Spanaway man confesses to killing wife and daughter

Kristi Holmes was a 1989 Auburn High School graduate and Bonney Lake native

A Spanaway man told Pierce County authorities that he killed his wife and daughter Tuesday because of financial and marital issues.

Dean Holmes, 40, walked into the county jail in Tacoma early Wednesday and confessed to shooting his 41-year-old wife Kristi and 11-year-old daughter Violet, according to Capt. Ed Smith.

Deputies went to the home and found the bodies and left to get a search warrant before sifting it for  evidence.

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Kristi Holmes, nee Hamilton, grew up in Bonney Lake and graduated in 1989 from Auburn High School.

Detectives said that Holmes had been hiding financial issues from his wife and lying about a home he had said they were going to move into.

Holmes told investigators that he shot his wife while she slept early Tuesday, then woke up his daughter and a friend who had slept over at the house, authorities said.

Holmes drove both children in his car to drop off the daughter’s friend at her home in Auburn. After driving his daughter around, authorities say he pulled over and shot her.

“The suspect then drove to a fast food restaurant in Spanaway, purchased a meal for himself, then went home and placed his daughter’s body in bed with his wife’s body,” the sheriff’s office said.

After a few hours of cleaning the house and vehicle, Holmes turned himself in.

On Thursday, Holmes, a house painter, pleaded not guilty to two counts of aggravated murder with an enhancement for using a firearm.