Couple admit to spree that left 4 dead
Suspect says father molested two girls
PORTLAND – An Oregon man and his girlfriend have admitted to killing the man’s father and stepmother in a five-day crime spree that authorities said left four dead across the Pacific Northwest.
David Joseph Pedersen, 31, told a California newspaper in a story published Monday that he killed his father and was responsible for the three other killings in Washington, Oregon and California. His 24-year-old girlfriend, Holly Grigsby, separately described to investigators in Washington state how she killed Pedersen’s stepmother using two knives.
The crime spree began last month, as Pedersen’s father drove the couple to catch a bus in Everett, according to Grigsby’s statements to police. Pedersen shot his father from behind as Grigsby took control of the vehicle, she said.
The couple then returned to the father’s home, where Grigsby stabbed Pedersen’s stepmother with the knives, she told authorities.
The couple said Pedersen’s father, David Jones “Red” Pedersen, was targeted because he allegedly molested his daughter and a niece when they were younger.
Grigsby told authorities the stepmother, Leslie Pedersen, was killed because she didn’t do anything about the alleged molestation.
“I felt it was my responsibility to make sure it didn’t happen again,” the younger Pedersen told the Appeal Democrat in a jailhouse interview. He said Grigsby was involved in the slayings only under duress and shouldn’t be held responsible for the deaths.
Everett police Sgt. Robert Goetz said officers have not yet looked into the molestation allegations but planned to do so. He said evidence collected so far indicates much of Grigsby’s story could be plausible.
The deaths of Pedersen’s father and stepmother led the couple to the logging roads of Oregon, where authorities said they dumped the father’s Jeep with his body still inside.
While in Oregon, police said the couple also fatally shot 19-year-old Cody Myers, who had been attending a jazz festival outside the coastal town of Newport. Pedersen and Grigsby were arrested last week in Myers’ car outside Sacramento.
A fourth body, that of a 54-year-old man, was found with a gunshot wound to the head in California on Friday. Police in Eureka linked Reginald Alan Clark’s death to the couple, but didn’t release details.