Wren Well-Known Figure To Police -- Mother Said Police Told Her Early On That Missing Son Was Probably Dead

About 4 p.m. on Aug. 10, James Bradley Wren hobbled out of his two-story home in Preston and climbed into the back seat of a King County Police squad car driven by Sgt. Mathias Bachmeier.

According to a statement later given by Bachmeier, they were going to a police substation in Fall City to make a statement about a dispute Wren had with his roommate.

There was nothing unusual about that since Wren, 35, was always bickering with his roommate, neighbors said. Just weeks before, on July 21, Wren was shot in the leg, allegedly by his roommate, who had also crashed Wren's car into a telephone pole, neighbors say.

Wren left the police substation alone, Bachmeier told detectives. But Wren did not return from his visit with police. His neighbors grew suspicious; they thought Wren couldn't get far. His leg was still in a plaster cast and he needed crutches to get around.

After a few days, a neighbor called Wren's mother in Malaga, Chelan County, near Wenatchee. Shirley Wren was already worried because her son, who called routinely, had failed to phone her.

"I knew in my heart that something was wrong," Shirley Wren said. "I knew he was dead. I knew somebody had killed him. You just don't disappear off the Earth."

Wren said she filed a missing-person report with King County Police, giving her son's description and how he was last seen with a police officer that afternoon. The report apparently prompted an intensive three-month investigation by four detectives.

In September, the police visited James Wren's neighborhood.

"They all showed up en masse when they sealed (Wren's house) off," said neighbor Randal Nelson. The small wood-frame cottage was still sealed off yesterday, with sheets of plywood covering the windows.

The detectives' work eventually led to Bachmeier's arrest Wednesday evening in connection with Wren's disappearance. Today, Bachmeier was charged in Wren's slaying, though Wren's body has not been found.

Police yesterday continued to say little about the investigation, including Bachmeier's connection with Wren. However, Wren was reportedly a witness to a July 9 arson that destroyed Bachmeier's home on Garden Avenue North in Renton. Earlier this month, authorities said Bachmeier was under investigation in connection with the fire.

Wren has had previous trouble with King County Police. Five years ago, he filed a federal lawsuit with two other plaintiffs involved in a similar incident with King County police, claiming that officers Karl Calhoun and Donn Pottieger used excessive force while arresting him.

Wren claimed that when Calhoun arrested him on June 8, 1990, for violating terms of his release from jail in another case, the officer handcuffed Wren's hands behind his back so tightly he was in pain. When Wren moved his hands to relieve the pressure, Calhoun and his partner beat him, the lawsuit alleged.

The case was settled out of court, recalled Wren's attorney, Michael Rasch, with the county paying $50,000. The settlement was split among Wren and the two other plaintiffs, and the county never formally acknowledged any misconduct. Calhoun and Pottieger are no longer with the department.

Rasch said he hasn't seen Wren since the 1991 court filing, but recalled him as a quiet young man.

"He'd been working in construction, but after the beating, he couldn't work in construction anymore, so he did odd jobs, trying to stay out of harm's way, trying to mind his own business," Rasch said.

Shirley Wren said detectives warned her in September that her son's case was a probable homicide. There was no word from her son and there was no activity in his bank accounts and credit cards. His two dogs, which he adored, were left abandoned and had to be rescued by the Humane Society.

They also told her that a police officer was involved in her son's disappearance, she said.

"You don't ever think about anything like that," she said. "I thought this was devastation. I can't describe how I feel about it."

Shirley Wren and her husband traveled from Central Washington to King County several times in recent months to keep abreast of the investigation and to move her son's belongings out of his home. They posted fliers with color photos of Wren in the neighborhood and at the local post office.

Shirley Wren said her son, a former mechanic in the Air Force, grew up in Wenatchee and attended high school there. He joined the military in 1979 and was discharged four years later after he suffered head injuries and memory loss in a motorcycle accident.

Wren shifted from one job to another, mostly in mechanics. Recently, he was a truck driver.

Court records show that Wren pleaded guilty to molesting a 10-year-old girl in 1989 in Douglas County. He was also charged with abusing a 5-year-old girl, but that case was dismissed.

Though he was originally sentenced to two years in prison, Wren served 90 days in jail and was required to undergo treatment as a sexual offender.

On June 8, 1990, he was charged in Issaquah District Court with assault, but the case was dismissed.

Neighbors said Wren kept mostly to himself and had lived in Preston, 10 miles east of Issaquah, for several years.

His mother admits Wren had a checkered past. "I don't want people to forget he was a victim," Shirley Wren said. "He couldn't walk or get away. He was helpless."