Local soldier, wife, son dead in Washington suicide/homicide.
Stewart shot and killed himself Tuesday following a high-speed car chase on Interstate 5 near Olympia. His wife, Kristy Sampels, was found mortally injured in the car from a gunshot wound and died at the scene, said Thurston County Coroner Gary Warnock, who ruled her death a homicide Wednesday.
Deputies on Tuesday found the couple’s 5-year-old son, Jordan Stewart, asphyxiated with a plastic bag at their home in Spanaway (WA). He had been dead for at least 24 hours.
Sampels had been a COCC student, and her oldest child is safe at home with her father in Redmond. Stewart listed Redmond as his home upon enlistment, and had been deployed twice since 2006.
