All three slaying victims were fatally shot in the head, authorities say

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The three individuals slain in the Salkum-Onalaska area home early Saturday morning each died of a gunshot wound to the head.

The Lewis County Coroner’s Office released the information this afternoon, although they knew by Wednesday the preliminary cause and manner of deaths, according to Coroner Terry Wilson. The three autopsies were conducted on Monday.

“They didn’t want us to release anything so that it would interfere with their investigation,” Wilson said on Wednesday.

The coroner’s office chief deputy coroner, Dawn Harris, called the sheriff’s office this afternoon to see if it was okay to reveal. The manner of death is homicide, she said.

The suspect and two person’s of interest were all in custody by last night.

John Allen Booth Jr., 31, of Onalaska, was captured Wednesday night by federal marshals at a Spokane home where he was hiding.

Sheriff Steve Mansfield, along with several deputies, brought Booth back to the Lewis County Jail today, according to a news release.

Booth, the only person charged in the case, was booked into the Chehalis facility about 5 p.m.

Centralia resident, Robert “Robbie” Shawn Russell, 46, described as a person of interest, was picked up last night in the Tumwater area by a bail bondsman and two of his agents.

John Wickert, who owns the Chehalis-based Jail Sucks Bail Bonds, said he decided to revoke the $50,000 bond he had posted for a 2009 case of Russell’s.

A second person of interest Ryan Joseph McCarthy, 28, was picked up early on Sunday in Redmond on a Department of Corrections warrant.

Booth has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of 16-year-old David J. West Jr., and Tony E. Williams, 50, of Randle.

He is charged with second-degree murder in the of David J. West Sr. 52; and with attempted first-degree murder for the shooting of Denise Salts, 51, the senior West’s girlfriend who also lived in the home.

Booth is also charged with first-degree extortion and first-degree unlawful possession of a firearm.

Wilson, the elected coroner, said this is the only triple homicide in Lewis County he can recall during his 28 years as coroner.

Booth is expected to go before a Lewis County Superior Court judge on Monday.

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