The Clark County Sheriff’s Office released this photo of Brent W. Luyster. He is the suspect in a triple slaying in Woodland, and is being held in jail without bail.
The girlfriend of the suspect in the Woodland triple killing Friday evening, July 15, appeared in Clark County Superior Court on Friday on charges of first-degree rendering criminal assistance. She is being held on a $400,000 bail, with her next court appearance an arraignment on Aug. 1.
Andrea Sibley, 27, was caught along with the suspect, Brent W. Luyster, 35, in the mid-afternoon the day after the shootings at a primitive camping site at a gated pull-off on Abernathy Creek Road, off Ocean Beach Highway in Cowlitz County.
The car was spotted after a description of the Ford Explorer was widely reported by area media during the manhunt.
Luyster is facing three counts of first-degree murder, one count of attempted first-degree murder and one count of unlawful possession of a firearm in connection with the shooting deaths of Joseph Mark Lamar, 38, and Zachary David Thompson, 36, whose bodies were found outside the Woodland home located at 4006 NW 417th St., and Janell Renee Knight, 43, who was found dead inside the home.
Police were alerted to the shootings when they responded to a report of a woman who was shot in the face and then drove to an AM/PM on CC Street in Woodland around 10:30 p.m. She told deputies she had been shot at a home near Woodland. She remains hospitalized.
When deputies arrived at the campsite about 17 hours after the shooting, they “loud hailed” the car, according to court documents. Luyster came out of the woods and surrendered, unarmed. He had with him a fishing weight and cigarette lighter.
The girlfriend, Andrea Sibley, was also present. Their SUV was loaded with items that would allow for an extended stay outdoors.
Luyster declined answering any questions, following his Miranda Warning. He was then booked into jail without the possibility of bail.
Sibley said they had been living in Woodland for about two weeks, along with Luyster’s brother Michael Luyster and their mother Susie Dvork. Before that, Sibley and Brent Luyster had been living in Vancouver.
An agent with the FBI was investigating Brent Luyster and he was scheduled to be in federal court the Monday after the killings for unlawful possession of a firearm, in connection with a domestic violence dispute with a woman who was the mother of one of his children, who was in hiding from Luyster. She believed Luyster was going to find her and hurt or kill her, and take their child.
The mother of Luyster’s child believed he was facing a third strike “and that he would not go back to prison,” according to testimony in court documents.
Sibley denied knowing any details of the shootings, only that something bad had happened. An examination of the bottom of Sibley’s shoes, however, showed “reddish colored stains” that were consistent with the color of blood.
A search of Sibley’s purse found $500 in cash, along with a receipt of items from the Thriftway store in Ocean Park, dated about 10 a.m. Saturday, July 16.
Detectives then went to a storage unit belonging to Sibley, and found multiple firearms items, including drills and jigs to manufacture AR15 rifle lower receivers. Receipts and packaging materials showed that Sibley has purchased three semi-automatic handguns.
Luyster has a past history with area skinhead groups, and his extensive tattoos are filled with images from Nazi Germany. One tattoo across his stomach reads "skin head."
According to a May 2013 report from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), Luyster and two others were arrested that month by members of the Clark County Sheriff’s Office SWAT team in connection with a hate crime in March of 2013 in a Vancouver bar. The report states at least two of the brothers are known white supremacists. Arrested during that incident were Luyster, Robert Arlen Luyster and Donald H. McElfish.
The three were accused of attacking a 45-year-old black man at a bar in Rose Village. They were arrested on suspicion of punching, kicking, beating, and threatening to kill him while using racial slurs against the victim. They were each charged with second-degree felony assault and racially motivated malicious harassment, according to the ADL.
“The two Luyster brothers have a long history of white supremacy and criminal activity, dating back to at least 2000,” the ADL report states. “That summer, as racist skinheads, the two men (and two others) attacked an African-American man in a racially-motivated assault. They pleaded guilty to assault charges in 2001.”
In 2004 Brent W. Luyster was arrested again for a parole violation for associating with a white supremacist. A year later, in July of 2005, Brent W. Luyster and another white supremacist were arrested on allegations of malicious harassment, according to the ADL report.
Anther Luyster, named Brent D. Luyster and possibly the father of the Woodland killing suspect, in late 2004 briefly escaped from the Larch Corrections Center. He has “white pride” tattoos on his arms. Another incident, in early 2005 according to the ADL, a fourth Luyster, Michael Lee Luyster, was arrested for not having a valid driver’s license while taking a carload of white supremacists to a protest at a Portland community center.
