On November 17, 2007, 30-year-old Brian Mauck and his wife were found shot multiple times in their Graham, Washington, home. A friend arriving for a planned hunting trip looked through a window and saw a person motionless under a sheet, then called police. Investigators described a brutal, bloody scene; both bodies were in the living room covered with bed sheets and there were signs someone had tried to clean blood from the floor with a broom.

Neighbors were interviewed, including Daniel Tavares Jr., who initially described seeing two men flee in a red truck. A background check showed Tavares had been released from a Massachusetts prison after serving 16 years for the 1991 stabbing death of his mother. Forensic evidence at the Mauck residence tied him to the scene: a bloody palm print on a bedroom door jamb and footwear impressions in blood that matched him. Tavares later confessed, saying he went to collect a $50 debt, shot Brian in the back of the head, then shot Brian’s wife when she ran from a bedroom, and tried to clean the scene. His wife, Jennifer, pleaded guilty to rendering criminal assistance after helping dispose of the murder weapon. Tavares pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated first-degree murder and, to avoid the death penalty, was sentenced in February 2008 to life without parole.