Body discovered in missing man’s SUV

PORTLAND – A third body has been found in a deadly crime spree that began with the slaying of a Washington woman last week and ended with the arrest of two armed fugitives in California a few days ago, Oregon authorities said Saturday.

The body was found in a Jeep owned by David Jones Pedersen – known as “Red” to his friends and family. He’s been missing since last month, when his wife, Leslie Pedersen, was found stabbed to death in their Everett home. Authorities have not identified the deceased white male found in the Jeep, but they said Red Pedersen’s relatives have been notified.

Authorities have implicated Pedersen’s 31-year-old son, David Joseph Pedersen, and the son’s 24-year-old girlfriend, Holly Grigsby, in what an Oregon county sheriff’s captain called a “vicious, vile reign of terror” that began last month.

Led by a tip into remote forested mountains southeast of Salem, authorities discovered the Jeep at the bottom of a steep embankment beneath a logging road, near a campground in the Cascade Range open only in the summer. The terrain is so difficult, they struggled to get it to a position where they could discover the body.

“It took some time to come up with a plan to bring the vehicle up to a place where investigators could safely see inside,” said Everett police Sgt. Robert Goetz.

Authorities weren’t sure whether the body was injured before the Jeep went over the embankment, Goetz said.

An autopsy is tentatively scheduled for Monday to confirm whether the body is Red Pedersen and how the man died.

Red Pedersen, 69, has been missing since Sept. 28, when his wife, Leslie Pedersen, 69, was found stabbed to death in the mobile home they had moved into just weeks earlier. Her hands were tied with duct tape, a bloody pillow was wrapped around her head.

Leslie Pedersen’s daughter, Lori Nemitz, also spoke of the younger Pedersen to KOMO-TV: “He’s not our stepbrother; he’s nothing to us.”

Pedersen and Grigsby have not been charged in the Oregon and Washington slayings, but they remain in custody in California on weapons and auto-theft charges.