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Teens linked to gruesome slaying

By Meghann M. Cuniff
Staff writers
March 25, 2008

A crime scene has been set up at 2617 E. Sharp Ave., where officers on Sunday found a 39-year-old man dead. The man's 16-year-old daughter and her boyfriend have confessed to killing him. (Thomas Clouse / The Spokesman-Review)

Dan Wortham’s daughter was his whole life. Friends say the 39-year-old Spokane man raised 16-year-old Jackie alone after her mother left when she was a young girl. Wortham spent the past few years trying to find help for the troubled teen.

When she ran away, he would comb the city looking for her.

"He would call in tears. ’What do I do? What would you do?" said Theresa Hale, a friend and neighbor. "He took each aspect of Jackie and unconditionally loved her."

Dan Wortham was killed Friday night in what police believe was a premeditated attack by Jackie Wortham and her 18-year-old boyfriend, Edmund D. Washington.

The teens confessed to the killing Monday afternoon and have been charged with first-degree murder, said Spokane police Lt. Dave McGovern.

Jackie Wortham was taken to her grandparents’ house by police Friday morning after being listed as a runaway Thursday.

Her grandparents dropped her off at her father’s, 2617 E. Sharp Ave., which was her primary residence, and she met up with Washington, whom friends say she’d been dating for less than two months.

The teens told police they waited in the house until Dan Wortham got home from his job Friday at Mr. Rooter Plumbing, then killed him using a baseball bat, sword and foot-long box wrench.

"Jackie admitted that she did hit her father once with a baseball bat during this fight," McGovern said. "They both hatched this plan."

Wortham’s injuries showed signs of a struggle, according to police.

Jackie told police she’s pregnant with Washington’s baby and that her father did not want her to have the child.

Friends and neighbors are skeptical of that, saying Jackie often lied about being pregnant or miscarrying. She also told police she wanted to be emancipated from her father but that he would not allow it.

"Every time she did runway he’d file a runway report and she was brought back home," McGovern said. "That upset her, too.”

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Police were contacted Sunday by Wortham’s parents, who were concerned because they hadn’t seen him since Friday. After trying unsuccessfully to reach him by phone Saturday, his parents went to the home Sunday afternoon and grew more worried when no one answered the door.

“They could hear music inside, but nobody would come to the door," McGovern said. The sound turned out to be Wortham’s television. Officers were called at about 4 p.m. and forced entry by kicking in the back door.

Inside, they found the man dead in a bedroom. Jackie and Washington were missing. Friends told police to consider them suspects. McGovern said police were already looking at family members — Wortham’s home was locked and only he and his daughter had the key.

Police found the teens Monday afternoon at a South Hill home on West 9th Avenue. Ashley Hale, 17, said she told police they were likely at the home, which is frequented by runaways and is known to the Lewis and Clark High School community. Jackie was enrolled at the Spokane school with Hale.

Friends say she didn’t have a drug problem, just "tremendous emotional problems," said friend and neighbor Joenisha Joseph, 23.

"She just had a lot of anger," Ashley Hale added.

Jackie ran away often, according to police and friends, once going as far as Georgia. She recently ran away to Seattle, and friends say she moved through boyfriends quickly and often lied about being pregnant. Jackie, her father and her grandparents met last week to discuss what to do with her, McGovern said.

Ashley Hale said she talked to Jackie last week, and that she seemed fine.

"She sounded like everything was going to go OK," Ashley Hale said.

Neighbor Debra Tallman first met Wortham last year.

She had heard he was upset about his daughter running away. She had heard from her daughter’s friends where Jackie might be and went to Wortham’s house to tell them. They remained in contact, mainly talking about their daughters and sharing parenting advice. He was constantly thinking about her, Tallman said.

"He lived for Jackie. He cried and cried for her. That was his priority,” Tallman said.

Tallman and other friends and neighbors held a candlelight vigil Monday evening in Wortham’s front yard to commemorate the man they described as hardworking and devoted to his daughter.

"It was an honor and a privilege to know such a genuinely nice person," said Theresa Hale, Ashley Hale’s mother. "It’s just sad that it’s those people who get taken from us so quickly.”

Staff writers Thomas Clouse and Sara Leaming contributed to this report.

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