31-year-old killer stabbed trans University of Washington student 40 times in student housing complex: cops
A 31-year-old man allegedly stabbed a transgender college student more than 40 times in under 10 minutes inside a Seattle student housing complex and left the gruesome scene for her traumatized peers to find.Christopher Leahy was charged with first-degree murder Thursday for the shocking slaughter of Juniper Blessing, a 19-year-old student at the University of Washington, on Sunday night, KOMO News reported.
The alleged killer turned himself in to Bellevue police Tuesday night following the release of surveillance images on the night of the grisly murder showing his face.Blessing was found dead Sunday night in the shared laundry room of Nordheim Court Apartments, an off-campus student housing complex close to the UW Seattle campus, according to KOMO.The King County Medical Examiner determined that the student had been stabbed more than 40 times in her head, neck, shoulders, arms and hands.Another student was heading into the laundry facility and held the door open for Leahy, who chillingly thanked her as he exited, leaving her to find Blessing’s bloodied body on the laundry room floor.
That student called 911 to report the stabbing.Surveillance footage from cameras inside the off-campus housing complex initially reached investigators with missing chunks after Leahy, who was stalking around the building ahead of the killing, spotted the camera and disconnected its power cord before the stabbing, police said.However, a Seattle Police digital specialist bypassed the sabotage by extracting the raw data directly from the camera’s SD card.
The recovered timeline showed Blessing and another student using the laundry facility while Leahy repeatedly entered and exited the room.Once alone, Leahy followed Blessing into the laundry room around 10 p.m., the footage shows.One minute later, the accused knifeman was captured tampering with the security camera.
He leaves the room for the other student to find Blessing’s body at around 10:10 p.m.While Senior Deputy Prosecut...