- Yakima, WA
The couple suspected in a Coulee City campsite robbery that injured one man and sparked a month-long manhunt was taken into custody Wednesday.
When arrested at a disarrayed house outside Moxee, Kye M. Shelton, 32, was hiding inside a laundry dryer, said Yakima County Sheriff’s Office public information officer Casey Schilperoort. Shelton’s partner Becca Rosenburg, 33, was found in the laundry room.
Police have sought Shelton on an arrest warrant since Oct. 11, when Douglas County prosecutors charged him in the Sept. 27 robbery near Banks Lake. An Oct. 21 warrant for Rosenburg charged her in the same crime, adding counts of reckless endangerment for allegedly bringing her minor children on the robbery as passengers in her minivan.
One of the children was Rosenburg’s daughter Rae’Ana, who last February survived 20 minutes underwater after falling through the ice of a Rock Island fishing pond.
The couple’s arrest was almost accidental. Schilperoort said Yakima County deputies, Department of Corrections agents and Moxee police officers went to the house about noon Wednesday on a tip that Zachary J. Sands, a felon wanted on a separate DOC warrant, was present. The house was unsanitary, he said, and deputies used a canine in the search. Child Protective Services took custody of two minor children found in the home; Schilperoort said they were not children of Shelton or Rosenburg.
Douglas County deputies say Shelton, Rosenburg and at least three other adults set out in Rosenburg’s minivan and a white Buick sedan to steal portable generators in the Sept. 27 robbery. The caper turned violent when the campers returned to the site and struggled with the thieves.
While fleeing, the Buick driver struck one of the alleged robbers, Joseph Aaron Lacey, 19, of Yakima, leaving him injured at the scene. Deputies arrested Lacey after he received hospital treatment.
The campers were not injured, but one was briefly dragged by the minivan while struggling with a male adult passenger, believed to be Shelton. Court records show the white Buick turned up abandoned Oct. 28 on Blewett Pass, with its license plates removed and a portable generator nearby.
Both Shelton and Rosenburg are held on a $50,000 bail, and must be brought to Douglas County for arraignment. Shelton faces second-degree charges of robbery, theft and assault. Rosenburg is charged with one count of second-degree robbery, two of second-degree assault, one charge of theft and four counts of reckless endangerment.
The children are now in foster care.
By, Robbins, Jefferson