Third suspect faces charges in killing of Spokane Valley man

A third suspect now faces charges for the suspected killing of a Spokane Valley man, Bret Snow, who disappeared nearly two years ago.

The Spokane County Sheriff’s Office said Friday it had requested charges of kidnapping, leading organized crime and conspiracy to commit murder against Cheryl L. Sutton, 37, who already was in jail on a federal drug conviction. Two other suspects, Alvaro Guajardo, 52, and Colby D. Vodder, 27, previously were arrested in connection with Snow’s disappearance, and the investigation is ongoing.

“Sutton is believed to have organized, managed and directed several persons to engage in criminal activity for profit,” the sheriff’s office said in a news release. “In addition, these activities led to a criminal conspiracy which resulted in the kidnapping and murder of an associate, Bret Snow.”

Snow went missing in December 2015, when he was 32. Authorities suspect he was beaten to death and dismembered after a drug deal gone wrong, and that his body was moved multiple times. Detectives have cast a wide net in order to find Snow’s remains and charge suspects, interviewing more than a dozen people, reviewing cellphone records and sending samples of Snow’s blood to the state forensic lab.

Court documents say that, until late 2015, Sutton and a 33-year-old man named Kenneth L. Stone rented an outbuilding on Starr Road near Newman Lake, where they lived and sold meth and heroin. One witness told detectives Snow had delivered drugs for Sutton and Vodder, but they became infuriated shortly before Snow’s disappearance because he had accepted a trade, rather than cash, while making a delivery.

Another witness told detectives that Sutton stopped communicating with him after Snow’s disappearance, and refused to follow through on some planned drug deals. Sutton reportedly said that Stone had put the Newman Lake house on “lockdown.”

Sutton and Stone recently were arrested on charges of drug distribution. They both pleaded guilty in federal court earlier this month, and the sheriff’s office said Sutton was sentenced 10 years of confinement. She’s being held in the Spokane County Jail on a $2.5 million bond.

Court documents say the pair were in possession of the SIM card from Snow’s phone, which hadn’t been used since his disappearance. Documents also say Sutton kept Snow’s dog for a while after his death – the dog he was rarely seen without.