Officials say stabbing, crash were part of murder-suicide

SEATTLE – A puzzling case in which a woman died of stab wounds and her husband died in a dramatic state Highway 18 traffic crash was a homicide-suicide, a King County sheriff’s spokesman said Wednesday.

The conclusion is based on autopsy findings and an investigation by detectives, Sgt. John Urquhart said.

He declined to provide specifics and said a motive was still under investigation.

However, investigators believe a 34-year-old man killed his 33-year-old wife in their home in Covington in southeast King County, then drove east on Highway 18, crossing the center line into the path of a tractor-trailer rig early Monday to kill himself.

The victims have not been formally identified, but authorities said they were Sudanese immigrants.

The fatal crash happened just east of the interchange with Issaquah-Hobart Road.

Highway 18 traffic was stopped for more than four hours as the State Patrol investigated.

No one else was seriously injured.