Officials determine cause of death for Wash. couple

EVERETT, Wash. -- Authorities say a Washington state couple whose bodies were found this week after being missing since April were both shot to death.

The Snohomish County Medical Examiner's office said Thursday that Monique Patenaude, 46, died of multiple gunshot wounds. Her husband, 45-year-old Patrick Shunn, died of a gunshot wound to the head.

Officials say Tony Clyde Reed, one of two brothers charged with the slayings, provided information that led detectives to pinpoint the location of the bodies about 50 miles northeast of Seattle on Tuesday. He turned himself in last week at the U.S.-Mexico border after a monthlong manhunt. Authorities are still searching for Reed's 53-year-old brother, John Blaine Reed, who used to live near Patenaude and Shunn.

Authorities had been searching for the couple since they were reported missing April 12.

Tony Reed has pleaded not guilty pleas to two counts of first-degree murder and unlawful firearm possession in the case.

His attorney, James Kirkham, helped arrange the surrender. Kirkham told The Daily Herald in Everett, Washington, on Monday that his client turned himself in to answer the allegations against him.

"My client is innocent of the first-degree murder charges," the lawyer said.

John Reed, the former neighbor, had been involved in a contentious property dispute with the couple, court documents show.

John Reed lived up an old logging road from the couple's 21-acre spread in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains. When Patenaude and Shunn sued other neighbors over a property dispute more than two years ago, they avoided naming him as a defendant because they didn't want to irk him, their former lawyer, Thomas Adams, said previously.

Court documents say John Reed had threatened to shoot the couple for cutting brush between their two properties in 2013. Reed threatened to shoot or assault them if they didn't leave him alone, according to the affidavit for a search warrant.

A friend told police that Patenaude said Reed often acted "crazy" and was known to be aggressive and very angry about the civil action, according to the affidavit. The friend said Patenaude was afraid of Reed because of his threats.

Investigators say blood stains and other evidence found at John Reed's former property tie the brothers to the couple's death. Charging documents said authorities found blood in the home's bathtub, as well as in John Reed's pickup, the victims' vehicles, and on gasoline-soaked clothing found in bags underneath a mattress outside the home.