Suspect Arrested In Mutilations Police Had Been Watching Ex-Spokane Man Since Day After Murders But Won’t Say What Tipped Them Off

A suspect in the mutilation killings of an East Wenatchee woman and her teenage daughter once lived in Spokane, where he was arrested for rape two years ago.

Jack Spillman, 25, was booked Wednesday into the Chelan County Regional Jail on two charges of first-degree murder.

Douglas County Sheriff Dan LaRoche said detectives “have been watching” Spillman since April 13, when the nude bodies of Rita Huffman, 48, and her daughter, Mandy, 15, were found in their East Wenatchee home. He refused to say what had led police to suspect Spillman as the killer.

Both victims were stabbed and sexually mutilated. There were no signs of a break-in at the house.

LaRoche - who until Wednesday had insisted there were no suspects or leads in the grisly murders - said a knife believed to be the murder weapon was recovered not far from the apartment where Spillman was staying.

The unemployed roofer has been under 24-hour police surveillance since Friday, the day after the killings, the sheriff said. He refused to say why.

“It’s a big relief to the public,” LaRoche said.

Spillman, a ninth-grade dropout from Tonasket, Wash., lived in a trailer in the Spokane Valley for several years.

While here, he built a criminal record of burglary, theft, assault and malicious mischief convictions.

In 1993, he and a friend were arrested for allegedly raping a woman they had met at a downtown bar. The woman, who accepted a ride home with the men, told sheriff’s deputies Spillman held her down while his 26-year-old roommate raped her.

Before Spillman could attempt to rape the woman, she escaped and reported the attack, records show. Charges against both men later were dropped.

Spillman has escaped at least twice from minimum security detention centers, including the Pine Lodge PreRelease Center in Medical Lake. Both times, he was not considered a violent offender and the public was not notified, records show.

It is unclear when he moved to East Wenatchee, where officials say he has lived for at least three weeks.

Detectives there searched his apartment and a black pickup truck they said may belong to him.

LaRoche said the killings appear to have been random attacks; detectives do not believe the Huffmans knew the killer.