AGNEW — A 47-year-old man is under investigation for the slaying of his longtime partner at their shared Agnew-area home.
Stephen O. Skrzynski was arrested after Clallam County sheriff’s deputies found a 55-year-old woman dead in a wicker chair on the back patio of their Osborn Road home Tuesday night.
The woman, identified as Josephine Lejeune in an investigative report filed in Clallam County Superior Court, had obvious head and face injuries that appeared to be from a blunt object, Sheriff Joe Martin said.
Martin would not identify the woman Wednesday because her next of kin had not been notified.
Her body was scheduled to undergo an autopsy Wednesday afternoon to determine the cause of death and how long she had been dead, Martin said.
Court appearance
Skrzynski was booked into the Clallam County jail early Wednesday morning on suspicion of domestic violence-related second-degree murder, and he made his first appearance in court that afternoon.
Dressed in an orange jail jumpsuit, his hands shackled, Skrzynski shook his head as Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Jill Landes noted “an ongoing pattern of domestic violence” in his relationship with Lejeune.
“I’m not guilty, your honor,” Skrzynski told Superior Court Judge Ken Williams, who presided over the six-minute hearing.
“I didn’t touch her. She was just sitting there.”
Landes did not file criminal charges against Skrzynski.
Instead, she asked for him to be held for 72 hours while prosecutors decide what, if any, charges to file.
At the prosecutor’s recommendation, Williams set Skrzynski’s bail at $500,000 and ordered him to return to court at 1 p.m. Friday to face possible charges.
He remained in jail Wednesday evening.
A public defender will be assigned to represent Skrzynski.
