Governor Inslee cancels parole determination for triple murderer
May 20, 2022, 1:22 PM | Updated: 4:01 pm
Governor Jay Inslee has called parole for a man convicted of the infamous triple murder at the Barn Door Tavern in SeaTac. (Thomas Hawk via Flickr - tinyurl.com/Ha5h3wp)
(Thomas Hawk via Flickr - tinyurl.com/Ha5h3wp)
Governor Jay Inslee has cancelled the Indeterminate Sentence Review Board’s order that granted parole to Timothy Pauley. Pauley has been incarcerated by the Department of Corrections since his 1981 conviction for three counts of first degree murder.
Inslee cancelled the ISRB’s order after considerable deliberation and review of the case record. Inslee wrote in his cancellation order that he is troubled by Pauley’s failure to “demonstrate both a full acceptance of his responsibility and remorse” and his failure to directly acknowledge or apologize to the victims and their families.
Pauley was sentenced to life in prison for murdering three people during a robbery at the Barn Door Tavern in SeaTac 42 years go. A state Sentence Review Board had originally decided the 63-year-old could be paroled this summer because he’s unlikely to re-offend.
Kelley Tarp was 13 when her father, Loran Dowell, and his coworker, Bob Pierre, were tied up in the walk-in cooler of SeaTac’s Barn Door Tavern in June 1980. While robbing the tavern of $1,500, Pauley and his accomplice, Scott C. Smith, also forced Tarp’s mother, Margaret, and tavern cook Sherri Beckham to strip naked. The women were then tortured, tied with electrical cord in the restroom, and left to hang.
Tarp’s mother and Beckham managed to survive after regaining consciousness by loosening the cords around their necks. When they emerged from the restroom, King County Sheriff’s detectives wrote in their investigation, the surviving women found a third woman – Pierre’s girlfriend, Linda Burford – dead from hanging. In the cooler, they discovered Dowell and Pierre dead.
The Tarp family joined The Dori Monson Show on KIRO Newsradio 97.3 FM today to discuss their reaction to Inslee’s announcement.
“We were both just shocked,” said an emotional Kelley, who received a call from her sister after hearing the news. “Finally, justice for our dad and for our mom. For Robert and for Linda and for Sherry. Yeah, we are beyond ecstatic about the decision in the news.”
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