CHEHALIS – The son of a former state trooper who was found shot dead in his car on a forest road near Packwood four years ago has been charged with helping his father carry out his suicide plan.
Authorities believe Kenneth R. Varner planned with his father – James E. Varner of Olympia – to make the scene look like a homicide, so family members, including the son, could collect over $2 million in life insurance.
Lewis County Sheriff’s Office detectives investigated it as a suspicious death and would not say at the time if a gun was or was not found with the body.
James E. Varner
Charging documents filed late last month say a fisherman discovered it in Mayfield Lake near the bridge. The revolver was loaded, with one spent casing. The firearm belonged to the senior Varner and fired the bullet found in is body, investigators concluded.
Lewis County Prosecutor Michael Golden said his office believes the son retrieved the weapon from the scene and got rid of it.
Kenneth Varner, 33, is charged with promoting a suicide attempt, a felony with a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. He is also charged with conspiracy to commit theft in the first degree, with a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine.
Prosecutor Golden said they believe Kenneth Varner is in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico; his home for many years. A $100,000 warrant for his arrest was issued on May 26 when charges were filed in Lewis County Superior Court.
Kendra Varner, the widow of James Varner, doesn’t believe it.
There are too many things that don’t match up right, the Olympia nurse said earlier this week when she learned of the charges.
“This is what I think,” Kendra Varner said. “Jim would never, ever, ever supposedly commit suicide and have his son come and take the gun out.”
Because her husband worked in law enforcement, he knew how traumatic seeing a violent death scene could be and spoke of how he wished he could protect families from that, she said.
“Granted, in the last four years there are a lot of things I’ve learned about my husband I’d have never thought possible, but on this, I hold my conviction,” she said.
James Varner, 49, was reported by his wife as overdue home from a trip to East Lewis County on Feb. 1, 2006. The following morning about 10 a.m., he was found dead with a gunshot wound to his chest, inside his red 1996 Nissan, parked on Forest Road 20 not far from U.S. Highway 12. He was sitting in the passenger seat.
His wallet was found on the restroom floor at a rest area nearby with no cash in it, according to investigators.
The senior Varner worked for the state Department of Labor and Industries and before that, was a trooper, employed from 1979 until 1997 mostly in Western Washington.
Not long after his death, authorities revealed the father and son – and a third man – were being investigated in an insurance fraud scheme, with an attempt to collect some $60,000 from antique 1949 Chevrolet Woody station wagon that was falsely reported as stolen.
Charging documents suggest Kenneth Varner’s whereabouts after 4 p.m. on Feb. 1 can’t be accounted for and note that sheriff’s detectives discovered a handwritten list of his father’s insurance policies in the home in Rochester where Kenneth Varner was staying.
According to charging documents, Kenneth Varner submitted to a polygraph test in mid-February 2006, and the tester concluded the younger Varner answered deceptively to relevant questions, including, “Before your father’s car was found, did you already know he was shot?”
The 19-page affidavit of probable cause includes allegations the father facilitated bank transactions for his son’s business deals, which the son conducted under an alias.
While Kendra Varner says she never saw anything in her husband’s behavior that indicated he was going to kill himself, their daughter told a sheriff’s detective he had recently commented, “… the family would be better off without him because they would have money to take care of all their problems,” according to the charging documents.
The bulk of the more than $2.3 million in life insurance was acquired in the last 18 or so months of his life, according to charging documents.
According to the charging documents, about two weeks after the death, Kenneth Varner gave Kendra Varner – his step-mother – a large sealed envelope he said his father gave to him months earlier with instructions to give it to her if anything ever happened to him. Along with life insurance documents, bills and bank statements, it included a note written by James Varner apologizing to his wife about his debt, according to charging documents. Some of the bills were dated from January 2006, conflicting with Kenneth Varner’s contention he never opened the package, didn’t know what was inside and received it the previous November or December, according to charging documents.
Kenneth Varner is also wanted on a $25,000 warrant for two counts of first-degree theft related to some $7,000 from a bid to replace a roof of a business partner’s building in Centralia in 2006.
Golden said the he doesn’t believe the senior Varner would have killed himself, if he didn’t think it would lead to the insurance money for his family, and it wouldn’t have if his son hadn’t assisted.
Kendra Varner said she hasn’t seen her step-son since the end of 2006.
She was not entirely surprised by the charges against him, although she disagrees with law enforcement’s conclusions about what happened.
“Even if Jim did plan it, I don’t think he would have involved Kenny in it,” she said.
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