Snoqualmie Pair Charged In `Driveway Body' Slaying

SEATTLE - King County prosecutors have charged a Snoqualmie man with second-degree murder and his girlfriend with criminal assistance in the December shooting death of a 31-year-old drifter from Duvall.

According to papers filed in King County Superior Court yesterday, Henry Ebbelaar Jr., 31, shot Richard Binkley on Dec. 28 after a scuffle in the couple's Snoqualmie trailer.

Prosecutors charge that Ebbelaar's girlfriend, Rachelle Clark, 28, witnessed the slaying, then helped load Binkley's body into Ebbelaar's van and dump it in a Duvall driveway.

Binkley was renting a small house not far from where his body was found in the 14300 block of Batten Road. He had worked at CNF Auto Wrecking at the edge of town for three weeks before he was slain.

Police said Binkley drifted into Duvall a few months ago, just as he had drifted through Idaho, Oregon and Eastern Washington. He was separated from his wife, who lives in Snohomish County.

According to court papers, the evening of the slaying Binkley got a ride from Ebbelaar, a laborer from Snoqualmie who had purchased a motorcycle at CNF.

The next morning, a woman walking her dogs found Binkley's body face down in her driveway.

With a description from employees at CNF, police tried to track down the van Binkley left in through Crime Stoppers bulletins. On January 31 they got a call from one of Ebbelaar's neighbors, who had heard another neighbor talk about the incident.

According to court papers, Ebbelaar and Clark's next-door neighbors answered a knock on their door the night of Binkley's death. The man was Binkley, who told the neighbors he was looking for a man in a white van who had given him a ride. The neighbors pointed him to the trailer next door.

After 10 minutes of commotion, the neighbor heard a gunshot, and 15 minutes later he heard the van drive away.

Several days later, Ebbelaar asked his neighbor if he had heard anything that night. When the neighbor mentioned the gunshot, Ebbelaar said Binkley had carjacked him and broken into his house.

Ebbelaar said he threw Binkley out, but Binkley began banging on the door again. Ebbelaar explained to his neighbor he told Clark to open the door so he could "blast" Binkley, documents say.

The neighbors saw the bulletins, but claim they were too frightened to call police.

The couple are to be arraigned tomorrow.