The shock is still setting in — and the search for answers continues — for family members of a Federal Way woman and a Kent man whose remains washed up along a West Seattle shoreline in June.<\/p>\n
On June 19, Seattle Police and Seattle Fire recovered bags containing human remains that were located near the water in the 1100 block of Alki Avenue SW. The agencies initially responded to the area for reports of a suspicious suitcase that had washed up on the beach. Another bag was found in the water, the Mirror previously reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n The bodies were identified as 35-year-old Jessica Lewis, who died on June 16 from multiple gunshot wounds. The second body was identified as 27-year-old Austin Wenner, who died on June 16 from a gunshot wound to the torso. Both of the deaths have been ruled as homicides.<\/p>\n Lewis, who lived in Federal Way, and Wenner, who lived in Kent, were in a long-term relationship, said Gina Jaschke, Lewis’s aunt.<\/p>\n The couple had been dating for about eight years, said Jaschke, who described the two as good-hearted people “trying to make it in this world.” <\/p>\n Lewis, a mother of three sons and a daughter, had worked alongside her grandmother as a caregiver for developmentally disabled and hospice care patients at an adult family home in Kirkland. She had a big heart and had always sought to take care of others, her aunt said.<\/p>\n “She was just a sweetheart, a ray of sunshine,” said Jaschke, fondly recalling a memory of brushing Lewis’s hair when she was a toddler. “She always had a big smile.”<\/p>\n Wenner, nicknamed “Cash” by friends and family, was a “country boy” who loved the outdoors, fishing and swimming, Jaschke said. Wenner’s family asked to mourn in private.<\/p>\n The incident is still under active investigation by the Seattle Police Department.<\/p>\n “Right now I don’t think it’s sunken in for any of us,” Jaschke said. “It’ll never sink in for me. I’ll never have rest until somebody is held accountable for it.”<\/p>\n Each family is now living a nightmare, Jaschke said, the pain of Lewis’s family amplified by another recent loss — Lewis’s grandfather died on July 12.<\/p>\n