BELLEVUE, Wash. — Early Tuesday morning the Bellevue Police Department confirmed murder suspect Song Wang was arrested in Siskiyou County in Northern California.
According to Bellevue police, Wang killed 37-year-old Kittaporn Saosawatsri last Tuesday night, and then set fire to her unit at the Avalon Meydenbauer Apartments to cover up the murder. The King County medical examiner says she was stabbed at least 20 times.
Wang had been on the run ever since the March 31 murder.
According to charging papers for Wang, his victim’s residence inside Avalon was little more than a place where she provided massage and escort services. Police said Wang may have made contact with Saosawatsri though an online ad-- with the intention of robbing her.
During their investigation, Bellevue police found what they believed to be an ad by Saosawatsti on Backpage.com under the name Ciara. It was posted an hour before she was murdered. The phone number listed on the page is part of how police say they tracked down Wang.
According to court papers, Wang called the victim on that phone number before going to her apartment. The apartment was “sparsely furnished” with almost no personal items. Instead there were “6 bottles of lotion, condoms, and a tissue box” on the nightstand. The bed was set up like a “makeshift massage table.”
After the murder, police believe Wang stole valuables which he tried to pawn in Oregon while on the run. A California Department of Transportation worker noticed him sleeping in a Buick with Oregon plates at a rest stop just south of the Oregon-California line.
KIRO
