SEATTLE — Questions about the murders of two best friends, their bodies found last week hours apart on I-5 in North Seattle. A relative is sharing their grief as the hunt continues for the killer or killers.
The teenagers’ bodies were found late last week a half mile apart on I-5. Investigators with the Washington State patrol say they believe the murders are related.
The families say these teens were inseparable in life. Now both their bodies have been found along I-5, indicating they shared a similar death, too.
They were best of friends in life, 16-year-old Jahaz Phillips and 16-year-old Myion Coleman. Now they share something more ominous. both were murdered, their bodies left along Interstate 5. Their deaths, upending a lot of lives.
“They were so close, “said a relative of Phillips. “And it’s just like, wow.”
We talked by telephone to Phillips’ relative. She says his family is too afraid to appear on television while the killers remain on the loose. She was asked if she knows anybody who would want to shoot Jahaz.
“I don’t know of anything about that,” she said. “I know Jahaz and his friend to be amazing kids and amazing students. And this is just like a tragedy.”
Their shared grief began just after 10:30 last Thursday night.
Someone called 911 to report a pedestrian was lying on I-5. When Washington State patrol troopers arrived, they discovered the victim, later identified as Phillips, had been shot dead. Some nine and a half hours later, a half mile away along the North 85th Street on-ramp, Coleman’s body was found in a ditch.
He, too, had been shot.
“What’s relevant to me is the proximity,” said Jim Fuda.
The executive director of CrimeStoppers of Puget Sound and a longtime King County Sheriff’s deputy weighed in on what he makes of the teens’ deaths.
“If they were together in a vehicle, and one gets shot, the other one’s supposed to say something, who knows?” said Fuda. “And the other one is shot and dumped out a half mile away.”
Now two lives that had hardly gotten started, gone.
“I just want the story to get out so that both families can be able to lay Myion and Jahaz to rest and celebrate their lives,” the relative said.
There has been a lot of speculation, especially online, about whether gangs might be involved in these murders. A Washington State patrol spokesman says he hasn’t been told that.
Now both families have GoFundMe Accounts to raise money for the boys’ funerals.