Police in Longview, Washington, arrested Lucas Rasmussen, 36, of Longview earlier this week and charged him with the murder of a Longview woman, burglary and sexually violating his victim’s human remains, according to a March 3 report from the Associated Press shared by KVAL-TV. Detective Sgt. Chris Blanchard of the Cowlitz County Sheriff’s Office said that the victim’s roommate returned to her apartment on Sunday to find her roommate dead and Rasmussen in their apartment.
Rasmussen appeared in Cowlitz County Superior Court on Monday. The judge ordered that he be held without bail. Rasmussen did not enter any plea to the charges against him.
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In a probable-cause statement prepared by police in Longview, it was revealed that Rasmussen confessed to murdering 29-year-old Alisha McLeod, according to a report from The Seattle Times. Court papers also document that Rasmussen used a hammer to kill his victim, and that he sublet his victim’s duplex apartment to her and her roommate, identified as Hollie Erickson.
Erickson returned to her apartment on Sunday along with her boyfriend and his 13-year-old son. She went into her roommate’s bedroom where she discovered the victim under a blanket and lying on the floor surrounded by blood. Erickson told police that Rasmussen was acting strangely. Police say that both women knew Rasmussen well and added that Erickson did not feel threatened by the suspect when she walked into the gruesome scene in her apartment.
Police also said that Rasmussen is well known to local law enforcement and has a criminal history that includes convictions for drug offenses, criminal trespass, car prowling and malicious mischief. In 2014, Rasmussen “was arrested on suspicion of indecent exposure after he was seen masturbating while walking naked in the lobby of the Quality Inn & Suites near Sunday’s crime scene,” according to KVAL.
After confessing to killing McLeod, Rasmussen told police that although he’d thought about killing someone for a long time, that he hadn’t considered killing McLeod until about 10 minutes prior to the event. The Seattle Times quoted police as saying “Lucas said that Alisha was rude to people and needed to be taught a lesson. He decided to kill her because he did not think that anyone would miss her.”
Police say that Rasmussen chased his victim into her bedroom where he bludgeoned her face with a hammer and stomped on her chest. Rasmussen also confessed to touching McLeod’s remains sexually.
Results of McLeod’s autopsy have not yet been revealed. Rasmussen was scheduled to be back in court today.
