{"id":3091,"date":"2010-11-10T07:43:11","date_gmt":"2010-11-10T15:43:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lewiscountysirens.com\/?p=3091"},"modified":"2010-11-10T10:33:28","modified_gmt":"2010-11-10T18:33:28","slug":"breaking-news-renton-man-20-arrested-for-murder-of-austin-king","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/?p=3091","title":{"rendered":"Breaking news: Renton man, 20, arrested for murder in death of Austin King"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Sharyn\u00a0 L. Decker
\nLewis County Sirens news reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n

This news story was updated at 9:23 a.m.<\/em><\/p>\n

A 20-year-old man from Renton was arrested yesterday in connection with the death of the Morton teenager whose body was found off a logging road outside Morton a month after he disappeared from his home this summer.<\/p>\n

\"Austin<\/a>

Austin King<\/p><\/div>\n

Jack Arnold Silverthorne was was booked for first-degree murder, according to Lewis County Sheriff Steve Mansfield.<\/p>\n

Sixteen-year-old Austin King vanished from his family’s home in the Tilton River Mobile Home Park on June 23 and was the subject of a month-long search headed up by volunteers.<\/p>\n

His body was found some 10 miles from his home with the help of a psychic who suggested a road to check.<\/p>\n

The teenager was initially classified as a runaway and two or three weeks later relabeled as endangered-missing.<\/p>\n

Mansfield said sheriff’s detectives traveled to Silverthorne’s home in Renton yesterday and arrested him just before 3 p.m. without incident. He was booked into the jail at 7:50 p.m.<\/p>\n

This morning’s announcement is the first public statement from the sheriff’s office indicating they believed foul play was involved in Austin’s death.<\/p>\n

When the body was discovered, the sheriff’s office said there was no obvious indication of accident, suicide or foul play.<\/p>\n

Early last month, the Lewis County Coroner’s Office acknowledged they had determined it was a homicide, but would not divulge the cause of death. Neither the sheriff’s office nor elected Lewis County Coroner Terry Wilson this morning would disclose the cause of death.<\/p>\n

Mansfield this morning indicated detectives have had their eye on Silverthorne for quite a while.<\/p>\n

“We identified Silverthorne early in this investigation as a person of interest and later a suspect in the murder of Austin King,” Mansfield said.<\/p>\n

The sheriff’s office didn’t offer any details about a motive.<\/p>\n

A sheriff’s office spokesperson said Austin and Silverthorne were acquaintances who knew each other through an East Lewis County girl with whom Austin had a relationship.<\/p>\n

Sheriff’s Cmdr. Steve Aust said they did not know if Austin was killed in the place his body was found.<\/p>\n

The teenager was last seen by his mother Christy Harper at about 12:15 a.m. on June 23 when he said goodnight to her and went off to his detached bedroom outside of their mobile home with two buddies to watch television. He didn’t have a car, but his body was found some 10 miles from Morton.<\/p>\n

Mansfield said the sheriff’s office has had to be patient waiting for DNA tests and they wanted to make sure they had the evidence secured and a solid case before making an arrest.<\/p>\n

It took a forensic anthropologist in Seattle examining the remains until early last month to help determine the cause and manner of death.<\/p>\n

Silverthorne is scheduled to go before a Lewis County Superior Court\u00a0 judge this afternoon, and if he is charged or held for pending charges, the details of what makes him a suspect would be laid out in a document for a judge to review.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u2022\u2022<\/p>\n

To read previous coverage of Austin King’s case, see below:<\/p>\n

\u2022 “Breaking news: Morton teenager died by homicide, coroner’s office says” from Friday Oct. 8, 2010<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2022 “Breaking news: Morton area body confirmed as missing teenager Austin King, sheriff’s office says” from Friday Aug. 20, 2010<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2022 “Park filled with mourners for missing Morton teenager Austin King” from Saturday July 24, 2010<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2022 “News brief: Specialist to help examine body found near Morton” from Thursday July 22, 2010
\n<\/a>
\n\u2022 “Vigil for Morton teen still on; body found yesterday not identified” from Wednesday July 21, 2010<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2022 “News brief: Body of male found near logging road outside of Morton” from Tuesday July 20, 2010<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2022 “News brief: Sheriff’ office seeks tips to find missing teen” from Thursday July 1, 2010<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2022 “Morton teenager remains missing” from Thursday July 1, 2010<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2022 Also, Roy Stemman, a writer in the United Kingdom, published a story, “Psychic guides searchers to teens body<\/a>” in his Paranormal Review on July 27, 2010 after interviewing psychic Sonya Grace and Morton resident and search organizer Jennifer Mau, founder of the local chapter of Guardians of the Children.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sharyn\u00a0 L. Decker Lewis County Sirens news reporter This news story was updated at 9:23 a.m. A 20-year-old man from Renton was arrested yesterday in connection with the death of the Morton teenager whose body was found off a logging road outside Morton a month after he disappeared from his home this summer. Jack […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10],"class_list":["post-3091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-top-story","tag-by-sharyn-l-decker","tag-news-reporter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3091"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3091\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3095,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3091\/revisions\/3095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}