Puyallup Police Talk Safety Following Double Slaying

PUYALLUP - A well-attended community meeting with police last night helped settle nerves a little in a neighborhood once described as a "street of dreams" but now coping with the shock of a double slaying.

More than 300 residents of the popular Manorwood area showed up at Puyallup's Ferrucci Junior High School to ask police questions and listen to developments in the case of Graig Wayne Anderson Jr., 62, and his wife, Anita, 60, who were found fatally shot in their home the night before.

"It helps to see that the rest of the community is concerned with it," said Linda Jewell, 36, after the meeting. "You get used to (crimes) happening somewhere else but not next door."

Police were appealing to the public to help solve the first multiple slaying in the city in at least 20 years, Detective Sgt. Roger Cox said.

They're asking anyone with information to call the Puyallup Police tip line at 841-5427. All calls will be confidential, police said.

During the meeting, police Cmdr. Rodger Cool answered questions from the audience ranging from whether the slayings were random to what more residents could do to protect themselves.

Cool said the crime was "definitely an isolated incident" and that patrols had been increased in the area, but authorities don't know if the killings were a random act. The neighborhood, which has a crime-watch program, generally has not been a target of crime.

Shelby Barager, crime-prevention specialist with the police department, told the residents that perhaps the best way to prevent a crime is to rely or call on neighbors when something suspicious occurs.

"You really need to know who your neighbor is," she said.

She was wary, though, of people running off to buy a weapon for protection, warning that most shootings that happen at home are accidents and not crime-related.

The meeting was a good idea that showed people care, said Natalie Swensen, 13, who lives with her family across the street from where the slayings occurred.

"It's just weird, though. I knew (the victims). We were there when the police were putting tape around the house. I'm upset it happened."

The Andersons' bodies were found Wednesday night on a couch in the family room of the couple's $300,000 home in the 3700 block of 21st Street Southeast, police said. Each victim had been shot multiple times, at least once in the head, according to the medical examiner's office.

The bodies were discovered about 8:40 p.m. by the couple's daughter and son-in-law, who came by for a visit and found a back door open, Cool said.

Authorites had no suspects in the case and few leads. There were no signs of forced entry, no signs of a struggle and nothing obviously missing.

The Andersons were last seen about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, when they attended a concert at Cascade Christian School in downtown Puyallup.

Graig Anderson worked for a Tacoma real-estate firm, and he and his wife apparently spent about six months of the year in Texas, where they managed a mobile-home park, Cool said. The couple had lived in the Puyallup home for the past several years and had grown children in the area.