Word spread quickly Friday through Kent City Hall that an arrest had been made in connection with the May death of city employee Seth Frankel.
“There is a lot of relief,” said John Hodgson, city chief administrative officer in a phone interview Friday afternoon. “When Seth was killed we talked to staff about how there would be a number of situations where we would go back and remember his death and one was an arrest.”
Auburn Police – with the help of the U.S. Marshals Service – arrested a 30-year-old Portland man Friday morning in Portland in connection with the murder of Frankel, 41, an Auburn resident killed at his home May 21.
The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office has charged William L. Phillip Jr. with one count of first-degree murder. He is being held on $1 million bail in the Multnomah County Jail in Portland, where he awaits extradition to Washington.
Phillip is scheduled to be arraigned at 9 a.m. Dec. 21 in Courtroom GA at the Norm Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent.
Frankel, a video program coordinator, joined the city of Kent in 2007 after 11 years as a director of production at a PBS station in Eureka, Calif. He was the employee behind most of the city meetings and events shown on Kent TV21.
“The Auburn Police did an outstanding job to make sure they dotted all the i’s and crossed all the t’s and got the right guy,” Hodgson said.
Frankel was found dead May 22 lying on the floor of his home that sits across from West Auburn High School. Frankel died the evening of May 21 from stab wounds to the arms and neck, according to the King County Medical Examiner’s Office.
A seven-month investigation by Auburn Police received a key break when detectives reportedly were able to match a blood stain at the murder scene with Phillip, according to charging papers.
Police also had cell phone records that allegedly put Phillip in the area of Frankel’s Auburn home during the murder and later showed he used the phone again as he drove back to Oregon.
The girlfriend of Frankel gave police the lead about Phillip. She told detectives she had previously dated Phillip and he was mad that she was now dating Frankel. The two men had never met until Phillip came up in late May to Auburn.
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