Gun Cache Traced To Spokane Motel Fugitives Stashed Firearms From Murdered Dealer, Officials Believe

Authorities tracing the past of two fugitives believe that firearms stolen from a murdered Arkansas gun dealer were hidden in a Spokane garage and sold at local gun shows.

The cache was at a north Spokane motel and campground that became the base camp for a small band of white supremacists, sources say.

For several months in 1995 and 1996, the group had access to the arsenal of military-style assault weapons, handguns, smoke grenades and what one neighbor estimates to be 500,000 rounds of ammunition.

“They had enough stuff in there to carry on a real war,” said the neighbor.

The booty was stored in a double-car garage at The Shadows Motel and RV Park, at 9025 N. Division, according to people who saw the stash.

Those witnesses did not want their names published, fearing reprisals.

Investigators aren’t saying what the group was doing with the weapons, but some of its members now are suspected of several crimes, including murder, home invasions and shooting at police.

Some of the men spent their days building a flashy drag-strip Camaro Z-28, in exchange for a free camping spot and a place to store the weapons, sources say.

Group members smoked pot together, and sometimes drank beer at an nearby tavern that a decade earlier was a gathering spot for band of neo-Nazis known as The Order.

One associate of the group, who asked not to be identified, is now cooperating with agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

Two members of the group, Chevie and Cheyne Kehoe, are wanted for the attempted murders of police in Wilmington, Ohio, on Feb. 15.

Chevie Kehoe was indicted in Spokane by a federal grand jury on Tuesday for possessing two firearms stolen in 1995 and 1996 from Tilly, Ark., gun dealer William Mueller.

The stolen guns were removed before federal agents searched the Spokane garage late last year, the associate of the group said. Agents found other firearms and ammunition, but are still sorting out the ownership of those weapons.

“There were other guns hidden in a freezer and a washer and dryer in the garage that they overlooked,” said a neighbor who knew the group. “After that search, those guns disappeared right away.”

Chevie Kehoe and members of his family moved from the campground shortly before the search.

The ATF investigation is continuing, federal authorities say.

Chevie Kehoe also is being sought for questioning about the Jan. 5, 1996, disappearance of Mueller, his wife and step-daughter. The Muellers decomposed bodies were pulled last June from an Arkansas bayou.

Murder charges haven’t been filed by authorities in Pope County, Ark., but sheriff’s detectives from there have come to Spokane.

Before his murder, Mueller expressed concern that he might be victimized by associates or friends he developed in anti-government, militia and white supremacy circles.

Someone stole a trailer full of firearms, ammunition and bullet clips, silver coins and assorted survivalist supplies from Mueller when he disappeared early last year, investigators say.

Other weapons were stolen from Mueller in a March 9, 1995, burglary at his home.

A Wal-Mart electrician, Mueller also sold firearms and survivalist supplies.

Within days of the Mueller family’s disappearance, firearms that belonged to the gun dealer ended up in Spokane, witnesses and law enforcement sources say.

“They had everything in there you’d want,” said one man who knew the group.

A few days later, some of the weapons were sold at a gun show at the Spokane Convention Center, the witness said.

The guns were stored in the garage by two men who told their friends they got the weapons from a gun dealer who went out of business and owed them money.

But that didn’t make complete sense, one of the friends said, “because I saw 15 or 20 business cards that had Mueller’s name on them.

“They even had his small cash box, felt pens and other stuff you use at the table for a gun show,” he said.

At that time, the witness didn’t know about the Arkansas homicides.

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