Suspect had ties to Tacoma victim
By Steve Miletich and Christine Clarridge
Seattle Times staff reporters
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John Allen Muhammad, one of two people charged in the Washington, D.C.-area sniper attacks, is also being investigated in an 8-month-old killing that had baffled Tacoma police, law-enforcement officials said yesterday.
Using ballistics evidence and DNA, investigators are trying to link Muhammad, 41, to the slaying of Keenya Cook, 21, who was shot once in the face Feb. 16, when she opened the door of her Tacoma home.
Police also are investigating whether Muhammad and his companion, Lee Boyd Malvo, 17, are connected to the unsolved shooting death of a nurse in Redmond over the summer, though a police source cited no specific evidence connecting them to the case.
In Tacoma, Cook lived at the house with her aunt, Isa Nichols, who had worked as the bookkeeper for a car-repair business Muhammad operated in the mid-1990s.
Nichols had a falling out with Muhammad when she supported Muhammad's ex-wife Mildred Williams, who also lived in Tacoma, in a divorce and child-custody action that began in 1998, Tacoma police spokesman Jim Mattheis said yesterday.
Muhammad is "clearly a person of interest" in Cook's slaying, Mattheis said.
Cook apparently was shot as she opened the door, and police are looking at the possibility that Nichols was the intended target, said a federal law-enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Only Cook and her 6-month-old daughter were at home at the time of the shooting. Ballistic tests will be done to see if Muhammad can be linked to the handgun used in Cook's death, said Barbara Cory-Boulet, a senior Pierce County prosecutor.
The bullet will be compared with a handgun seized from Muhammad after his arrest Thursday in the sniper case, said a federal law-enforcement official. Muhammad was arrested with Malvo, who also was charged in the sniper case.
Investigators also plan to compare a small amount of DNA found on a shell cartridge recovered in Cook's killing with Muhammad's DNA, Cory-Boulet said. The DNA is from human oil left on the cartridge.
Tacoma police initially suspected Cook's boyfriend or the father of her daughter in her death but ruled them out.
The case remained without a suspect until Nichols saw Muhammad's picture on television after his arrest early Thursday in the sniper case, Mattheis said.
Nichols' mother-in-law called Tacoma police to report the family's newfound suspicions about Muhammad, Joseph Nichols, the husband of Isa Nichols, said last night.
When police began investigating, Isa Nichols told detectives about the falling out with Muhammad over the divorce and child-custody issues, Mattheis said. She had not previously thought of Muhammad as a suspect in Cook's killing.
Joseph Nichols, a staff sergeant at Fort Lewis, said last night that his wife had helped lead authorities to Muhammad when he took off with his children after his divorce from Williams in March 2000.
Muhammad was caught with his children in Bellingham in August 2001 when he applied for state aid. A state fraud investigator cross-checked his name with a report of missing children and reported Muhammad to the Whatcom County Sheriff's Office.
A sheriff's detective pulled the children out of school, served papers on Muhammad and arranged for the children to be returned to their mother.
The role Isa Nichols played in recovering the children remains unclear.
Isa Nichols told Tacoma police this week that before her dispute with Muhammad, she had worked for him for about two years as the bookkeeper for Express Car/Truck Mechanic Service, a business he had incorporated in 1995.
Her niece was shot to death about 8 p.m. on a Saturday, said John Reisch, a medical investigator with the Pierce County Medical Examiner's Office.
"The aunt left to go shopping, came home and found (Cook) laying inside the front door," Reisch said.
Joseph Nichols said last night that he was shocked when Muhammad's photograph appeared on television after his arrest in the sniper case.
"I just didn't think John was capable of that," Nichols said.
Nichols recalled Muhammad, a former Fort Lewis soldier, as quiet, subdued and a strict disciplinarian with his children.
"To me, he was a little overboard there," Nichols said. "His kids just sat real quiet when he was there. When he wasn't around, they played like regular kids."
Cook's mother, Pamala Nichols, and Joseph Nichols' sister Linda said last night they feel betrayed by Muhammad because they had dinner with him many times, including last Thanksgiving.
"We fed him and everything," said Linda Nichols.
Meanwhile, in the Redmond case, police are working with federal agents to see if Muhammad or Malvo have any connection to the unsolved shooting death of Victoria Mardis, 49, a nurse killed the night of July 26. Police believe she had pulled her car over on the way home from work after she realized she left some papers on the car's roof. She was shot in the face at close range.
Redmond detectives had been building leads to suggest that the Mardis slaying was committed as part of a local gang initiation, a police source said. Many local gang members have been questioned, but no suspects have emerged.
"Until we heard of this sniper thing, that was our likely scenario," the source said.
Seattle Times reporters Duff Wilson and Mike Carter contributed to this story.
Steve Miletich: 206-464-3302 or smiletich@seattletimes.com.
Christine Clarridge: 206-464-8983 or cclarridge@seattletimes.com.
