Three Plead Not Guilty In 2017 Quadruple Murder In Washington State

PORT ORCHARD, Wash. (AP) – Three men accused of killing a Washington state family five years ago pleaded not guilty Tuesday, as detectives asserted the killings were about “drugs and money.”

The four members of the blended Careaga family were found executed in January 2017.

Authorities say 37-year-old Christale Careaga and two 16-year-old boys, Johnathon Higgins and Hunter Schaap, were discovered inside their burned-out home on the Kitsap Peninsula west of Seattle; and Christale’s husband, 43-year-old John Careaga, was found in his torched pickup truck at a tree farm two days later.

Detectives said John Careaga was involved in cocaine trafficking, and they believe a disagreement over the drugs is part of what led to the killings.