In the quiet community of Concrete, Washington, the life of a 36-year-old Caucasian woman named Michelle Stauffer came to a tragic and violent end on December 18, 2017. What began as an ordinary evening in her Cape Horn Drive home would unravel into a devastating murder-suicide, leaving a family shattered and a community in shock. The events of that night were set in motion by her domestic partner, 36-year-old Allen Vike Jr.
Inside their residence, in an act of brutal violence, Vike shot Michelle multiple times. The Skagit County Coroner's Office would later confirm that her death was a homicide resulting from these gunshot wounds. The horror of the situation was compounded by the presence of four children within the home. In a final, chilling act after ending Michelle's life, Vike instructed the children to run before he walked out into the driveway of their home and took his own life with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Responding to a report of a weapons offense with shots fired, deputies from the Skagit County Sheriff's Office arrived at the scene to a grim discovery. Michelle was found deceased inside the home, and Vike was found in the driveway. The four children, who had fled to a neighbor's house where the call to police was made, were physically unharmed but left to grapple with an unimaginable trauma. Investigators quickly determined the incident to be a murder-suicide, with Allen Vike Jr. identified as the sole suspect in Michelle's death, bringing a somber and final conclusion to the investigation as there were no outstanding suspects to pursue.
