Pair Admit To Killings, Lawmen Say Revenge May Have Been Motive
Two young men have confessed to killing a southern Spokane County couple who gave them work, food and a place to sleep, authorities said.
The motive appears to be revenge.
Cheyenne T. Brown and K.C. Therriault “gave similar confessions as to planning to kill both Allen and Gertrude Mattausch,” detectives said in affidavits filed Friday in District Court.
Brown, 20, and Therriault, 19, admitted sneaking into the Mattauschs’ farmhouse outside Waverly before dawn Thursday and blasting the sleeping couple with shotguns, sheriff’s Lt. John Simmons said.
The two men were each charged Friday with two counts of premeditated murder and ordered held on $1 million bond.
Neither Brown nor Therriault, both clad in standard-issue blue jail coveralls, said much as they took turns before Court Commissioner Vance Peterson.
Brown looked defiant, his arms crossed in front of him, a scowl on his face. He said fewer than a half-dozen words during his appearance.
Therriault seemed unsure of himself, even scared. He slumped in his chair and looked around nervously, answering questions in a low voice.
Simmons said the two men felt slighted by the couple and recently hatched a plan to kill them.
The Mattauschs were well-known for their generosity and allowed the two men to move into a mobile home on their six-acre ranch and do odd jobs for room and board.
Brown had lived there for several months, while Therriault moved in recently.
Brown apparently was angry that the couple turned him in for stealing their truck last October, detectives said. He was released from jail this month after serving 60 days and being ordered to pay $640 in restitution.
The fact that the Mattauschs forgave Brown and allowed him to move back to their farm to work off the debt apparently did not appease him, Simmons said.
“There was anger there from the previous incident, some hostility and resentment,” he said. “I don’t think this was a robbery killing.”
Simmons said Therriault also had a grievance with the Mattauschs, although he was unsure what it was.
“With the other guy there was conflict there, either real or imagined,” Simmons said. “So they got together and decided that this is what had to be done.”
After killing the couple, the men said, they threw their shotguns into the Mattauschs’ 1982 Ford pickup truck - the same one Brown stole in October - and headed to Spokane.
They were arrested near Mission Park after a city patrol officer saw them acting suspiciously.
Brown was wearing a bandolier of shotgun shells when officers pulled him from the truck, according to court records, and the two shotguns used in the murders were found inside.
A rosary will be said for Allen and Trudy Mattausch at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Our Lady of Lourdes Cathedral, 1115 W. Riverside in Spokane. The funeral will be at 10 a.m. Thursday, also at Our Lady of Lourdes, followed by burial at Spokane Memorial Gardens, 5909 S. Cheney-Spokane Road.
The family asks that memorial contributions be made to the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 11326 in Cheney or the Good Samaritan nursing home in Fairfield.
, DataTimes