The Bellevue killings, also known as the Bellevue massacre, took place on the evening of January 3 and the early hours of January 4, 1997. Alex Baranyi and David Anderson, both 17 years old, tricked Kim Wilson, 20, into going to a park where they killed her.
Following that, they broke into her home and killed her father Bill Wilson, his wife Rose Wilson, and their other daughter Julia Wilson. Anderson and Baranyi were both found guilty and given four consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole.
The Beginning
Two young boys who were playing in a park in the Bellevue, Washington, suburb of Seattle, on January 4, 1997, noticed what they thought to be a collection of garments in the bushes. The following day, when they went back to the park, they discovered that what they had seen the day before was indeed a human body. The police was quickly contacted.
When Bellevue investigators arrived on the scene, they discovered the body of a young woman who was subsequently determined to be20-year-old Kimberly Wilson, . A cord was discovered wrapped around her neck, suggesting that she was strangled to death.
While three automobiles were parked outside and Christmas lights were still on when officers arrived at the Wilson home, interior lights were out. They found ceilings and walls covered in blood. Kim’s mother, Rose Wilson, was found dead in her bed in the master bedroom. Her skull had suffered numerous hits from a heavy object, and she had been stabbed repeatedly in the throat.
The Investigation Into The Murder
According to records, one of the Wilsons’ neighbors had reported a domestic disturbance one year before to the couple’s deaths in 1996, claiming that Kim and her parents had gotten into a fight. Detectives learned Kim was friends with a goth clique that frequented the neighborhood Denny’s late at night when they started questioning Kim’s friends—even though Kim didn’t spend much time there herself. The group was fascinated sensuality and death.
Members admitted to detectives that Baranyi and Anderson, two of the group, discussed murder on a weekly basis.
At their homes, investigators questioned and spoke with Baranyi and Anderson. On the night of the murders, both claimed to have been playing video games at Baranyi’s house. To match the boys’ shoes to a particular shoe tread pattern found at the crime scene, police looked at the boys’ shoes. Baranyi claimed to have only one pair of brown work shoes and presented them to the cops.
The assertions that both boys had spent the entire night playing video games at Baranyi’s residence were refuted by witnesses and Baranyi’s neighbors.
Arrest and Sentencing
Baranyi confessed to detectives five days after first speaking with them that he and his accomplice had murdered the Wilsons. He told officials that he strangled Kim in the park first. After realizing Kim might have told her parents where she was going to meet him that night, Baranyi planned to murder them as well. Baranyi entered the Wilson residence armed with a baseball bat and a combat knife.
Another round of interrogation with David Anderson, Baranyi’s accomplice, was conducted.
The homes of both boys were investigated by detectives, who also retrieved items that Baranyi had stolen from the Wilsons’ house and bloody shoes that matched the footprints at the crime site. These objects were linked to the Wilsons by DNA tests.
First-degree murder charges were brought against Baranyi and Anderson. When the trial got underway in October 1998, the prosecution tried to try them all at once, but the court decided that each defendant needed a separate trial for his unique contribution to the crimes.
The same penalty of four consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole was given to them.
Anderson received a new life sentence in March 2022, a life sentence with eligibility for parole after 33 years.
Credits: Vocal Media