Uso Gene Hale, 39, was killed after a meeting at a Mobil gas station in Federal Way, Washington, on November 11, 2021. Hale met with 24-year-old Robert Nelson III in Nelson’s car; the meeting was reportedly arranged so Hale could sell pills. A dispute erupted and Nelson shot Hale multiple times with a .45-caliber pistol. Witnesses heard shots and investigators found a bullet lodged in a station window.

Nelson drove away with Hale’s body and left it in a watery ditch near the 4600 block of South 352nd Street in unincorporated King County. Neighbors walking the next morning discovered the body on November 12. An autopsy found Hale had been shot at least seven times, including wounds to the cheek, chin, neck, thigh, arm and torso, and the death was ruled a homicide.

Charging documents linked the killing to an earlier incident in which Hale allegedly robbed Nelson of $1,500. Nelson was charged with first-degree murder and held on $2 million bail. Did anyone in the Federal Way or Kent area see Hale or Nelson at the gas station that night or have information about the alleged robbery?