Sammamish man was beaten to death with shovels

Editor's note: This story has been updated. An earlier version of this story had incorrect details about clothes mentioned in the investigation. Clothes put into the BMW after the homicide belonged to one of the suspects.  

Kevin Patterson, 20, and 18-year-old Christopher Shade have been charged with first-degree murder, first-degree robbery and theft of a motor vehicle in the murder of 57-year-old Richard Bergesen.

Officers arrested Patterson and Shade in a hotel in Abbotsford, British Columbia, Wednesday night, nearly 12 hours after police found Bergesen’s body in his Sammamish home where neighbors said Patterson had been living.

Police said the two had fled to Canada in Bergesen’s BMW after killing him and stealing his wallet, cash and credit cards. According to court documents, Bergesen was beaten to death with shovels and his hands and legs were bound.

"(Patterson) has said that if anything bad happened, he'd go to Canada because he has dual citizenship, and he said that multiple times a day," said Eric Hardy, who knows Patterson.

Bergesen met Patterson, who was homeless, at Overlake Christian Church in Redmond. Bergesen, who spent his life helping others, let Patterson stay with him for more than a year.

According to charging documents, the alleged motive for the murder was that Bergesen had made a "sexual move" on Patterson.

Documents include a confession Kevin Patterson made to a friend over the phone -- saying he bashed Bergesen's head with a shovel after rejecting the 57-year-old's sexual advances.

The shovel was found under Bergesen's body next to "heavily blood-stained sheets, covers and pillows,” the documents say.

According to the report, 18-year-old Christopher “CJ” Shade told detectives Patterson ordered him to take a shower and put his clothes in a bag. He said they then put the bag of Shade’s clothes in the victim’s BMW before leaving town.

When questioned by police, Patterson admits in the report that he did tie up Bergesen and take his wallet -- but claims he did it because Shade threatened him at knifepoint.

"If CJ was involved in that, he was a lot different person than I knew, but it doesn't surprise me. We don't know what goes through people's minds,” said Rick Gleason, a friend of CJ’s.

Gleason is a regular customer at the Issaquah McDonald's and says he would see Shade when he worked there.

He says he knew Shade was a drug user and runaway from Texas -- but Gleason says Shade never mentioned Kevin Patterson.

Court documents say the two had met just a day before through a mutual friend.

After the murder, police say Shade described how he and Patterson entered Canada by driving to Spokane, then going north on a dirt road and under a barbed wire fence until they reached Abbotsford, British Columbia.

A vehicle tracking system helped police arrest the duo near a hotel.

The men, who are in custody in Canada, will appear in court on Monday.

Bail for Shade and Patterson has been set at $2 million.

Other investigations, including whether the two illegally entered Canada, are ongoing.

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