PORT ANGELES — Clallam County Sheriff’s Office detectives have arrested an Agnew-area woman and a Port Angeles man for investigation of rendering criminal assistance to double-murder suspect John Francis Loring before Loring killed himself as SWAT officers closed in on him.
Tammi Michelle Petersen, 40, and Tom Lee Dale, 38, were arrested and booked into the Clallam County jail Friday.
“It’s our contention that [Loring] told them, or they were aware, that he had just killed someone,” Sheriff Bill Benedict said Saturday.
The two are charged with rendering criminal assistance to Loring, 45, who was suspected of killing both David Randle, 19, at his Dungeness residence Feb. 21 and Raymond J. Varney, 68, at his Diamond Point home on or about Feb. 16.
Petersen also is accused of second-degree theft and forgery, with deputies saying she used Varney’s credit card.
It is expected that the two will make their initial appearances in Clallam County Superior Court on Monday, Benedict said.
Dale was listed on the county jail roster Saturday with no bail set.
Petersen was released on $1,000 bail on Friday.
Loring died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound Feb. 22 as law enforcement officers closed in on him after holed up in a Port Angeles apartment.
Lead Sheriff’s Office detectives Jim McLaughlin and Stacy Sampson, in their investigation of the Varney murder, found video surveillance recordings of Petersen using the slain Varney’s credit card, according to the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office.
“Several hundred dollars in purchases were made on it,” said Benedict, who added that deputies believe Loring gave her the card.
The detectives subsequently obtained a Superior Court warrant for her arrest, along with a warrant for rendering criminal assistance for both Petersen and Dale.
Authorities believe that after Loring killed Varney in Varney’s Fleming Road living room he dragged his body into the bedroom and covered it with a trash bag — and may have lived in the house for up to four days.
He then fatally shot Randle at Randle’s Woodcock Road home and drove off in Varney’s stolen pickup.
Benedict said Saturday that after fleeing Randle’s home, Loring abandoned the truck near Osborn Road in Agnew.
“After that, Tammi drove up and picked him up, and kept him at her house, and then Tom Dale drove him to Port Angeles,” Benedict said, adding that deputies believe neither Petersen nor Dale were forced to do so.
The sheriff said Petersen and Dale were both friends of Loring’s.
He was homeless while living on the North Olympic Peninsula but was being provided with money from a trust account in Victoria, where he had family connections, sheriff’s investigators said.
Benedict said his investigators had enough evidence to arrest Petersen and Dale a week after the murders but chose to build a better case against them.
“They were friends and Loring had quite a few, but obviously they went above and beyond, which got them in trouble,” Benedict said.
Rendering criminal assistance is a Class C felony in Washington.
A person is guilty of rendering criminal assistance in the first degree if he or she renders criminal assistance to a person who has committed or is being sought for murder in the first degree or any class A felony or equivalent juvenile offense.
Clallam County Sheriff’s Office patrol deputies and detectives were assisted by members of Sequim Police Department during the execution of a search warrant in the 100 block of Roupe Road in Sequim where both Dale and Petersen were arrested without incident.
The Port Angeles Police Department is coordinating the autopsy of Loring, which had not been completed as of Saturday, Benedict said.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
