Family Friend Held In Death Of 7-Year-Old
A family friend already in jail on a witness-tampering charge was booked Monday for investigation of kidnapping and murder in the death of 7-year-old Roxanne Doll.
An autopsy determined the girl died of multiple stab wounds to the neck. Authorities wouldn’t say whether she had any other injuries or had been sexually assaulted.
The little girl’s disappearance from her south Everett home the night of March 31 triggered a massive weeklong search. Her body was found Saturday night by two girls playing along a trail near blackberry bushes in northeast Everett, several miles from her home. The body was buried under a pile of yard clippings.
The spot is about 16 blocks from the home of Richard M. Clark, 26, who was arrested Friday on a charge of tampering with a witness. Snohomish County prosecutors allege he asked his brother to lie to police and say bloodstains in his van came from a poached deer.
The bloodstains were being analyzed to see if they came from Roxanne.
Clark pleaded innocent to the tampering charge Monday via a video hookup to Superior Court. Judge Joseph Thibodeau maintained bail at $100,000 after deputy prosecutor Charles Blackman told the court Clark contacted his brother again over the weekend, trying to get him to recant his earlier statement.
An hour after the arraignment, authorities announced at a news conference that Clark had also been booked for investigation of first-degree murder and kidnapping.
Authorities say Clark, a self employed landscaper, was drinking with Roxanne’s father, Tim Iffrig, in the hours before Roxanne disappeared.
They say someone apparently entered Roxanne’s bedroom while she slept the night of March 31 or early the next morning and abducted her.
Early in the investigation, Clark told authorities he knew nothing about Roxanne’s disappearance. But police say he failed a polygraph test given two days after Roxanne’s disappearance.
Clark has five felony convictions, including one in 1988 for unlawful imprisonment of a 4-year-old neighbor girl. His record includes dozens of misdemeanor arrests.