The Werewolf Butcher

Jack Owen Spillman III grew up around Tonasket in north-central Washington. In September 1994, when he was 24, nine-year-old Penny Davis disappeared near her family’s home in the Aeneas Valley, outside Tonasket in Okanogan County. Her remains were found in March 1995 in a shallow grave about 12 miles away. Spillman became a suspect, but there was not yet enough evidence to charge him.

By spring 1995 he had moved to the Wenatchee area. On the night of April 12, 1995, Rita Huffman, 48, and her 14-year-old daughter, Mandy, were killed in their East Wenatchee home. A black pickup like Spillman’s had been seen near the house that night, and a police officer stopped him in a nearby parking lot about two hours later. A 12-inch knife with apparent bloodstains, which seemed to match a set in the Huffmans’ kitchen, was later found in a trash can outside the same building. After two weeks of surveillance and lab work, Spillman was arrested and charged with two counts of aggravated first-degree murder.

Prosecutors intended to seek the death penalty. To avoid it, Spillman pleaded guilty in late April 1996 to the Huffman murders and to killing Penny, a charge filed only the day before. He received life without parole for Rita’s murder, 70 years for Mandy’s and 45½ years for Penny’s.