Couple Admit To Killing Woman Victim Was Stuffed In Clothes Hamper, Dropped In Red Lake

CORRECTION: Thursday, August 31, 1995 B1 Koralee Dixon, 22, a Spokane woman murdered earlier this summer, didn’t have a criminal record. A story in Wednesday’s Spokesman-Review should have said Marcella Taylor, who last week was charged with Dixon’s murder, has a criminal record that includes convictions for car theft, burglary and assault.

A Spokane couple confessed they killed a friend for her money and stuffed her body in a clothes hamper.

Koralee Dixon, 22, was found dead in Red Lake near Tum Tum in Stevens County on June 28.

Her nude body was folded into a wicker clothes hamper. Duct tape covered her mouth and eyes and a rag was stuffed in her mouth, which caused her to suffocate, according to autopsy reports.

Police searched Dixon’s apartment on North Colton and learned that her friend, Marcella Taylor, 22, had been housesitting while Dixon was in Reno the week before the murder.

Taylor had invited her boyfriend, Willie Richardson, 20, to stay with her at the apartment, police said.

When Dixon returned June 16, she showed the couple a ring she had purchased in Reno and also a large amount of money she made while working there, police said. Detectives wouldn’t say how much money she earned or what her job had been.

The next day, police said the couple hatched a plan to rob Dixon. They admitted holding Dixon down on her waterbed while she was sleeping and duct-taping her legs and arms. Then they stuffed a rag in her mouth and taped over it before leaving her on the floor.

Later, the couple wrapped Dixon’s body in her waterbed sheets, put it in her laundry hamper and drove in the victim’s Geo Tracker to Red Lake. When the hamper wouldn’t sink into the water, the couple told police they put rocks inside.

On June 17, Taylor told police she pawned Dixon’s new ring and got cash from her bank account. Then she drove with Richardson in Dixon’s car to Atlanta, where they stayed nearly three weeks with relatives.

Shortly after they returned, both Taylor and Richardson were arrested on unrelated charges and booked into the Spokane County Jail.

Their confessions came after repeated questioning by police who said both changed their stories several times. According to court records, Taylor blamed the murder plot on Richardson.

The first-degree murder charges were added last week, and both suspects were arraigned Monday.

Dixon has a criminal record that includes convictions for car theft, burglary and assault.

Richardson has been arrested 41 times, with 11 convictions. They include assault, robbery, theft, malicious mischief, vehicle prowling and criminal trespassing.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Color photos Map of Red Lake area