Suspect arrested in murder of 53-year-old killed while walking dog in Ravensdale

KING COUNTY, Wash. — The King County Sheriff’s Office has arrested a suspect linked to the murder of a 53-year-old man while walking his dog in late September.

The victim was previously identified as Nicholas Valison. His body was found on the side of a road in the Ravensdale area on Sept. 21. Nearly two months later on Wednesday, detectives arrested a 30-year-old suspect and booked him on murder charges as well as “other related offenses.”

According to court documents, Valison had reportedly confronted a group of people “who were possibly illegally dumping trash in the wooded area near that intersection.”

The group then allegedly assaulted Valison and left him lying in the grass with injuries to his head. Medics later responded to the scene but were unable to save him.

Valison’s loved ones remember him as a family man.

“(His wife) described him not as her better half, but her better 3/4. He and her just had the tightest relationship of any married couple I’ve ever seen,” neighbor Jesse Turner told KIRO 7 in September. “And you can imagine when someone that important personally and is part of the family is taken so senselessly and quickly, it creates a massive void and they are — they’re really struggling.”

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