Double Homicide Suspect Arrested After Stand-Off in Jefferson County
Photo of John Scott Raczykowski from the Klickitat County Sheriff’s Office.
by Cole Goodwin
A suspect wanted for a double homicide in Klickitat County, Washington, was taken into custody early Sunday morning after a standoff with authorities in Jefferson County, Oregon. John Scott Raczykowski, a 29-year-old resident of Rufus, Oregon, was arrested after a short standoff with the Central Oregon Emergency Response Team (CERT).
According to the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office, deputies received information at approximately 12:30 a.m. on April 9, 2023, that Raczykowski was at an address off of SE McTaggart Road in Jefferson County. Raczykowski was considered armed and dangerous, and the CERT team was activated to assist in the operation.
After the CERT team arrived, they formulated an operations plan, and a short standoff ensued before the suspect was taken into custody. The Klickitat County Sheriff's Office was notified of the arrest, and detectives are continuing their investigation.
Booking details form Raczykowski’s arrest.
Raczykowski was wanted on two counts of murder in the first degree in the deaths of Elisha Ann King, 34, and Jeremy Allen Wyatt, 35. The investigation began on March 16, 2023, after the FBI Taskforce out of Yakima, Washington, alerted the Klickitat County Department of Emergency Management of a possible suspect involved in burning two bodies on the Yakama Nation Tribal Reservation in the Toppenish area. One of the suspects was believed to be in the Goldendale area.
On March 17, 2023, a traffic stop was conducted on a vehicle associated with one of the suspects in Goldendale. Two subjects were taken into custody, and Larry Duane Kleven, 57, has been charged with rendering criminal assistance in the first degree for the destruction of physical evidence. The investigation led authorities to identify two crime scenes: the homicide scene on Box Canyon Road north of Goldendale, where the two people were believed to have been murdered, and another crime scene located along Highway 97 on the Yakama Nation Tribal Reservation where the bodies of the deceased had been burned.
Agents from the FBI Seattle Office and FBI Yakima Office, as well as the Washington State Patrol Detective unit and Crime Scene Response Team, assisted in processing the crime scenes. The Sherman County Sheriff's Office, The Dalles Police Department SWAT Team, and the Mid-Columbia SWAT Team also assisted in the investigation.
