Homeless convict who refused housing charged with murder of woman found dead in suitcase

Investigators allege a man killed a woman and kept her body inside a suitcase in a structure he built at a Seattle homeless encampment.

Prosecutors charged Steven Thanh Nguyen, 57, with one count of second-degree murder for killing Shannon Marie Reeder, according to charging documents filed in King County Superior Court on Wednesday.

“The defendant appears to have murdered the victim with an axe or other sharp object, stashed her body inside a suitcase for weeks, and abandoned the victim’s remains to be bulldozed by a cleaning crew,” Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Thomas O’Ban wrote in charging papers.