Son, Nephew Are Arrested In Killing Of Silverdale Pair -- Sleeping Couple Shot; Guns, Cash Stolen

SILVERDALE - Police say the suspects in a double murder discovered Saturday had hoped the killings would cover their tracks in the burglary of a few guns and a couple hundred dollars.

But shortly after the bodies of Gerald R. McCord, 51, and Connie Case, 42, were discovered, police were focusing on those very two: McCord's 21-year-old son and the son's 20-year-old cousin.

Yesterday, the son, who had been living with the couple, and his cousin, of Eugene, Ore., were arrested in connection with the two murders.

After an investigation that led from McCord's Kitsap County home to the cousin's hometown in Oregon, and finally to Las Vegas, the pair were arrested by Las Vegas police at a motel early yesterday morning.

"There's a lot of questions we're going to answer now," Kitsap County Sheriff Pat Jones said last night.

According to Jones, police believe the son and his cousin stole a .380-caliber semi-automatic handgun from the glove compartment of one of Gerald McCord's vehicles, parked in the driveway outside McCord's house at 1960 Bucklin Hill Road N.W., in the early-morning hours last Wednesday.

The two young men allegedly then entered the house, shot the couple at point-blank range as they slept, then stole a few guns and a couple hundred dollars in cash, according to authorities.

The bodies were discovered Saturday morning by co-workers who had grown suspicious after Gerald McCord failed to report to work at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton.

Reports quickly followed that the son had left work Wednesday after telling a co-worker his father had suffered a heart attack. He also allegedly told a friend he had to "lay low for a while," the sheriff said.

After learning the son had been hanging out with his cousin, two Kitsap County detectives went to Eugene Saturday afternoon. There, according to Jones, friends and relatives said the two had arrived in Eugene in one of the elder McCord's vehicles, a Pontiac Firebird, but had traveled on to Las Vegas.

It was uncertain yesterday when the two would be brought to Kitsap County.

Jones said the son had no prior criminal record. And he apparently had a peaceful relationship with his father and Case, who had lived together for the past five years.

The murders were the second double homicide in Kitsap County within one week. On Oct. 23, Kelly Uhl, 33, and her daughter Mellisa, 4, were stabbed to death in their home near Port Orchard. Uhl's 10-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son were also injured.

Steven Morgan, 36, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder, two counts of attempted first-degree murder and one count of cocaine possession in connection with that incident.

There have been seven homicides in Kitsap County in 1994, Jones said. The highest number of homicides in one year since Jones became sheriff in 1979 is nine, he said.

"Most murders are hard to predict and hard to prevent," Jones said. "Unfortunately, these two particular ones happened to be in our county, this week."