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From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Wed Jul 06 2011 - 08:40:46 EDT
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2015420383_seattlehomicide25m.html?syndication=rss
Originally published June 24, 2011 at 8:52 PM | Page modified June 24, 2011
at 8:51 PM
Accused killer of girlfriend texted his intentions to others, charging
papers say
Mussie Weldeyohannes was charged Friday with strangling Rahel Sium, his
25-year-old girlfriend, at a friend's home in Greenwood last weekend.
By Sara Jean Green
Seattle Times staff reporter
Related
Mussie Weldeyohannes sent at least five text messages to different friends
and relatives on Sunday morning, claiming he planned to kill his 25-year-old
girlfriend and himself because he was "sick in the head," according to
charging papers filed Friday by King County prosecutors.
But Rahel Sium — who had fled California and was living in domestic-violence
shelters in Seattle — was already dead in a friend's apartment when
Weldeyohannes, 43, sent the texts in Tigrinya, his native Eritrean language,
charging papers say.
Weldeyohannes, who was arrested Tuesday in Woodland, Cowlitz County, and
brought back to King County, is being held on $2 million bail, charged with
second-degree murder domestic violence. Prosecutors also have alleged
aggravating factors, accusing Weldeyohannes of killing Sium while her
4-year-old daughter slept nearby and of engaging in "an ongoing pattern" of
abuse against his girlfriend.
According to charging papers, Sium arrived in the United States last summer
and moved to Texas to be with Weldeyohannes. The couple frequently separated
and argued, mostly over her previous relationships with other men, the
papers say.
At some point, Sium called police because Weldeyohannes would not let her
leave the house, but a police report was not taken, they say. Soon after,
Weldeyohannes sent Sium to live with his sister and brother-in-law in Santa
Cruz, Calif., according to charging papers.
He later followed Sium to California and was arrested for threatening to
kill her and his sister, whom he blamed for turning Sium against him,
charging papers say. Weldeyohannes served eight months in jail and was
ordered not to contact Sium, the papers say.
After Weldeyohannes was released from jail in April, Sium phoned him from
Seattle and the two spoke several times over the next two or three weeks,
charging papers say. She apparently told him she had been living in shelters
and had received help from a mutual friend, the papers say.
In early June, Weldeyohannes drove to Seattle to see Sium and the mutual
friend, charging papers say.
"During his stay in Seattle, he began to hear rumors that Ms. Sium was
involved with other men," including the mutual friend, the papers say.
On Sunday, while staying at the friend's apartment with the friend and his
girlfriend, Weldeyohannes allegedly searched Sium's cellphone and found
evidence that she and the friend had had a sexual relationship, charging
papers say.
While the friend and his girlfriend slept in the living room of the friend's
apartment in the Greenwood neighborhood, Weldeyohannes, Sium and Sium's
daughter went into the bedroom, the papers say.
Sium's daughter slept and the couple argued: Sium scratched Weldeyohannes,
who then allegedly strangled Sium on the bed before fleeing in the friend's
car, charging papers say.
When the friend woke at 6 a.m. Sunday to get ready for church, he found Sium
dead on the bed and called 911, charging papers say. Police interviewed
several friends and relatives, who had received text and voice messages from
Weldeyohannes, the papers say.
According to charging documents, one text message, translated from Tigrinya,
read: "From jail I just got out and now I can't control myself, my mind.
Because I went in, my life and Rahel's life has to be taken by me."
On Monday night, officials with the Cowlitz County Sheriff's Office found
the car Weldeyohannes allegedly stole after Sium's slaying abandoned with a
flat tire, charging papers say. A reverse 911 call was placed to residents
in Woodland, requesting that they call 911 if they saw Weldeyohannes, the
papers say.
At 4:30 a.m. Tuesday, a man called police to report seeing Weldeyohannes
sitting in a city park, charging papers say. He was alone when officers
arrested him. Photos were later taken of Weldeyohannes' body to document
scratches to his arms, wrists, face and neck, along with a large scratch on
his torso and an apparent bite mark on his right bicep, the papers say.
According to prosecutors, Weldeyohannes "was apparently heading south to
return to California" when he got a flat tire about 150 miles south of
Seattle.
*Sara Jean Green: 206-515-5654 or sgreen@seattletimes.com*
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