Marysville man freed, no longer murder suspect

Carl Bustard stood outside his Marysville home the day after he got out of the Snohomish County jail.

"I didn't know anything about it," he said. "I was pretty shocked."

The allegations that he murdered 50-year-old Deborah Jeanneret were dropped. But he says it was surreal to be suspected of killing a dog groomer he never knew.

"I have an alibi," he said. "I was all with my in-laws in South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming."

His lawyer offered that alibi in court Wednesday. But Bustard said her pleas fell on deaf ears.

"I was hoping they'd just get it cleared up and move on," he said. "But they weren't going to let that go without having, you know, evidence of an alibi."

Instead, a judge found probable cause to keep him in jail along with Tammie Lewis, his former girlfriend.

Lewis told investigators a long, detailed story.  She said Bustard had stabbed Jeanneret, forced Lewis to help stuff her body in her bedroom and to help him clean up.  Bustard says he produced receipts to prove his innocence but it wasn't easy.

"Guilty until you proved yourself innocent?" he was asked.

"Yes," said Bustard "So that's the way I see it."

All of it is bewildering for the victim's son.

"I'm very confused and lost," said Chris Jeanneret. "I want to be angry at somebody. But at this time I'm holding it back because I want to be angry at the right person."

Tammie Lewis, the remaining suspect, used to live here, too.  She was charged late today with being an accomplice to the murder.  But so far no one is accused of the murder itself.

Cox Media Group