Inset: Mick Carmichael (Federal Way Police Department). Background: The home where the victims” bodies were found in Federal Way, Wash. (KOMO/YouTube).
A Washington man is accused of strangling his parents to death with a belt in their home and then — upon being spotted by a family member — expressing his desire not to “disturb them.”
Mick Carmichael, 35, is being held in the King County jail on two counts of second-degree murder for the deaths of 69-year-old Grace Carmichael and 68-year-old Gregory Carmichael, court records show. He was arrested on Thursday evening.
Investigators believe the three family members were at their home on the 33700 block of 27th Place Southwest in Federal Way, sometime between Wednesday and Thursday when a fight broke out. The city is located just south of Seattle.
During the suspected struggle, Mick Carmichael is believed to have strangled his parents with a belt, with the attack causing injuries to him, too, local ABC affiliate KOMO reported. As Thursday morning rolled around and Grace Carmichael did not show up for work, one of her co-workers called Federal Way police, asking for officers to check on her.
Police are said to have arrived at the home, knocked on the door, and looked through the windows, but no one responded, and they did not see anything out of the ordinary. Law enforcement then contacted another family member who said they would come by to check on the parents.
When the other family member did come by, they allegedly saw Mick Carmichael walking away.
“Mick responded that Grace and Gregory were still sleeping and he did not want [family member] to disturb them,” an arrest report cited by the outlet states. The family member then entered the home and found the bodies of the victims, but the suspect was nowhere to be seen.
Police put out an alert for residents to be on the lookout for Mick Carmichael, and at about 5 p.m. on Thursday, an officer spotted him in a nearby park. He reportedly appeared to have dried blood on his hands, blood stains on his clothes, and cuts and bruises on his body.
The suspect was arrested, denying that he had talked to his parents the previous day and claiming ignorance as to how he had gotten his injuries, police said.
Court records reviewed by KOMO showed that the defendant has had several run-ins with the law. He allegedly slammed his mother’s head into a staircase and strangled his father during an argument in 2021, calling him “the devil.” He was also reportedly charged in 2015 with attacking his father.
Since 2009, 10 separate protection orders have been issued to protect the defendant’s parents – and five other people – from Carmichael in a total of four discrete cases, the TV station reported.
