The deceased victim's home on the 12600 block of Des Moines Memorial Drive S. in Burien.
Update for July 14:
The four people accused of burglarizing a house in Burien while the owner lay dead on the floor pleaded not guilty Thursday, July 14, in a King County Superior Courtroom.
More details from King County Prosecutors:
Bail remains the same, $75,000 for Lorang and $50,000 for both Moore brothers. Guthrie was released on personal recognizance over the State's objection.
Dave Moore and Guthrie have courtdates on July 27th, while Justin Moore will next appear on August 1st. Lorang will appear on August 17th at 1:00pm, all at the Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent.
Here's our previous coverage:
Four people have been charged with a myriad of felonies for allegedly systematically burglarizing a dead man’s Burien home, stealing from his bank account and taking his vehicles while he lay dead over the course of 14 days.
Kasey Lynn Guthrie, 40, Dylan Lorang, 29, David Moore, 37, and Justin Moore, 36, have been charged with crimes including residential burglary, first degree theft (relating to identity theft), possessing a stolen firearm and theft of a motor vehicle.
Medical examiners determined the victim, 69-year-old Leonard Werner, likely died from natural causes in his home on the 12600 block of Des Moines Memorial Drive S.
How it all happened
On June 24 Werner’s cousin went to check on him after leaving several messages and not hearing back. She went to Werner’s home with her daughter and they found him dead in a downstairs bedroom with a sheet over her body. After calling 911, they realized the home had been ransacked and his vehicles, a Dodge Ram truck and PT Cruiser, were missing.
The first break in the case came when detectives ran a search on the vehicles and found the truck title had been transferred to Werner’s neighbor, David Moore three days prior (and at least two weeks after Werner’s death).
As detectives waited on a search warrant for Moore’s home, his girlfriend Guthrie arrived on the scene and admitted to authorities that David and Justin Moore had found Werner dead, placed a blanket over him and allegedly “hatched a plan” (Detective Robin Cleary’s words) to begin stealing items from his house.
According to court documents, Guthrie told police a third man, Lorang, was brought in to help with the scheme.
Search warrants were obtained for the Moore house and Guthrie’s van and everything from decorative china to big screen TVs to antique firearms to Werner’s personal paperwork were recovered.
Detectives contacted Werner’s bank and credit card companies and found David Moore and Lorang had obtained money orders in their names from the victim’s bank account and opened a line of credit in Werner’s name on Amazon.com. Detectives told the court over $17,000 was stolen from his accounts.
Tracking down the suspects and Werner’s vehicles
According to court records, detectives were unable to find Justin or David Moore or Lorang and began watching Guthrie. On June 28 Guthrie picked up some pizza and drove to a house on the 1200 block of S. Director St. in South Park. They found the PT Cruiser outside, obtained a search warrant and arrested David Moore and Lorang inside.
Lorang, who was not charged with residential burglary, told police he never entered Werner’s home but assisted in the identity theft of Werner’s bank accounts.
The Dodge Ram truck was recovered from Lorang’s storage unit shortly thereafter, followed by Justin Moore’s arrest in Normandy Park.
The three men are in jail while county records do not show Guthrie was incarcerated. All four defendants are awaiting a July 14 arraignment in Kent.