San Juan County Coroner Randall K. Gaylord provided the following additional information regarding the two deaths aboard the powerboat “Moon Angel.”
On Wednesday August 12, at approximately 1:45 p.m., the U.S. Coast Guard found a man and woman dead aboard a 36-foot powerboat named “Moon Angel.” The boat was brought to Friday Harbor and the bodies of a man and woman were taken to the Snohomish County medical examiner for a thorough examination.
The dead man is identified as Albert C. Beutler, age 39, of Bellevue, Washington. Beutler died of a single gunshot wound to the head. The manner of death is suicide.
The woman is Rhan Rha, 39, a Korean national living in Sammamish, Washington. Mr. Gaylord said that his office notified the Korean Consulate in Seattle and arranged for notification of her mother in Seoul, Korea. Ms. Rha died of asphyxiation due to strangulation. The manner of death is homicide.
The coroner’s office is working with officers from the Coast Guard and detectives from the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office and Bellevue Police Department to determine the time, place and circumstances that Ms. Rha died. “Based upon what we know, Ms. Rha died before the boat came to San Juan County,” said Gaylord.
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