A man arrested for his girlfriend’s violent death will return to court this afternoon to face possible murder charges in the slaying of Amber Rae Bulus-Steed.
Clallam County Superior Court Judge George Wood on Thursday set bail for Nathan Eugene Hipsher at $1 million during Hipsher’s first court appearance.
Prosecuting Attorney Deb Kelly asked that Hipsher return to court at 1:30 p.m. today for the filing of charges.
Hipsher, 25, clad in an orange Clallam County jail jumpsuit, said nothing during the hearing other than to answer “yes” and “no” as the judge questioned if he understood his rights.
Behind Hipsher, friends and family of both he and Bulus-Steed, 26, sat on courtroom benches to watch the hearing and get answers for themselves.
“I want to know exactly the truth, I really do,” Shery Thomsen of Port Angeles, who was friends with both Bulus-Steed and Hipsher, said after the hearing.
“He’s not an abusive person,” she said.
Daniel McCraw, a friend of Bulus-Steed’s who also knew Hipsher before the couple began dating, saw it differently.
“It’s always been an abusive relationship,” McCraw said. “Everybody knew that.”
Domestic violence
Authorities are calling Bulus-Steed’s death a case of domestic violence, and one that her two young daughters, ages 3 and 16 months, might have witnessed.
She was found dead shortly after midnight Wednesday in the passenger seat of a car in front of Hipsher’s parents’ Scrivner Road home, just south of the Port Angeles city limit, where she, her boyfriend and her children lived.
A forensic pathologist conducted an autopsy on her body Wednesday.
“It was very clear that she died as a result of homicidal violence,” Sequim Police Sgt. Sean Madison said.
Authorities believe Bulus-Steed was beaten in a room at the Greathouse Motel in Sequim, which Hipsher checked into Tuesday afternoon.
