In the heart of downtown Vancouver, Washington, a friendly and outgoing fifty-eight-year-old White male named Bentley Brookes was a familiar face to many. As an employee at Pacific Bullion Precious Metals on Main Street, he was known for his gregarious nature and was a key figure in the camaraderie among local business owners. He was a husband who proudly displayed a photo of himself and his wife in the shop.
His life, however, came to a tragic and abrupt end on the morning of November 25, 2015.
That day, at approximately 11:50 a.m., police were called to the precious metals shop with a report of a deceased male inside. There, they discovered the body of Bentley Brookes. An investigation by the Vancouver Police Department's Major Crimes Unit soon revealed that he had died from a gunshot wound, and his death was ruled a homicide. The community was left in shock, and those who knew him mourned the loss of a man described as successful, smart, and fun.
The investigation quickly gained momentum as detectives reviewed surveillance footage from the shop. The video captured the harrowing moments of the robbery and murder, revealing a female suspect. This woman, later identified as eighteen-year-old Ailiana Siufanua of Des Moines, was seen shooting Brookes before hastily emptying display cases of coins and other valuables into a bag and taking cash from a drawer. The Vancouver Police Department released images of the suspect to the public, asking for assistance in identifying the woman they considered armed and dangerous.
Five days after the murder, the investigation took a dramatic turn in California. A California Highway Patrol officer spotted a stolen Honda Civic being driven by Siufanua's twenty-five-year-old boyfriend, Thomas Phillip Leae. A high-speed pursuit ensued for forty miles on Interstate 5 in Glenn County. The chase ended when the stolen car veered off the road and crashed into a tree. Ailiana Siufanua died in the collision. Thomas Leae survived with a broken leg and was taken into custody. While the gun used in the shooting was not recovered from the crash scene, authorities found items taken from the precious metals shop. Leae was subsequently charged with first-degree murder, first-degree robbery, and rendering criminal assistance for his role as the getaway driver. During his trial, the prosecution presented circumstantial evidence and witness testimony, including from a motel clerk who noted Leae had blood on his hand the day after the murder, to argue that he was an active accomplice in the deadly robbery.
