By Peninsula Daily News
news services
UPDATE — A man accused of killing his girlfriend and posting grisly photos of her body online has been charged with first-degree murder and ordered held on $2 million bond.
Kitsap County Sheriff’s spokesman Scott Wilson says a probable cause certificate was filed Friday amending the charges against David Michael Kalac (KAY’-lick) from second-degree murder to first-degree murder.
Wilson says when Kalac was arrested in Oregon authorities found documents in his possession that showed the slaying was premeditated.
He said that new evidence supported the tougher charge.
Authorities say 33-year-old Kalac beat and strangled 30-year-old Amber Lynn Coplin. Her body was found Tuesday at her apartment.
Kalac surrendered Wednesday night to police looking for him in the Portland, Ore., area.
Kalac was arraigned in Kitsap County Superior Court in Port Orchard on Friday afternoon.
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PORT ORCHARD — A man charged with killing his live-in girlfriend and posting photos of her lifeless body online was returned to this Kitsap County community after he surrendered to a police officer in Oregon and waived extradition.
David Kalac, 33, arrived at the county jail in Port Orchard late Thursday afternoon, Kitsap County sheriff’s Deputy Scott Wilson said.
Kalac was arrested Wednesday night nearly 200 miles from the crime scene after a daylong manhunt. He was held overnight in Portland, Ore., on a second-degree murder charge.
Authorities allege Kalac killed Amber Lynn Coplin, 30, earlier this week after an argument in their Port Orchard apartment.
He then posted graphic photographs of her body and commented about the killing online, Wilson said.
The images appeared on 4chan, an online bulletin board where hundreds of private pictures of nude celebrities appeared earlier this year.
(See related story today about 4chan)
Kalac wrote about strangling the woman and his plan to be fatally shot by police. He posted the comments and photos anonymously, but authorities confirmed they were from him, Wilson said.
The Kitsap County coroner’s office said Thursday the cause of death was strangulation and blunt-force trauma to the head.
The county prosecutor’s office didn’t know yet whether Kalac had an attorney. His arraignment was scheduled for this afternoon (Friday afternoon) in Superior Court in Port Orchard, Wilson said.
Kalac evaded police in Coplin’s stolen car until he emerged from a wooded area near Wilsonville, about 20 miles south of Portland, and turned himself in to a passing officer, authorities said.
“He basically said, ‘I have a warrant for my arrest,’ ” Clackamas County sheriff’s Sgt. Nate Thompson said in a telephone interview.
Kalac was cooperative, but he provided no details about how he got to Wilsonville, Thompson said.
Two Kitsap County deputies went to Oregon to question Kalac and escort him back for booking into jail, Wilson said.
“The fact he voluntarily walked up and said, ‘I surrender,’ or something to that effect, it’s pretty amazing in some regard,” Wilson said Thursday. “We were not expecting that, but we’re glad it occurred in that matter.”
Police responded to the couple’s apartment after Coplin’s 13-year-old son found her body Tuesday.
Near Coplin’s head was her driver’s license with the word “dead” written on it.
“Bad news” was written on blinds.
And the words “she killed me first” were scrawled on a picture on the wall.
An officer spotted Coplin’s car early Wednesday in Portland and tried to pull over the driver. A chase ensued, but it was called off because the vehicle was swerving into oncoming traffic.
Kalac has a criminal history in Washington state and Virginia that includes convictions for assault, burglary and DUI, Wilson said.
Port Orchard is located in south Kitsap County, 13 miles due west of West Seattle and connected to Seattle and Vashon Island via the Washington State Ferries run to Southworth.
