Washington
Elderly Washington state man reportedly poisoned with fentanyl by pair he met on dating app
Police in Washington state announced two suspects were arrested in connection with the murder of a missing elderly man who was allegedly poisoned with fentanyl by a pair who gained his trust through a dating app.
The Mercer Island Police released a statement saying Philip J. Brewer, 32, and Christina Hardy, 47, are facing charges for the murder of Curtis Engeland, 74, by using an elaborate scheme to defraud and murder him.
Police said that Brewer and Hardy are believed to have become acquainted with Engeland several months ago and subsequently financially defrauded him.
Police also believe the suspects later violently confronted Engeland at his Mercer Island home in the late evening hours of February 23, and used Engeland’s vehicle to leave Mercer Island that night.
POLICE MADE ‘A DEAL WITH THE DEVIL’ TO UNCOVER LOCATION OF MISSING BLOOD MOUNTAIN HIKER: KILLER WAS ‘HUNTING’
Two suspects were arrested in connection to the homicide of missing Mercer Island resident Curtis Engeland, 74. (Washington State Patrol)
The following day, February 24, police said Engeland’s family reported him missing. Mercer Island police initially responded to Engeland’s residence and began investigating his disappearance as a missing person case. With initial details unclear whether he left willingly or was taken, a Silver Alert was issued by the Washington State Patrol.
Police said evidence then indicated Engeland was dead and the suspect were no longer in the Mercer Island area.
Mercer Island Police detectives and King County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue teams conducted a targeted search for Engeland’s remains in Grays Harbor County following clues from the evidence. Police said the search area was determined using GPS location history from the suspects’ cell phone activity.
During the following week, detectives compiled forensic information and determined the suspects left Washington State quickly after the victim was killed and fled south, rented different vehicles and swapped out new cell phones to cover their path.
According to probable cause documents obtained by Fox 13, Brewer and Hardy admitted to another person that they injected Engeland with fentanyl to kill him and then drove out to Cosmopolis in Grays Harbor County to hide his body. However, at the dumpsite, the suspects realized Engeland was still alive, so they stabbed him in the neck, Fox 13 reported.
HALO BRANTON’S MOM FACES UPGRADED MURDER CHARGE AFTER MISSING NEW YORK GIRL FOUND DOWN TUNNEL AT GE PLANT
Washington State Patrol issued a silver alert for 74-year-old Curtis Engeland on Feb. 29 when he was reported missing. He was later found dead. (Washington State Patrol)
The medical examiner’s officer determined that Engeland died from a “sharp force injury of the neck.”
Investigators said that Brewer used the dating app, Scruff, to gain Engeland’s trust.
Prior to his murder, Engeland knew something was wrong immediately when he woke up in his home following his first meeting with Brewer back in January, according to documents obtained by Fox 13.
Fox 13 reported that the documents stated that Brewer and Engeland talked for about a week before their first date. According to court documents, Engeland invited Brewer over for a movie, but fell asleep.
MISSING WASHINGTON STATE WOMAN FOUND DEAD, TORTURED IN MEXICO CEMETERY, SUSPECT IN CUSTODY
When Engeland woke up, Brewer had reportedly disappeared, along with Engeland’s wallet, cell phone, house keys, car keys, driver’s license and social security card.
Fox 13 reported that Brewer and Hardy, as well as Hardy’s son, tried to move into Engeland’s home, claiming that Engeland was allowing them to stay at his home. The documents stated the suspects also used the victim’s phone to create alibis.
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On March 14, the suspects were taken into police custody in California, are being held on $5 million bail, and will be extradited back to Washington to face homicide charges.
“First and foremost, we must acknowledge Mr. Engeland’s family – when this incident was first reported to police as a missing person, we hoped for a better outcome,” Mercer Island Police Chief Ed Holmes said. “The family remained determined to help our investigation over the past few weeks and we hope some comfort can be found through the hard work being done to bring justice for Curtis and his loved ones. We appreciate the community’s support as the police department was unable to share law enforcement-sensitive updates with the public until after our suspects were apprehended and know it was difficult to await answers in the wake of such terrible circumstances.”
Washington
Washington Watch: CCAMPIS grant competition announced – Community College Daily
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), “on behalf of the Department of Education (ED),” on Monday released a Notice Inviting Grant Applications for the Child Care Access Means Parents in School (CCAMPIS) program. Applications are due by May 29.
Last November, ED announced that it had entered into an interagency agreement with HHS to administer the CCAMPIS program. This is the first CCAMPIS competition conducted under this arrangement.
Approximately $73.5 million will go to institutions of higher education that awarded at least $250,000 in Pell grants to enrolled students in FY 2025. HHS will award about 148 grants, ranging from $150,000 to $1 million.
The terms of the grant competition are not significantly different than prior competitions. As before, there are two absolute grant priorities that every application must address – leveraging non-federal resources and utilizing a sliding-fee scale for low-income parents.
This year’s competition includes only one invitational priority that reflects the Trump administration’s general educational policy. The new priority, entitled “Expanding Education Choice in Early Learning Settings,” encourages applications that “expand access to education choice … including by empowering parents in choosing the early learning setting that best meets their family’s needs.” Flexible childcare programs that include drop-in care and care during nontraditional hours are also encouraged.
One other notable difference from prior competitions is an expanded “Terms and Conditions” section that not only requires compliance with applicable civil rights laws, but also refers to Trump administration Executive Orders and guidance on racial discrimination that clarify “the application of federal antidiscrimination laws to programs or initiatives that may involve discriminatory practices, including those labeled as Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (“DEI”) programs.” This includes any “discriminatory equity ideology [as defined in Executive Order 14190] in violation of a federal antidiscrimination law.”
The exact scope of these terms is unclear because courts have not found many of the practices described in these Executive Orders and guidance documents to be violations of federal law.
Washington
A look at the roots (and routes) of immigration to Washington
The Newsfeed
This week, the team brings you stories about how communities including Filipino immigrants, Sephardic Jews and Somalis arrived in the Pacific Northwest
Each week on The Newsfeed, host Paris Jackson and a team of veteran journalists dive deep into one topic and provide impactful reporting, interviews and community insights from sources you can trust. Each day this week, this post will be updated with a new story from the team.
Group hopes to boost recognition for Seattle’s Filipinotown
By Venice Buhain
The group Filipinotown Seattle hopes to make sure that the legacy of Filipino Americans in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District isn’t forgotten.
One of the group’s current projects is pushing for a Filipinotown placemarking sign in the CID.
“Filipino Americans have had a presence here for over 100 years in Seattle,” said Filipinotown Seattle Executive Director Devin Israel Cabanilla.
He said that the signage is important to remind people that “the International District is not just Chinatown. Japantown. Filipinotown is here as well.”
The group held a poll on what signage might look like and where it might be located. It would be similar to the Chinatown sign on South Jackson Street and Fifth Avenue South, or the Wing Luke Museum
In the early 20th century, the area now known as the CID was a hub full of businesses, entertainment, social groups and housing that served Seattle’s growing immigrant population from Asia and elsewhere. The communities all intermingled throughout the CID.
“This area was a central place for Asian Pacific immigrants simply because of segregation,” Cabanilla said.
Because the Philippines was a U.S. territory from 1898 to 1946, Filipino immigrants were unaffected by laws in the 1920s that restricted immigration from Japan or China. Many Filipinos came to study at the University of Washington or to work in burgeoning industries, like lumber, farming, canneries and factories.
While the physical Filipino presence in terms of buildings and storefronts in the CID dwindled in the later 20th century with redevelopment, Seattle Filipinos and Filipino Americans continued to make impacts locally, regionally and nationally.
“It may not have been in terms of storefronts, but our presence has always existed in terms of politics, culture as well,” Cabanilla said.
The Seattle Department of Transportation said it is aware that the group is working on its signage request, but the Department of Neighborhoods has not yet received a formal request. They are also working to develop a clearer process for this and other similar neighborhood signage proposals.
Filipinotown Seattle said it hopes that the sign helps remind Seattle of the CID’s unique designation as a neighborhood shaped by many immigrants and migrants to Seattle.
“Is it Chinatown? Is it Japantown? Is it Little Saigon? It’s all those things. And I think re cultivating that this is a multicultural district, Filipinotown is helping establish: Yes, it’s more than one thing,” Cabanilla said.

Venice Buhain is a multimedia journalist at Cascade PBS. She previously was the Cascade PBS’s associate news editor and education reporter. Venice has also worked for KING 5, The Seattle Globalist and TVW News.
Venice Buhain is a multimedia journalist at Cascade PBS. She previously was the Cascade PBS’s associate news editor and education reporter. Venice has also worked for KING 5, The Seattle Globalist and TVW News.
Washington
The Church of Jesus Christ has announced its 384th temple
The state of Washington is getting a seventh temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The Marysville Washington Temple was announced Sunday night during a devotional in the Marysville Washington Stake by Elder Hugo E. Martinez, a General Authority Seventy in the church’s United States West Area Presidency.
“We are pleased to announce the construction of a temple in Marysville, Washington,” the First Presidency said in a statement. “The specific location and timing of the construction will be announced later. This is a reason for all of us to rejoice and express gratitude for such a significant blessing — one that will allow more frequent access to the ordinances, covenants and power that can only be found in the house of the Lord.”
The other temples in Washington are the Columbia River, Moses Lake, Seattle, Spokane, Tacoma and Vancouver temples.
The church has 214 temples in operation. Plans for another 170 temples have been announced; many of those temples are in various stages of planning and construction.
Sunday’s temple announcement follows the new practice of the church’s First Presidency, which determines where temples will be built — and when and how they will be announced.
The First Presidency directed a General Authority Seventy to announce the first temple in Maine at a fireside there in December.
In January, church President Dallin H. Oaks said the Maine announcement set the pattern for future temple announcements.
“The best place to announce a temple is in that temple district,” he told the Deseret News.
The First Presidency will continue to decide where future temples will be built. It then will “assign someone else to make the announcement in the place where the temple will be built,” he said.
This pattern came to him as a strong impression after he assumed leadership of the church in October, following the death of his friend, President Russell M. Nelson.
This came as a strong impression to him shortly after he assumed the leadership of the church, President Oaks said.
The church remains in the midst of an aggressive temple-building era. President Nelson announced 200 new temples from 2018 to 2025. All but one were announced at general conference.
Five dozen temples are now under construction.
President Oaks now has overseen the announcement of two temples, neither at a general conference.
At the October conference he said that “with the large number of temples now in the very earliest phases of planning and construction, it is appropriate that we slow down the announcement of new temples.”
Ten new temples are scheduled to be dedicated in the next six months.
- May 3: Davao Philippines Temple.
- May 3: Lindon Utah Temple.
- May 31: Bacolod Philippines Temple.
- June 7: Yorba Linda California Temple.
- June 7: Willamette Valley Oregon Temple.
- Aug. 16: Belo Horizonte Brazil Temple.
- Aug. 16: Cleveland Ohio Temple.
- Aug. 30: Phnom Penh Cambodia Temple.
- Oct. 11: Miraflores Guatemala City Guatemala Temple.
- Oct. 18: Managua Nicaragua Temple.
Two-thirds of the 170 temples still to be built are outside the United States.
Temples are distinct from the meetinghouses where Latter-day Saints worship Jesus Christ each Sunday. Temples are closed on Sundays, but they open during the week as sanctuaries where church members go to find peace, make covenants with God and perform proxy ordinances for deceased relatives.
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