Three charged in family plot to kill man for his money

In the six months after her husband was slain last year in an apparent carjacking, Velma Ogden-Whitehead became a millionaire.

She sold two properties that were part of her husband's estate for a profit of $460,000 and collected life insurance and benefits from his employer that totaled more than $650,000, according to King County Prosecuting Attorney Norm Maleng. She took trips to Las Vegas, bought new cars and was planning to move to Arkansas, Maleng said.

But now there's $5 million bail and a murder charge standing between Ogden-Whitehead and those plans.

King County prosecutors on Tuesday charged Ogden-Whitehead, her 18-year-old son Jon Ogden and his 17-year-old friend Wilson Sayachack with first-degree murder in connection with the slaying of Ronald Whitehead in the SeaTac area.

According to charging papers, Ogden-Whitehead hatched the plan.

Investigators say Sayachack, who is being charged as an adult, was paid $1,000 by Jon Ogden to kill Whitehead on March 18, 2005, and make it look like a random carjacking. The Seattle Times generally does not name minors unless they have been charged as adults.

"We now see what we are reluctant to see," Maleng said during a news conference Tuesday morning to announce the charges. "A man who was set up and murdered by his own family for financial reasons."

In the weeks and months after the slaying, Ogden-Whitehead gave numerous media interviews, pleading for her husband's killer to come forward. On Tuesday, Maleng characterized her pleas for justice as "a part of the plan, and a part of the cover-up."

Whitehead, 61 and a career Boeing employee, was shot at an intersection near Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, about three miles from the couple's Des Moines home. Witnesses described seeing Whitehead's slumped body being pushed from his black Ford Mustang, then hearing three more shots.

The car was found later a few miles away, and detectives presumed Whitehead had died in a carjacking.

When Whitehead's body was found with his wallet in his pocket, police began to suspect that the random carjacking story wasn't true, Maleng said. The alleged carjackers apparently wanted neither Whitehead's car nor money.

Those suspicions led to a 15-month investigation in which police examined Ogden-Whitehead's finances and personal relationships.

They learned that Ogden-Whitehead stood to gain financially from her husband's death. In addition to life insurance, retirement accounts and benefits from Boeing valued in excess of $650,000, Whitehead owned four rental properties, two of which she later sold for a profit of $460,000, Maleng said.

"Velma was living a new lifestyle now that Ron was dead," Maleng said.

According to the investigators' account, Ogden-Whitehead and her husband had a rocky marriage. The investigators said she had complained to an acquaintance that her husband was physically abusive and that she had temporarily moved out of their home around the end of 2004.

Investigators also said she complained to one co-worker that her husband was "verbally and mentally abusing" her but that she didn't feel she could afford to leave him. She also said her husband had cut her off from using credit cards because she spent too much money.

Investigators also learned that Ogden-Whitehead had an affair with a fellow employee at the auto-parts store where she worked.

Police subpoenaed phone records showing Jon Ogden and Sayachack exchanged 53 text messages on their cellphones in the hours just before the slaying.

Those records ultimately proved to be the key to the investigation, Maleng said. In addition to the text messages, police say Ogden received a call on his cellphone at 5:44 a.m. the day Whitehead was killed — the exact time that police received a 911 call from a witness who saw Whitehead pushed from the car and shot.

Detectives also found a print from Sayachack's right palm in the back seat of the Mustang.

According to charging papers, Sayachack hid in the trunk of the Mustang that morning as Whitehead headed to work and Jon Ogden, Whitehead's stepson, was seated in the passenger seat. Sometime during the trip Sayachack climbed through the folding back seat and, at Ogden's urging, shot Whitehead in the back of the head, according to the charges.

Jon Ogden then helped Sayachack push Whitehead out of the car, charging papers say. Ogden then shot Whitehead three times in the back, according to charging papers.

The weapon used to kill Whitehead has not been found. But authorities believe it was one of the three weapons owned by Whitehead, only two of which were recovered by police.

Investigators found "some, but not sufficient" evidence of aggravating factors that would justify the death penalty, Maleng said. If convicted, all three defendants face sentences of 25 to 32 years.

Joe Mullin: 206-464-2761 or jmullin@seattletimes.com