SAN FRANCISCO – US law enforcement blew the roof off a mountain hideout in Washington state on Saturday and inside found the body of a man suspected of killing his wife and teenage daughter, officials said.
Peter Keller, who had been missing since Sunday when the bullet-ridden bodies of Lynnettee Rocha Keller, 41, and their 19-year-old daughter Kaylene Keller were discovered at the family home, apparently died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
“They believe the person has been dead for some time. There’s a great deal of blood and a pistol nearby,” King County Sheriff Steven Strachan said of the scene in the Cascade foothills 25 miles (40 kilometers) east of Seattle.
Evidence led investigators to the the mountain bunker late Friday and a SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) team fired tear gas into the structure and stood guard at the site overnight.
But on Saturday, they used explosives to blow off the bunker’s roof, leading them to Keller’s body.
The bunker had been fortified by logs and dirt and was believed to stretch back at least 20 feet (six meters) into the mountainside.
Keller, 41, was named a suspect Wednesday in the murder of his wife and daughter, whose bodies were found after neighbors called the authorities when they noticed the home had been set on fire.
Investigators have yet to establish a motive for the killings, said Sergeant Cindi West, a spokeswoman for the King County Sheriff’s Office, adding that a search for evidence was under way at the mountainside bunker.
ABC News reported that Keller, a reputed survival skills enthusiast, had spent eight years planning and building the bunker, pictures of which police said he intended to destroy in the fire at the family home.