Son arrested for strangling and smothering mother in Renton home, police say

A Renton man was arrested and charged with first-degree murder Thursday for allegedly killing his mother in her home.

Sean Preston Lowe, 34, initially called 911 Tuesday morning just after 2 a.m. to report his mother’s death. He told responding officers he suffered from a seizure and woke up to find his mom dead.

But an autopsy revealed his mother, Leda Louise Files, 62, was “forcefully smothered” and strangled, a prosecutor wrote in court documents obtained by MyNorthwest.

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“The autopsy revealed that Leda Louise Files’ hyoid bone, sternum and ribs had been fractured and that her labial frenulum (the small piece of connective tissue between the lips and gum) was torn, which indicates that she was likely forcefully smothered in addition to manually strangled,” the court documents read.

The medical examiner determined the manner of death was homicide.

Court documents also found Lowe, despite sounding “extremely calm” on the initial 911 call reporting his mother’s death, exhibiting “strange” behavior when he was brought in for questioning, something noted by multiple patrol officers. They believed his behavior could be due to mental illness or intoxication via drugs. Drug paraphernalia was later recovered at the crime scene.

After Lowe was transported to the Valley Medical Center to complete the phlebotomy request for toxicology, Detective Hurst stood next to Lowe and after a period of silence, Lowe said, “I killed my mother.”

A search warrant was authorized, with investigators looking into his phone, finding a 15-minute video with what they believed to be Sean recording his mother.

“Files is telling Lowe to leave her alone. Lowe tells Files that he knows when she is going to die. He makes a comment that Files’ ‘is imminent,’ court documents stated regarding the content of the obtained video. “Files keeps telling Lowe to leave her alone. Files says that if Lowe is not going to leave her alone, she is going to leave. Files repeats that she wants Lowe to leave her alone. Files says she does not want to talk to Lowe anymore … Files says, ‘I am being held hostage in my own home.’ When asked why he won’t leave, Lowe says to Files, ‘So I can say goodbye to you.'”

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Towards the end of the video, the man in the video said he is God, telling Files she is going to hell, according to the probable cause document.

Lowe has had previous run-ins with the law before this investigation. He has a history of arrests for narcotics possession in Wyoming, alongside a 2016 conviction for assaulting a police officer.

A judge set Lowe’s bail at $5 million, citing concerns that he is a risk to the community and likely to flee.

Frank Sumrall is a content editor at MyNorthwest and producer of the Seattle Seahawks podcast, The Reset with Gee Scott. You can read his stories here and you can email him here.