Husband may have arranged for wife’s slaying in staged burglary, Washington cops say

A man and his friend were arrested after authorities say his wife was found shot to death in their Washington home in what may have been a staged burglary, deputies say.

The husband, along with two friends, found his wife dead inside a Brush Prairie home on shortly before 7 p.m. March 23, the Clark County Sheriff’s Office said in a news alert.

The next day, deputies said the Eugene Police Department in Oregon arrested the husband’s friend, Darrell Riley, 55, in relation to the 60-year-old woman’s killing.

The husband may have had Riley stage a burglary “to commit the” killing, deputies say.

The day of his wife’s killing, deputies said the man picked up Riley from Eugene and drove him to Clark County.

When deputies initially responded to the home, they said a 2001 black Ford F-150 was “reported stolen from the scene.”

It was later found with fire damage in rural Benton County, Oregon, deputies said.

The fire “appears likely to have been intentionally set to destroy evidence of the murder,” according to deputies.

After searching the home a second time, deputies said the husband was booked into jail on a count of making false statements, according to officials.

Additional charges against the husband, who “is being considered a suspect” in his wife’s killing, are possible, deputies said.

Riley, who is facing a first-degree murder charge, is in custody in Oregon, awaiting extradition to Washington, officials said.

The investigation is ongoing, according to deputies.

Brush Prairie sits near the Washington-Oregon border, about a 130 mile-drive north of Eugene.