SEATTLE — A Seattle man was arrested and ordered to be held on $3 million bail following the death of his girlfriend in late September.
Police were called to a home on Woodland Place North around 4 a.m. on Sept. 29. A 911 caller, later identified as John Curran, told a dispatcher he believed his girlfriend was dead.
The King County Medical Examiner's office ruled the woman's death a homicide, saying she died due to internal bleeding caused by blunt force trauma. The victim had bruises in multiple places on her body and hemorrhaging on her abdomen, her tongue and both sides of her head. She had nine rib fractures, and abrasions on her right eye and the right side of her neck.
The medical examiner said the woman likely died because of a laceration to the vein leading to her pancreas. She could have only survived one to two hours after the bleeding started, the medical examiner determined.
The woman's boyfriend told police that she fell off his bed multiple times that night and hit her head on an upright cinderblock on the floor. While Curran was speaking with police at the scene, he admitted he had pled guilty to an unrelated charge of rape of a child in Snohomish County, and then accused the officer he was talking to of "trying to pin something" on him, according to court documents.
Curran told police that he and the victim were together on Sept. 28 and Sept. 29 and no one else was with them during that time period. Police also noted that Curran's story changed from the time that he spoke to police at the scene and when he went to a Seattle police precinct for a formal interview.
The suspect told police he drank that night and couldn't remember half of what happened. When police pushed back on Curran, he told police "You already got me man," according to court documents. When police asked if he killed his girlfriend he said "I don't know," and then asked for a lawyer, according to court documents.
The suspect made his first appearance in a King County court on Wednesday.
He was already scheduled to be sentenced for rape of a child and child molestation in Snohomish County on Oct. 18 and was released on his own recognizance before the hearing.