Washington Suspect in Wife’s Slaying Accused of Obstruction
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Joseph Devenney/Getty Images(SEATTLE) — A Washington state man has been named a suspect in his estranged wife’s slaying after police arrested him on an obstruction of justice charge because they said he failed to turn in his passport.
Police charged Alan Smith, 37, with obstructing an officer on Thursday in his Bothell, Wash., home after they were unable to find his passport and he failed to turn it over in the murder investigation.
Smith posted bond on Saturday and was released from Snohomish County Jail early Sunday morning.
He has pleaded not guilty to the obstruction charge and subsequently turned in his passport. Officials consider him a flight risk, but he has denied killing the woman.
ABC News was unable to reach him for comment.
Smith has long been a person of interest in his estranged wife’s death, but he has not been charged with a crime relating to her death.
Susann Smith was stabbed and bludgeoned to death in February in the home that Alan Smith now shares with his girlfriend. After the slaying, Alan moved back into the home.
“She was the love of my life for a while and the mother of my children, and my heart breaks,” Alan told ABC News affiliate KOMO-TV in a sit-down interview hours before he was arrested Thursday.
In court documents, detectives say Alan had been looking into plane tickets to Venezuela around the time of the killing and checking Google for phrases such as: “Will Venezuela extradite to the U.S.?”
Detectives say Alan had been purchasing “disposable coveralls and masking tape” from Home Depot around the same time of the slaying. The tools, detectives say, appear related to “planning, committing, cleaning up, hiding or attempting to destroy evidence.”
At the time of Susann’s death, the couple did not live with each other and were in a bitter custody dispute, according to court documents. Alan’s two children are in state custody.
It’s unclear when he is expected to return to court on the obstruction charge.
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