PORT ANGELES — Authorities are seeking a man whose whereabouts are unknown as a “possible suspect” in the 2004 rape-killing of 15-year-old Melissa Mae Carter.
A prosecutor’s motion to expand an arrest warrant for the man is a sudden turn in the upcoming murder trial of Robert Gene Covarrubias, 25, who has been accused of first-degree murder.
Carter’s body was found in a wooded area above the Port Angeles Waterfront Trail on Dec. 26, 2004.
Covarrubias was linked to Carter because both attended a party at a Port Angeles motel a few nights before Carter’s nude body was found.
On Thursday, Clallam County Deputy Prosecutor Lauren Erickson asked Superior Court Judge George Wood to expand an arrest warrant for a Port Angeles man named Gerald Anglow Spry, 40, and to increase the requested bail amount to $100,000.
Erickson said during a court hearing that Spry, whose whereabouts are unknown, has been named by Covarrubias’ defense lawyers as a “possible suspect” in Carter’s murder.
Spry has not been charged by prosecutors with any crime related to Carter’s death and was not the focus of the investigation that led police to arrest Covarrubias.
“Our investigation has turned up that [Spry] might have committed the murder,” said Covarrubias’ attorney, public defender Ralph Anderson.
