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Seattle man faces second murder charge in separate killings of homeless men with ax

Liam Kryger is now charged with the murders of two homeless men in February.

SEATTLE — A Seattle man now faces two murder charges in the violent killings of homeless men in the city in February.

Liam Kryger, 25, was charged Monday, May 20, with first-degree murder in the Feb. 10 killing of Paul Ewell near the Seattle Men's Chorus building on 12th Avenue. 

Kryger was previously charged with first-degree murder in March in the killing of Daravuth Van, who was found dead Feb. 22 near the intersection of Eighth Avenue and Seneca Street.

“It was really unsettling," said Craig Coogan, the executive director of the Seattle Men's and Seattle Women's Chorus. "That level of violence is something that, happily, we don't experience on a day-to-day basis and having it in such a condensed period of time really was startling.”

Kryger was arrested March 3 after police had identified him from surveillance images following their distribution to local law enforcement agencies. 

A patrolling officer on March 2 saw a person who matched the suspect’s description walking in Seattle and carrying a “tubular object” at his side, documents state. When detectives followed the suspect, he ran away and detectives later found a discarded ax in the bushes where the suspect had been running. 

Kryger admitted in a post-arrest interview that he had purchased an ax at Lowe's and also admitted to discarding the ax in the bushes "when he felt like he didn't need it anymore."

Kryger's cellphone records were analyzed after his arrest, per court documents. Investigators found internet searches related to the killing of Ewell, including articles about the death on a variety of local news publications. Phone location data also showed Kryger's phone was in the vicinity of the Men's Chorus around the time of Ewell's death and in the area of Town Hall where Van was found.

A surveillance camera was set up about a week after Ewell's killing in the area around the Men's Chorus building. It found that Kryger returned to the scene where Ewell was found on Feb. 19, over a week after the homicide. The footage, according to court documents, showed Kryger look in "the otherwise unremarkable alcove" where Ewell had been found around 2:15 a.m.

Around 2:27 a.m. on the morning of Feb. 22, a person in a striped knit hat carrying a backpack with a long handle sticking out, later identified as Kryger, walks by Van several times in the next hour, allegedly casing Van and his location, charging documents state. 

Around 3:28 a.m., Kryger is reportedly seen on video slowly approaching Van and checking for any people nearby. The suspect is seen on video swinging a long-handled ax down on Van and then leaving the area, according to court documents. 

Around 5 a.m., a woman walking to the gym found Van on the sidewalk and called 911. First responders determined Van died at the scene and that life-saving measures could not have been possible.

Prosecutors moved to deny Kryger bail in a hearing Monday, which was granted by the judge. Court documents described that Kryger had threatened his parents on multiple occasions with deadly weapons, including one instance where his parents awoke to him standing over them with an ax.

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