KITSAP COUNTY, Wash. — The last suspect to be arraigned for the 2005 murder of Shanan Read pleaded not guilty in Kitsap County Superior Court on Wednesday.
Brian Bourquard, one of three men arrested, is being held on $2 million bail for first-degree murder.
Oscar Gonzalez and Brandon Reeve previously entered pleas of not guilty. Gonzalez was charged with first-degree murder and is being held on $10 million bail. Reeve was charged with second-degree murder and is held on $1 million bail.
An investigation found that Read was killed in August 2005, five months before her body was found, when she was struck in the head with a metal baton. Court documents say Read was beaten “as retaliation for stealing from her associates during an ongoing criminal enterprise to forge financial documents and commit acts of theft and fraud.”
Information uncovered during an investigation and review of items including Bourquard's personal journals reveals Read's murder was planned weeks in advance, according to court documents. Bourquard references wanting to kill Read because of an unspecified debt of $4,000 she owed. The journal also references killing Read's child.
Read was injured at an apartment in Seattle, investigators found; then Gonzalez and Bourquard put her body into a plastic container and took it to a cabin in Port Orchard where she died.
Gonzalez and Bourquard transported Read's body to Kitsap County in Bourquard's vehicle, according to court documents. It's unknown exactly when she died.
Read's body was stored at Bourquard's family cabin in Port Orchard.
Investigators say Bourquard and Reeve went to the cabin two weeks after the murder to pour chemicals on Read's body.
In January 2006, Bourquard and another person that is not charged allegedly dumped Read's body in Puget Sound.
Read's body was recovered by the Kitsap County Sheriff's Office from the water between Manchester and Blake Island Jan. 15, 2006.
Her head was found two months later in the same general area, according to court documents.
Bourquard's next hearing is set for Oct. 11.
