Fatal end to troubled marriage: Police discover husband, wife dead
Tawni Baldwin had hoped to make a new start.
After an argument with her husband that brought police to their Mukilteo apartment earlier this week, Baldwin, 30, told friends she was moving out and going back to college.
Although she and Ryan Baldwin were getting a divorce, she once hoped to stay in the apartment with him and her daughter from a previous marriage.
But as Tawni was moving out yesterday morning, Ryan, 33, fatally shot her before turning the gun on himself, police said. Police are calling it a murder-suicide.
Tawni's daughter was not home at the time.
Mukilteo Police Chief Michael Murphy said officers had received a report that an armed man was seen dragging a woman at gunpoint into an apartment.
Police arrived at the Harbour Pointe Apartments at 10:33 a.m. and tried to negotiate with the occupants but received no response, he said.
About 45 minutes after they arrived, officers heard three gunshots fired from inside the third-floor apartment. They waited for a SWAT team to arrive before entering the apartment at 1:33 p.m. They found both of them dead from gunshot wounds.
Mukilteo police were prevented from entering the home immediately after the shots were fired because they lacked equipment to open the apartment's metal door.
They had to wait for the arrival of a SWAT team from the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office, which is trained and equipped for such situations, Murphy said. He confirmed yesterday that this was the second time officers had been to the apartment this week.
The couple had married about three years ago after several years of dating, said Nikki Prewitt, a friend of Tawni's who lives in Longview. The marriage was Tawni's third.
Prewitt said the couple's relationship soured shortly after they married.
"She said she wanted to leave him a long time ago, but then this past weekend, she said she'd try to stay with him like a roommate," Prewitt said. "She wanted to go back to college."
Tawni worked near Lynnwood as a medical assistant, but eventually left to start her own business with Ryan, Prewitt said. The two operated the Raceway Cafe inside the Traxx Indoor Raceway — a go-kart facility — beginning last summer. Traxx is a short distance from their apartment.
But Tawni's plans to end the marriage forced the couple to sell the cafe to the track's owners in December, employees at the facility said.
She also said she wanted to spend more time with her daughter, who friends said is 11 years old. Police reported that the daughter is 6.
Ryan Baldwin was self-employed, friends said.
He operated an Internet site that he used for purchasing and selling older cars.
"I knew they weren't happy when we saw her last week," said Julie Powell, Tawni's mother-in-law from her first marriage.
Police said yesterday that Tawni's daughter was staying with relatives.
Jennifer Sullivan: 425-783-0604 or jensullivan@seattletimes.com
Christopher Schwarzen: 425-745-7811 or cschwarzen@seattletimes.com