Crews on the ground, water and in air searching for Arlington couple's remains



ARLINGTON, Wash. -- New evidence suggests the brothers wanted in connection with an Arlington couple’s murder may be heading to Mexico.

As the manhunt continues, prosecutors charged brothers John Reed and Tony Reed with two counts of first-degree murder Tuesday.

Court documents reveal the couple was murdered on their property. Detectives say the brothers apparently used a Land Rover and Jeep belonging to the victims to transport their bodies. Their vehicles were discovered recently and detectives have them in their possession. They say they found blood inside the vehicles including a pool of blood in the cargo areas of both vehicles.

From sunrise to sunset, crews were searching the ground and in the air looking for Patrick Shunn and wife Monique Patenaude.

“Blood and other evidence leads us to believe they are both the victims of homicidal violence,” Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Shari Ireton said.

Detectives are convinced the couple`s remains are somewhere inside a 23-square-mile area of Oso.

On Tuesday,  search crews with canoes were working by the North Fork Stillaguamish River. They also searched the missing couple`s property, neighboring homes and roadways.

“A lot of hillside,  a lot of wooded area to cover,” Ireton said.

As they look for the victims, the manhunt for the two suspected killers now stretches across two more states. Detectives say the brothers, when they fled the area, first drove to their parents' house in Ellensburg and then to Arizona, where detectives found the brothers' getaway Volkswagen.

“We discovered that vehicle in Phoenix, Arizona, yesterday,” Ireton said.

Detectives say the brothers are now driving a gold Acura 3.2 TL with Arizona license plate BNN-9968. An acquaintance of the brothers gave them the Acura as well as $500.

They had a hit by a plate reader in Claxico, California, and so right now they believe the two brothers right now are trying to flee into Mexico. Police want to catch the brothers before they get away for good.

Detectives say John Reed and his brother killed the victims over a longstanding property dispute. John used to live next to the couple before the county forced him to sell his condemned property to the county after the landslide. Before the couple's disappearance, Monique had complained to the county that Reed was back on his former property and squatting.

Now more than a week since their disappearance, family and friends are coming to the realization they may never see the couple again.