosecutor's office said that on the night of the murder, Isidor-Mendoza went to a garage to meet Wallace Jackson and Daves.

"They raped Isidor-Mendoza, drowned him in a bucket of water and cut up his body," the prosecutor's office said. "They packaged the pieces in the nylon bag and kept it in the garage for two days before placing it by the garbage cans."

When the bag began to smell, the office said, one of the male defendants and Crystal Jackson threw the bag into a ravine.

"Detectives believe this was a drug-related murder," the prosecutor's office said.