Mail.comPORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A man surrendered in Oregon after police say he killed his girlfriend, posted gruesome photos of her body and the crime scene online, and wrote that he wanted authorities to kill him.
David Kalac’s arrest Wednesday night nearly 200 miles from the crime scene in Washington state came after a daylong manhunt. He’s accused of killing Amber Lynn Coplin, whose teenage son heard the couple loudly arguing and then found his mother dead in their apartment.
Kalac, 33, texted a friend Tuesday morning to say he would read about Kalac in the news, then evaded police in the woman’s stolen car until he emerged from a wooded area and turned himself in to a passing police officer, authorities said.
Authorities confirmed the grisly online photos were of Coplin, 30, and the crime scene in Port Orchard, Washington, said Scott Wilson, a Kitsap County sheriff’s deputy. The images appeared on 4chan, an online bulletin board whose free-wheeling and anonymous nature has led to some of the Web’s darker moments. Earlier this year, hundreds of private pictures of nude celebrities were posted on the site.
Kalac is the sole suspect, so investigators believe he shared the photos, commented online about how the woman was killed and wrote of planning to be fatally shot by police, Wilson said. The suspect on Wednesday gave himself up to an officer patrolling the area around a transit center in Wilsonville, Oregon, about 20 miles south of Portland.
“He basically said, ‘I have a warrant for my arrest,'” Clackamas County sheriff’s Sgt. Nate Thompson said in a telephone interview. Kalac was cooperative but provided no details about how he got to Wilsonville, the spokesman said.
Kalac was charged with second-degree murder and was held in Portland on $2 million bail. Washington state detectives aim to interview him and pick up the slain woman’s car, a 2001 Ford Focus found Wednesday afternoon in Portland, about 160 miles south of the crime scene.
Wilson said he expected an autopsy of Coplin’s body to be conducted Thursday. Police say they found her in a bedroom Tuesday after her 13-year-old son discovered his mother dead that day. Near her head was her driver’s license with the word “dead” written on it. “Bad news” was written on blinds. And the words “she killed me first” were scrawled on a picture on the wall.
Coplin’s son told police that his mother and Kalac argued loudly Monday night, court records show. Witnesses also said they heard what sounded like a violent argument and loud thumping and banging noises coming from the apartment in the city west of Seattle across Puget Sound.
The teenager told police he thought his mom was sleeping in and Kalac was gone when he left the apartment Tuesday morning, court documents say. The boy came home from school and took a nap. When he woke up that afternoon, he noticed the car was missing, went to check on his mother and “found her unresponsive,” the deputy said.
At that point, the teen called his father — Coplin’s estranged husband. The man came over, saw the body about 3:30 p.m. Tuesday and called 911, Wilson said. The caller reported that Coplin’s face was bashed in, her car was missing and she was bloody and bruised, court documents show.
Wilson said Kalac took the woman’s car and made the three-hour drive to Portland, where a police officer spotted the vehicle about 1:15 a.m. Wednesday. The officer tried to stop the driver, but the car sped away. The chase was called off because the car was swerving into oncoming traffic.