February 10, 2012 in News, City

Police: Starbuck had ex-wife’s death certificate displayed

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KHQ-TV photo

Clay Duane Starbuck, 47
(Full-size photo)(All photos)

A Deer Park man accused of strangling his ex-wife and posing her dead body had her death certificate displayed in his home when detectives arrested him this week, detectives say.

Clay Duane Starbuck, 47, is charged with aggravated first-degree murder and sexually violating human remains in the death of Chanin Denice Starbuck, 42. Prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty. The only other punishment if convicted of aggravated first-degree murder is life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Starbuck, a former Alaska oil worker with no criminal history, appeared in Spokane County Superior Court this afternoon via video from the jail after prosecutors formally charged him Thursday. He remains in jail on $1 million bond.

The Starbucks’ sons, Blake and Austin, attended the hearing but did not speak with journalists. Their father is prohibited from contacting them or their three siblings.

The Starbucks divorced in July but were involved in legal battles over money and contempt of court claims when Chanin Starbuck’s body was found Dec. 3 at her rental home at 509 N. Reiper St. in Deer Park.

Her body was positioned in a way to humiliate her, and she appeared to have been sexually assaulted, according to the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office. Detectives believe she was killed about 9:17 a.m. Dec. 1 based on a 911 call received from her phone.

The call featured “a short high pitched guttural sound of a female followed by rustling noise consistent with a struggle, and then the phone was disconnected.”

The dispatcher called the phone back but it went to voicemail. The 17-year employee did not call back a second time and did not notify deputies of the call, which violates 911 protocol. The sheriff’s office has since ordered a review of 911 hangup call procedures.

Detectives believe Clay Starbuck lured his ex-wife from her home by telling her his car had broken down and she needed to drive their children to school. He violated a court-imposed no contact order by entering her home, then hid until she returned. He used her phone to text message a man she’d been seeing and pose as her to try to send detectives down the wrong path, the sheriff’s office said.

After Chanin’s body was found, a local dentist and member of the church that the Starbucks belonged to, told detectives she had told him she feared Clay “would harm her to get out of paying child support and other divorce obligation,” according to court documents.

The man said Clay told him months ago that Chanin Starbuck “was having an affair, texting men and cheating on him.” Clay told the man he installed a key stroke detection program on Chanin’s computer to monitor her activities, documents say.

Starbuck was arrested Monday after crime lab results linked him to DNA found on his ex-wife’s body.

Starbuck denied murdering Chanin and said his DNA was present at the scene because he used to live in the home. When detectives told him his DNA had been found under her fingernails and on her neck and face, he said nothing, according to court documents.

Detectives asked Starbuck “why he killed Chanin” and asked him if he planned to do so after he was notified about a court judgement ordering him to pay her $9,000. Starbuck “nodded his head side to side as if saying no,” detectives wrote.

Detective Mike Ricketts said he asked Starbuck “if he was saying no he didn’t kill her or no he didn’t plan to kill her ahead of time. ”

“Clay did not respond to this question,” according to court documents. “Clay remained stoic and non-verbal throughout the remainder of the interview.”

Detectives searched his home at 1625 E. Second Ave. Monday night, where they found the death certificate on display as well as a backpack containing divorce papers and printed emails between Chanin and another man. Detectives also found a computer hard drive labeled “Chanins desk top comp” and “12.21.11.” Chanin Starbuck’s photo identification also was hanging from a shelf in the closet.

Longtime Spokane County Deputy Prosecutor Larry Steinmetz said he’s never before charged someone with sexually violating human remains.

Five comments on this story so far. Add yours!

• 

  mcjjensen on February 10 at 12:44 p.m.

  There is a special place in that really worm spot down south for people like this guy.
  Mitch Jensen

• 

  mcjjensen on February 10 at 12:48 p.m.

  Oops, I meant that “warm” spot down south. Although, worm just might fit for this guy as well.
  Mitch Jensen

• 

  RedCedar on February 10 at 5:46 p.m.

  This is about as bad a crime as anyone could imagine. The arrogance of the murderer makes me think he really wanted to brag about it, intended to be caught, and didn’t care about anything including his own life, except getting brutal revenge on his wife. If he intended to try to get away with it, he would have taken her out in the woods somewhere and buried her body in a deep hole. The majority of murders are never solved. This could have been one of them. Although the ex is always a suspect, it’s very hard to convict anyone for murder without a body or other physical evidence. This guy not only left physical evidence and the body, but set up the whole thing to be as showy as possible.

  I suppose he’s not particularly dangerous to strangers, so he’s not a “predator” or anything like that, but he also obviously has an uncontrollable rage within him that makes him unfit for civilized society. What an awful way to die.

• 

  hdwoman97 on February 10 at 7:45 p.m.

  Sick!

• 

  SEC on March 17 at 1:58 a.m.

  In the early 90’s, messing with a corpse in this fashion was only a misdemeanor. John Beck of Beck’s Funeral Home in Edmonds, WA introduced it to become a felony (or to that effect, I am not a politcal kinda person, but remember when this happened). As a person who worked in the death industry at the time, this was a huge victory for all of us who treated “human remains” (we called it A Loved One) with great respect and regard. Not only does it just creep you out, but this is someone’s loved one.

  Below is the link to the law in Washington State. I cannot imagine it being in any way “a sexual desire”, but I believe this would be “obstruction of justice” or “tampering with evidence”

  What makes this even worse is that I went to HS with this kid in Valdez, AK. Everyone is asking “what made him snap”. Who knows what happens in 30+ years of the last time you saw someone? You just never know.

  http://apps.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=9A.44.105