Skeletal remains in Spokane identified as killer of Okanogan couple over three years after slayings

The three-year investigation into the killing of an Omak couple officially came to an end Monday, but the victim’s family says questions remain about the suspected killer.

The Okanogan Sheriff’s Office announced Monday that skeletal remains found in Spokane were identified as 25-year-old Dylan J. Harrington, who had been identified as the suspect in the 2022 killing of David Covey, 80, and his wife, 66-year-old Geralyn Covey.

Both were found on their property in Chesaw, Washington, which is near the Canadian border.

“The multiple year manhunt for Harrington is over,” a sheriff’s office news release states. “The Okanogan Sheriff’s Office wishes to thank all of the agencies that were involved in this investigation.

“Our greatest hope is that the Covey family can move forward with some sense of closure,” the news release continued.

But Debbie Springer, of Omak, said questions linger despite finding out last week that authorities had identified the remains as Harrington.

Springer, 61, is the daughter of David Covey, and Geralyn Covey was her stepmother.

“I would say that we are relieved that he has been found. It’s not, of course, what we were expecting,” Springer said. “Until we got the call, I really thought it was going to be 20 years before I heard anything.”

She said Okanogan County investigators notified the family last week about the break in the case.

“We still have lots of questions,” Springer said. “There’s still a lot out there. We feel somebody else has been involved this whole time. How long had he been dead?”

The killing

The case began in the winter of 2022.

David and Geralyn Covey both lived in Omak, but they had an RV under a roof on about 5 acres near Chesaw off of Nealy Road.

The couple often visited the property, which also had some outbuildings, but not during winter months, Springer said.

Then on Sunday, February 13, 2022, the couple made the trek in the snow to the property.

“They went up to check because they noticed they had activity on their PUD bill,” Springer said.

The area has limited cell phone service, but the first sign of trouble came later that day when someone reported finding David Covey’s truck farther up the road.

Springer, her brother Dave, and husband Steve Springer began looking for the couple.

“Then we got a call about finding one of their dogs,” she said.

The Coveys had three Pomeranians. Finding only one would be very odd.

“I tried calling and got no information. On Tuesday morning (Feb. 15, 2022), I felt there was something horribly wrong,” Springer said. “That’s when I called the sheriff’s office to do a welfare check.”

Springer and her husband then drove from Omak to the Chesaw property. They arrived to find fresh snow, which was hip-deep in places. The Coveys were not inside the RV.

“My husband noticed some tracks just across the fence line. They were headed back down the hill. A deputy arrived, and my husband showed him the tracks,” Springer said.

The tracks led to an abandoned homestead.

“My husband saw Dylan. He came out of the homestead and went underneath it to hide and wouldn’t come out,” Springer said.

But the deputy chose not to pursue the man, who Springer now believes was Harrington.

The deputy “said he would put in a report about the information and the suspicious person who went and hid from them,” Springer said.

But the sheriff’s office then informed the couple that they would be sending the Okanogan Sheriff’s search and rescue team on Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2022, to continue searching for the Coveys.

That team worked all of that day without finding any sign of the couple.

“I believe they were just getting ready to wrap up when one of the deputies walked behind the trailer and noticed some black marks. He lifted up a sheet of plywood and found their bodies,” Springer said.

That area had been bypassed dozens of times.

“We walked around (the trailer) multiple times that day,” she said. “Thank God we never lifted the plywood. We were just looking for tracks.”

In addition to locating the dead couple, investigators apparently had a second encounter with Harrington.

“That’s part of what we don’t understand,” Springer said. “One of our friends said they could hear a dog” coming from the abandoned homestead on the same day that the couple was found. The neighbor informed the deputies.

“It took 30 minutes for them to arrive. In that time, (Harrington) escaped,” Springer said.

But inside the homestead, the deputies found the Coveys’ two missing Pomeranians.

Springer said on further inspection, they found one of the outbuildings at the Coveys’ property had been burglarized.

She believes that Harrington, who lived in the area, had been using electricity to stay warm in the outbuilding. Springer believes that her father and stepmother were killed when they surprised the squatter.

“They were shot with two different calibers,” Springer said. “I don’t know if he shot them with his gun and went and grabbed another one of his guns.”

She noted that investigators found guns and ammunition in the abandoned homestead where deputies both saw Harrington and later found the Coveys’ dogs.

“There was no reason to kill them,” Springer said. “Had my parents been the ones who caught (Harrington), they wouldn’t be mad. They’d say, ‘Why don’t you help cut some wood and we’ll help you out.’ ”

Finding Harrington

After the discovery of the Coveys, investigators filed for an arrest warrant seeking to charge Harrington with first-degree murder and two counts of unauthorized removal or concealment of bodies.

After he was seen near the property about the same time the Coveys were discovered, the Okanogan County Sheriff’s Office then organized a multi-agency search the next weekend but didn’t find Harrington.

His trail went cold until April of this year when Spokane city officials conducted a mental-health wellness check on a man near downtown.

The man apparently spoke of aliens and other issues, but he then volunteered to show them a dead body. They took the man up on his offer and found remains under the Hamilton Street interchange west of Liberty Park.

Springer said she spoke to the coroner about the remains later identified as Harrington.

“They said he didn’t have any bullet wounds or knife marks,” she said. “He did have some narcotics in his tissue sample, but they could not give a cause of death.”

Then on Thursday, Okanogan Sheriff’s Chief Criminal Deputy Jodie Barcus visited the Springers and informed them about the identification of Harrington’s remains.

Efforts to reach Barcus on Monday were not immediately successful.

But Debbie Springer said she wants to know more.

“We are going to try to find out if they found any other DNA at the scene,” she said. “I just don’t know that (Harrington) could have carried this whole thing out by himself. How did he get to Spokane? Somebody had to have helped him.”