Slain mother of 4 was pregnant

Cassandra Lynn Oliphant was newly pregnant and raising four young daughters on her own. The 33-year-old didn't get much work, and got by on state welfare, neighbors said. But she happily told friends last weekend about a potential new job as a cleaner.

She didn't get the chance to accept it.

Instead, while Oliphant was walking along a paved pathway to a state social-services office not far from her Bellevue apartment Monday, police say, an apparent stranger dragged her into blackberry bushes, sexually assaulted and strangled her.

The killing, which occurred just outside the Bellevue Community College (BCC) campus, near the busy Eastgate Park & Ride, was Bellevue's first criminal homicide in seven years.

Ignacio Aguilar Rosas, 29, who told police he moved to the area three weeks ago from California and was living in a car, was arrested after a Bellevue police officer found him lying nude atop Oliphant's partially clothed body, according to police documents.

On Monday, Rosas was booked into King County Jail on suspicion of second-degree murder. Bail was set yesterday at $2 million.

Rosas would be an "extreme danger to the community" if released, said Jina Kim, a King County deputy prosecutor. Prosecutors said they plan to file formal charges today or tomorrow.

Police said they had not found any previous connection between Rosas and Oliphant, but they were not certain Oliphant was a random victim.

Last night, nearly 70 people — mostly Oliphant's neighbors at Hidden Village Apartments — walked in a procession from the housing complex, through the college campus to the site where she was slain. They carried candles cradled in purple plastic cups and carnations in her memory.

At the site, many quietly sang "Amazing Grace."

"Lives have been changed by Cassandra, and we come together to remember her," said Dan Peterson, associate pastor of City Church, the church from which Oliphant and her children received food.

Hidden Village is a King County-run housing complex for low-income tenants six blocks north of the college campus. Oliphant and her daughters moved in several years ago, and her neighbors, many of them also single mothers, said they often saw Oliphant's girls playing outside.

Oliphant kept mostly to herself, but she always greeted her neighbors warmly, they said.

She was "an honest person who was trying to survive," said a neighbor who gave only her first name, Tae. She said residents at Hidden Village were devastated by the crime.

"I'm angry that [someone] would do this kind of thing to her."

A woman who answered the phone at the home of Oliphant's relatives in Renton declined to give her name. But she said, "I'm here with four grandchildren, and we're trying to make our life go on."

Oliphant took classes at BCC periodically beginning in the late 1980s but had not attended since last summer, said Bob Adams, a college spokesman.

Still, college officials sent an e-mail yesterday to faculty and student groups notifying them of the slaying and reminding them that security officers were available to escort people to their cars.

"We send our condolences and thoughts to the family and friends of the victim," Adams said.

According to police documents, Oliphant left her home at 8:42 a.m. Monday, bound for the state Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) offices on Southeast Eastgate Way, adjacent to the Eastgate Park & Ride. She walked across the BCC campus toward the paved path between the campus and the park-and-ride lot.

About 9:15 a.m. Monday, police documents allege, a man walking down the trail from BCC saw Rosas kneeling in the bushes. Rosas was not wearing a shirt and had a look of "fear and surprise," the documents say.

When the witness reached the park-and-ride lot, he found a security guard, who called police.

The Bellevue police officer arrived by 9:30 a.m. and found Rosas lying across Oliphant's body, the documents say. Rosas allegedly said, "We were attacked!" the documents say. Police allege Rosas then claimed the attack had occurred 12 hours before.

The court documents also allege that Rosas later told detectives that he had been walking to the DSHS office when two men beat him with sticks.

He allegedly told police the men also grabbed Oliphant when she walked by and then commanded Rosas to lie on top of her before the men fled. Rosas also allegedly told detectives he didn't know Oliphant.

Police said they found "trace evidence" on Oliphant's and Rosas' bodies that they expect will further connect him to the crime. They said they also found several tree branches that had been broken off and placed to conceal the crime scene.

Seattle Times staff reporter Nick Martin contributed to this report.

Ashley Bach: 206-464-2567 or abach@seattletimes.com