Police: Meth, heroin, guns, cash found in Lacey trailer where 3 were shot to death; victims identified
LACEY, Wash. -- Neighbors who heard the gunfire that killed three people inside a camper trailer say it looked like a scene from a movie.
“I heard the first shot ... I dropped and hid,” one neighbor said.
As neighbors hunkered down, a 30-year-old man called 911 saying he had been shot in the stomach.
“The caller stated he was shot and his friends were dead, he said he didn’t know where he was,” Thurston County sheriff’s chief deputy Dave Pearsall said.
First responders took the injured man to the hospital and whisked away potential witnesses shaken up by the horrific scene.
Two men and one woman were found shot to death inside the camper trailer nestled behind a Lacey home. Detectives say two of the dead are a 28-year-old Jackson Edens and a 31-year-old Terron McGrath, both of Olympia, who live in the camper trailer. Gerald Berkey, 28, of Elma, was also shot and killed in the trailer.
Detectives say the two men were shot in the head, the woman in the back. There was no sign of a struggle inside the trailer.
The medical examiner on Thursday said all three died of gunshot wounds.
“We did find a half pound of methamphetamine inside the trailer today so whether this crime was drug related or not, there was drugs on the premises,” Pearsall said.
Police say that in addition to meth, investigators found black tar heroin, several thousand dollars and about half a dozen firearms inside the travel trailer.
None of the weapons found were involved in Wednesday's shooting, said Pearsall.
He said that they're not yet calling it a drug-related crime, but noted "this is a known area for some narcotics being sold."
The drug find doesn’t surprise neighbors.
“We’ve had a lot of problems from that property,” resident Heather Zolmen said.
Even before the triple homicide, residents say they felt helpless, unsafe in their own homes because of the suspicious activity going on in their neighborhood.
“I can’t stay here with my kids. I have two little nieces. I can’t have them come over. I worry about them outside,” one neighbor said.
Some neighbors shaken up by the triple homicide say they are planning to move from their homes.
Another woman says she’s grateful the bullets didn’t penetrate her mobile home.
“It scares me because my walls are paper thin,” Linda MacDonald.
Residents want the person responsible for the murders captured soon.
Detectives believe one gun was used to shoot all four victims.
Investigators have talked with the man who survived the shooting and called 911, but Pearsall said he's still not coherent following surgery. He hasn't been ruled out as a suspect at this time, but is not currently a suspect, Pearsall said.
ATF investigators on Wednesday were helping local deputies canvass the area.