Deadly `Crime Of Passion' -- Suspect Sought In Ex-Wife's Killing

Police scoured a mountainous area near Wenatchee yesterday with helicopters and German shepherds, searching for a man authorities say fatally stabbed his former wife and then shot three of her friends.

Chelan County Undersheriff Pat Beatie said authorities issued a warrant for the arrest of William D. Smith, 38, of Cashmere, after he went on a deadly rampage late Thursday night.

Beatie said dozens of officials from the sheriff's and Wenatchee police departments, the State Patrol and Department of Wildlife searched all day for Smith yesterday in an area known as Mission Creek, near Mission Ridge, along the eastern slopes of the Cascade Mountains, after authorities discovered Smith's truck in a logging area about eight miles south of Cashmere.

CRIME OF PASSION

Beatie said Smith apparently broke into the Cashmere home of his former wife, Ann Patrick, 38, while her new husband was out of town, stabbed her to death and then went to two other homes, where he shot three of her friends.

The shooting victims, all of whom were at Central Washington Hospital yesterday after receiving shotgun wounds, were identified as Jane Lavigne, 62, Duane Lavigne, 65 and Rebecca Hovda, 44.

"This appears to be a crime of passion committed with some kind of planning, done in anger," said Beatie. He said local law-enforcement officials were well aware that Smith and Patrick had been involved in a "long, drawn-out, very complicated domestic

situation," which included custody battles of the couple's four children.

Beatie said the two divorced several years ago but that Patrick had remarried in recent weeks.

Beatie said police issued a statewide warning to other law-enforcement agencies early yesterday. But he said police located Smith's 1991 maroon Ford Ranger truck shortly after 8 a.m. and immediately began a full-scale search.

1000-SQUARE-MILE SEARCH

He said police believe Smith is on foot in the Colockum Ridge area along the eastern slope of the mountains.

However, authorities are searching a larger 1000-square-mile area, roughly bounded by State Highway 2 on the north, the summit of Blewett Pass on the west, Interstate 90 on the south and the Columbia River on the east.

Many searching yesterday were on horseback, he said.

"We're very hopeful we'll catch him," Beatie said.

Everett Police spokesman Mark Sigfrinius said police were alerted sometime after 4 a.m. yesterday that Smith could be heading to Everett. Sigfrinius said he understood authorities in Cashmere had found an address among Smith's belongings that could indicate Smith planned to go to Everett.

Beatie said a search of Smith's Cashmere residence turned up at least one letter, in which Smith expressed anger at several judges and attorneys, who were involved in legal disputes he had with his wife.

He said police immediately provided security for those individuals.

Beatie said Smith had custody of his four children at the time he went to kill his former wife.

"He tucked them in bed and went to do what he did," he said.