TACOMA, Wash. — The body of a Puyallup woman was found at a motel a day after a man called a TV station asking staff to post the slaying of his wife on its Facebook page, police said.
Pierce County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Ed Troyer said a man called the local station Wednesday around 6:30 p.m. saying he didn't have a Facebook page and wanted staff to post that he had killed his wife on its page.
Troyer said the man said his name was Tony Barrett.
Station staff called the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office, and on Wednesday, deputies found 42-year-old Sara Barrett's car at her workplace, the Pier 1 Imports distribution center in DuPont, long after she normally would have gone home.
Troyer said there was blood found inside her car.
Around 3 a.m. Thursday, a police officer in Tacoma spotted Sara Barrett's husband, 41-year-old Tony Barrett, in a car in downtown Tacoma.
Troyer said a high-speed chase began across the Narrows Bridge until Tony Barrett's vehicle was stopped in Gig Harbor when police deployed spike strips near Wollochet Drive.
He then tried to attack officers, police said.
“He came out with a tire iron and tried to go after the officers. A K-9 unit was there and took him down,” said Troyer.
He was taken into custody and transported to Tacoma General Hospital for bite wounds. After treatment, he’ll be booked into the Pierce County Jail.
Troyer said Tony Barrett was not cooperating with detectives, but an investigator was able to determine that he had checked into a Tacoma Motel 6 Wednesday night.
"One of our deputies found out that he'd checked in there last night, went to the room, and unfortunately, we found his wife deceased in the hotel room,” said Troyer.
Investigators have not said how the victim was killed.
Police will search the room for evidence.
Tony Barrett was convicted of third-degree domestic violence assault for an incident in 2007 in which he attempted to smother his wife with a pillow, according to charging documents. In the documents, Sara Barrett said the only way she escaped was when their son broke down the bedroom door.
Court documents showed that in 2009, both Sara and Tony Barrett filed protection orders against one another. In Sara Barrett’s protection order, she cited threats and earlier incidents of violence by her husband; in Tony Barrett’s protection order, he said his wife had attacked him and destroyed his belongings.
In January 2012, Sara Barrett filed a petition for a protection order against Tony Barrett that said he had stuck a knife in her side after she had left him and forced her into the back seat of her car.
The petition also said that according to Sara Bennett, her husband had been hospitalized for taking pills and drinking alcohol in an attempt to commit suicide because she was trying to leave him and refused to speak to him.
The couple has three grown boys.