In the late summer of 2016, the life of 49-year-old Hispanic male Robert Dias was tragically cut short in a transient camp located in Kent, Washington. On August 13th, Dias was found shot to death, becoming the second victim in a double homicide that had begun the day before. His death was intertwined with the murder of 31-year-old Louisa Campos at the same location.
The grim events were set in motion by a seemingly minor dispute at a nearby gas station. Bradley T.
Shaw, a 30-year-old from Covington, became involved in an altercation with Campos after cutting in line. Fueled by anger, Shaw followed Campos back to the transient camp where he shot her. The following day, he returned to the scene and fatally shot Robert Dias, who had been a witness to Campos's murder. Both victims were killed with the same. 45-caliber handgun.
For a year, the case remained unsolved, leaving a cloud of uncertainty over the community. However, a crucial breakthrough came on the one-year anniversary of the killings. A tip from a witness, who had served in the military with Shaw, led investigators to the Covington man. The witness reported that Shaw had confessed to the murders in a phone call, providing details about the crime scene that had not been made public. This information, along with internet searches Shaw had conducted about extradition laws, pointed to his guilt.
Further investigation revealed that the murder weapon had been confiscated by Kent Police during a DUI arrest of Shaw in January 2017. Shaw himself had expressed anxiety to a friend that his DNA from the pending DUI case would link him to the double homicide. Following his arrest on August 12, 2017, Bradley T. Shaw was charged with two counts of first-degree murder. Despite pleading not guilty, a King County Superior Court jury convicted him on August 5, 2021. On September 24, 2021, Shaw was sentenced to 56 years in prison for the murders of Robert Dias and Louisa Campos, bringing a measure of closure to a case that had stemmed from a fleeting conflict and ended in senseless violence.
