First-responders could not save a woman who was still breathing despite being hit multiple times over the head with a 3-foot long steel pipe Sept. 16.
Kristine Margaret Marander, 60, of North Kitsap died, and Matthew Earl Allen, 61, of Bremerton was charged Sept. 17 in Kitsap County Superior Court with suspicion of premeditated first-degree murder. Bail was $1 million. He faces life in prison and a $50,000 fine.
Allen allegedly admitted what he had done to a witness and numerous first responders.
Court records show Kitsap deputies responded Sept. 16 at 8:41 a.m. to 2448 Northlake Way in Bremerton. The caller said the suspect, later identified as Allen, allegedly was beating a woman, later identified as Marander, with a steel pipe. The caller alleged Allen told him, “I’m sorry I had to kill her.”
The witness said he’d known the victim for a few months. He saw her the night before at the Clearwater Casino in Suquamish. They eventually left the casino together. After a couple of stops in Bremerton Marander directed the witness to the Northlake Way residence to get her cell phone. He had never been there and did not know the suspect.
Shortly after arriving, Allen came from near the front of the house with a large pipe. The witness alleged the suspect hit the car twice with the pipe that was 3 feet long and 2 inches in diameter. Marander got out of the car, and Allen allegedly hit her a couple of times in the head, then hit the car a time or two, and then continued to hit the woman as she dropped to the ground. The witness took off in the car with Allen chasing him.
Deputies arrived and told Allen to drop the pipe as a service pistol was pointed at him. He complied. Another deputy had a rifle pointed at the ground near Allen.
The witness was in his car, distraught and crying loudly.
Another deputy’s report said Marander was lying on the ground in a pool of blood, unconscious but still breathing. Allen said, “I know her…she’s a really bad person.”
Another deputy alleged Allen told him he had made a mistake, but she was high on drugs, she came swooping in on him, and he needed help. He said he didn’t know her last name, just her first. He said he wasn’t going to let her continue to do what she was doing. He wasn’t going to let her keep living. “She had to go,” he allegedly said.
Another deputy said he started CPR on the woman. He allegedly heard Allen say, “I had her staying in my camper, until I found out what she was, then I had to kill her.”
At the hospital, a nurse heard Allen allegedly say, “I killed my girlfriend.”
Allen was taken to the Kitsap jail in Port Orchard.
A sheriff’s office Facebook post says medics from Central Kitsap Fire and Rescue transported Marander to a nearby landing zone to be airlifted to a trauma center, but she died on the way.
Northlake Way was closed most of the day as detectives processed the scene and interviewed witnesses.
Anyone with information is asked to call detective Erik Young at 360-337-5636 or detective Tim Flint at 360-337-7117 or email kcsodetectives@kitsap.gov.
