A man arrested for the fatal shooting of a Washington state woman over the weekend may have been hired by the woman’s husband to kill her and stage the murder to look like a robbery gone wrong.
James Rummell, 49, has also been taken into custody as police investigate the death of his wife, 60-year-old Lindy Rummell.
Darrell E. Riley, 55, was arrested in Oregon on a first degree murder warrant from Clark County, Washington. He remains in Oregon pending extradition.
The Clark County Sheriff’s Office said that James Rummell and Riley were friends, and that Rummell drove to Eugene, Oregon, where he picked Riley up and brought him back to Clark County the day before the murder. Rummell was charged with making false statements to a public servant, the sheriff’s office said, and is considered a suspect in his wife’s murder.
“It appears James may have solicited Darrell to stage what appeared to be an interrupted burglary to commit the murder of Lindy Rummell,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement.
Rummell is being held on a $25,000 bond and is expected to be arraigned Friday.
Police told The Columbian that Riley was arrested after they received a tip from a man who said he had picked up the gunman from a city northeast of Eugene. He called police and told them that Riley took two guns and other items from a pickup truck he was driving then set the truck on fire.
He also told the tipster that he’d been hired to kill a woman and described the number of times he shot her and the caliber of the weapon he used — which matched a weapon found at the Rummell home. Riley also told the tipster he staged the murder to look like a robbery, and the items he took out of the truck were things he stole from the house.
Acccording to the affidavit, Riley told the tipster that Rummell first approached him about 10 months earlier with a plan to kill his wife, promising him $35,000 from Lindy Rummell’s life insurance.
Rummell told investigators he met Riley while serving a prison sentence for kidnapping and robbery and that he had no idea he planned to kill his wife. He initially said he hadn’t seen Riley since last summer, but changed his story when police produced evidence he had been to Eugene the day before the murder.
He said he did bring Riley back to Clark County but dropped him off and thought he was taking public transportation back home.
“(James Rummell’s) failure to provide accurate and timely information regarding contact with (Riley) on (Saturday) hindered an active homicide investigation and delayed law enforcement’s response in identifying and locating (Riley),” the affidavit states.
Rummell is not listed on a Clark County jail roster as of Friday morning, so it’s not clear if he has been released.
For the latest true crime and justice news, subscribe to the ‘Crime Stories with Nancy Grace’ podcast.
[Featured image: James and Lindy Rummell/Facebook]
