PORT ANGELES — A couple accused of killing a developmentally disabled woman and dumping her body near the Hood Canal Bridge in Jefferson County will make their first Clallam County Superior Court appearance at 1 p.m. today.
Kevin A. Bradfield, 22, and Kendell Karlene Huether, 25, both of Port Angeles, were arrested early Thursday morning for investigation of second-degree murder in the death of 27-year-old Jennifer Pimentel, who had been missing since Oct. 12, Port Angeles Deputy Police Chief Brian Smith said Thursday.
Bradfield and Huether led police to Pimentel’s unburied remains Wednesday evening after the couple took them to a heavily wooded area off Paradise Bay Road northeast of the Hood Canal Bridge, Smith said.
Smith said he could not comment on a possible motive.
Clallam County Superior Court Judge Brook Taylor will determine this afternoon if there is probable cause to hold Bradfield and Huether for up to 72 hours pending the possible filing of murder charges by the county Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.
The couple are being held without bail in the county jail after their arrest early Thursday morning, Bradfield at 1:28 a.m. and Huether at 1:59 a.m.
Jennifer Pimentel’s father, Henry Pimentel, 57, of Port Angeles, led a candlelight vigil and ceremony for his daughter Thursday night at City Pier.
More than 200 people attended.
The Huethers and Pimentels are family friends, he said.
“To be harmed in this way is unfathomable,” Henry Pimentel, a millwright at Nippon Paper Industries USA in Port Angeles, said earlier Thursday.
“Nobody wants their child to be hurt.”
Pimentel had said on her Facebook page that she was engaged to be married.
Pimentel’s longtime friend, Chris Morrison of Port Angeles, told the Peninsula Daily News on Thursday that Huether was Pimentel’s “best friend since they were little kids.”
Morrison said Pimentel’s behavior and innocence resembled that of a 12-year-old — or even younger.
“She was the sweetest girl in the world,” Morrison said.
“She was like a defenseless child.
“If you said, ‘I like that sweater you’re wearing,’ she would say, ‘OK, I’ll let you have it.’”
Family members had said Pimentel had the mental age of a 12-year-old.
Port Angeles police, working in conjunction with Sequim police, the Clallam County and Jefferson County sheriff’s departments and the State Patrol, finished combing the area near the Hood Canal Bridge where Pimentel’s body was found early Thursday afternoon, Smith said.
They have determined Pimentel died a violent death, though not by gunshot wound, Smith said, though he did not know what caused her death.
Port Angeles Police Sgt. Glen Roggenbuck said in an interview at the area, which was at the corner of Bywater and Bridgeview off Paradise Bay Road, that “there is nothing to suggest” Pimentel was sexually assaulted.
Roggenbuck said Bradfield and Huether had first claimed Pimentel had died accidentally.
“They first said it was an accident, but their statements led us to believe it is a homicide.”
Authorities late Thursday executed a search warrant on the home of Bradfield and Huether at 808 Lauridsen Blvd., where police believe the woman died, Smith said.
Henry Pimentel said his daughter and her boyfriend moved from Port Angeles to SeaTac about 1½ years ago “to get away from this area,” he said.
“I’m praying for her mom because her mom is just absolutely devastated, just as devastated as we are.”
Pimentel’s daughter’s remains were transported Thursday afternoon to Drennan & Ford Funeral Home and Crematory in Port Angeles.
Dr. Daniel Selove of Everett will perform an autopsy today, Smith said.
Pimentel disappeared from The Gateway transit center in Port Angeles while waiting to take a bus to her home in SeaTac.
Smith said after murdering Pimentel, the couple transferred her body to where it was found “and made efforts to conceal it.”
“Right now, we just have established facts that show clearly they were involved,” he said.
Bradfield was initially arrested for investigation of providing false information, Smith said.
“We have been communicating with all sorts of people throughout the last week-and-a-half that knew her and had contact with her,” he added.
“We became interested in these two individuals because we were not comfortable they were telling us the truth, the whole story of what they knew about her.”
Depending on their prior criminal records, Bradfield and Huether could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted of second-degree murder, Clallam County Prosecuting Attorney Deb Kelly said.
Second-degree murder is intentional, as opposed to the more serious first-degree murder, which is also premeditated, Kelly said.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant, who contributed to this report, can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
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