Dead Washington Extremist was to be Arrested on Child Rape Charges
A man with an antigovernment past was going to be arrested on multiple counts of child rape and child molestation a day after he killed two women and turned his southwestern Washington home into a bullet-sprayed inferno.
Steven Douglas Stanbary had been told by his attorney to surrender on Dec. 8 to detectives with the Washougal Police Department. He would have faced multiple counts of rape of a child and child molestation, Sgt. Allen Cook told Hatewatch today.
“It was an active investigation, and he would have been arrested, booked into jail, based on probable cause to believe he had committed these crimes,” Cook said.
The Washougal police sergeant said he had not fully reviewed detectives’ reports associated with the sex crime investigation that had been reviewed by the Clark County prosecutor, but said it apparently involved only one child.
Instead of preparing to surrender, authorities now believe Stanbary, 47, shot and killed his wife of 11 years, Leona Bolton Stanbary, and her 50-year-old twin sister, Mona Daugherty, who lived in the home, early on Dec 7. Then he apparently set fire to his house and shot at police and firefighters who responded.
The following day, the badly burned remains of the two women were found in a destroyed back bedroom of the home, Cook said.
The remains now believed to be those of Stanbary - referred to by investigators as “Body A” - were found at the opposite end of the ranch-style home, near six to eight firearms, including an AK-47 assault rifle, that were believed to have been fired during the siege. Stanbary’s cause of death hasn’t been determined.