2 Seattle teens held in killing of teammate

Two Roosevelt High School students were arrested Wednesday night in the killing of a 16-year-old classmate whose body was found in a grave near Marysville.

Authorities said a rape allegation filed by a girlfriend of one of the suspects against the slain student may have been a motive, even though the accusation was later dropped.

All three boys, who were going to be juniors this fall, played together on the varsity football team and were apparently good friends.

The two suspects, a 16-year-old and 17-year-old, both of Seattle, are in custody at the Snohomish County Jail. Cash-only bail of $500,000 was set yesterday for each of them.

The Seattle Times normally does not name suspects until they are charged, or juveniles unless they are charged as adults.

The dead boy, John Daniel Jasmer, who was last seen Aug. 21 at his Queen Anne home, had been accused of raping the 15-year-old girlfriend of one of the suspects in June.

According to a Seattle police report, the girl said she had been raped June 20 at a party at a Seattle house. When Jasmer was brought in for questioning, the report said, he said they had sex but it was consensual.

The girl recanted her story "within a month," according to Seattle police spokeswoman Deanna Nollette, and the case against Jasmer was dropped.

According to arrest documents and police sources, sometime after Aug. 21, the girl's 16-year-old boyfriend and his 17-year-old friend lured Jasmer from his home, took him to a wooded area directly west of the Tulalip Casino, hit him with a hammer, suffocated him and stabbed him at least twice.

The two suspects had already dug a grave, arrest documents said, near a wire fence at the edge of a gravel parking lot used as a "Boom City" site to sell fireworks, along 27th Avenue Northeast a few blocks north of 88th Street Northeast. The boys discussed numerous methods for killing Jasmer, according to the documents.

The arrest documents also describe a 911 call Wednesday in which a local psychiatrist told a Seattle police detective that a patient had told him of a murder, and that Jasmer was the victim. He told the detective that his patient was a friend of the girl who had accused Jasmer of rape, according to the documents.

According to police, the psychiatrist told them the patient said the killer was the boyfriend of the girl who reported she had been raped.

Seattle police picked up the two suspects Wednesday afternoon, interviewed them and turned them over to authorities in Snohomish County. At 3 p.m. yesterday, investigators in Snohomish County confirmed they had dug up Jasmer's body from the grave.

"One of the suspects led us to the site here," said Jan Jorgensen, a Snohomish County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman. The father of the 17-year-old suspect is a sergeant with the Marysville Police Department, said Cmdr. Robb Lamoure.

Roosevelt football coach Jeff Ware told his team the news yesterday afternoon.

"It's very much a shock," Ware said. "We've talked about the need to pull together and support each other through this."

Ware said all three of the boys were tough physically. He described Jasmer as about 5-foot-6 and 165 pounds, a "great athlete" who "enjoyed mixing things up."

Ware said Jasmer had been suspended from the team once and had a "history of making questionable decisions."

Ware said he had been talking to Jasmer's mother and "the two of us were trying to help him work through a very busy schedule."

Jasmer was balancing a full-time job as a manager at a local McDonald's with high school and varsity football, and didn't want to give any of it up, Ware said.

"He was a kid who I felt I was developing a relationship with, and we were making some progress," Ware said. "I felt he was making some progress toward growing up, and he was developing some character."

After practice yesterday, the team captain said none of the players would be talking about the situation, calling it a "police matter."

A Roosevelt student said the 17-year-old suspect in the slaying was in her history class last year.

"(He) is loud and funny," she said. "He totally goofs around, but is always cooperative, but there's a few times a day he's told to shut up (by teachers )."

Other students said the three didn't do well in class and skipped school a lot.

Another student, a 16-year-old, said, "John (Jasmer) was a really nice guy."

People liked him because he had personality, she said. "He was a lot more caring, not as judgmental."

More than one Roosevelt student said Jasmer and the two suspects were friends and hung out together.

Jasmer's family filed a missing-person report Saturday.

"His parents said he was a runner, he would go jogging late a lot," Seattle police spokesman Duane Fish said. "He is 16, and it's not unlike a 16-year-old to stay somewhere and not tell anybody. They gave it a day. After they had waited and he still didn't show up, they called us."

A flier that Jasmer's family posted on a Queen Anne telephone pole during the hunt for him said he had left his ID and car keys behind when he disappeared.

A "No Trespassing" sign was posted at the Jasmer home yesterday.

Seattle Times staff reporters Peyton Whitely and Christine Willmsen contributed to this report. Michael Ko: 206-515-5653 or mko@seattletimes.com. Ian Ith: 206-464-2109 or iith@seattletimes.com