Holly Ann Grigsby was 24 and living in Portland, Oregon, when she and her boyfriend, David Joseph "Joey" Pedersen, were arrested in rural Yuba County, California, on October 5, 2011. In the ten days before, four people had been killed: Pedersen's father and stepmother in Everett, Washington, a 19-year-old from Lafayette, Oregon, and a 53-year-old man in Eureka, California. Federal prosecutors later described the killings as part of a white supremacist mission. When she was arrested, according to court documents cited by the Associated Press, Grigsby told officers that the two of them had been heading to Sacramento to "kill more Jews."
She was never tried. In March 2014 she pleaded guilty in federal court in Portland to a single racketeering count. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Oregon said the pattern of racketeering activity in that count included all four murders. On July 15, 2014, a federal judge sentenced her to life in prison without possibility of release, the sentence her plea agreement called for. Under the same agreement, she was not to face prosecution in the state courts of Oregon, Washington or California.
Little about Grigsby's early life has been reported. Federal prosecutors wrote in court papers that she had been a white supremacist "since her early teens," according to The Herald of Everett, and they argued at her sentencing that she had not been drawn into those beliefs by Pedersen.
She had a criminal record before the killings. The Appeal-Democrat of Marysville, California, and CBS News, citing the Associated Press, reported that she was sent to prison starting in 2006 on charges that included identity theft and unauthorized use of a vehicle, and that after finishing probation she was sentenced again in 2008 on identity theft charges and served two years. CBS News reported that her white supremacist views were known to other inmates at Oregon's women's prison, where she was written up for assault and for possessing contraband. Her father told the Associated Press that she was involved in the white supremacist movement and had a history of drug problems. She was married at the time of the killings to another man in Portland, who told the Associated Press that she was gullible and had been manipulated by Pedersen.
Pedersen, 31 in 2011, had spent most of his adult life in prison. The Appeal-Democrat reported that he was convicted of robbery in Marion County, Oregon, in 1997, at 16; that while serving that sentence he was convicted of making threats against a federal judge; and that less than a month after his release in January 2003 he was arrested for assaulting a police officer in Umatilla County, a case that kept him in custody for about seven more years, four of them in a federal prison in Colorado. The Herald reported that he was released in May 2011. The Associated Press, citing prosecutors, described him as the founder of a white supremacist prison gang who had talked to Grigsby about starting a revolution with a killing spree aimed at Jewish leaders.
The two met through mutual friends in June 2011, the Appeal-Democrat reported, and bonded over shared racial and political views. The Herald put their meeting about three months before the killings. In a jailhouse interview with the Appeal-Democrat after her arrest, Grigsby said of the relationship that "it wasn't planning to be crime partners or co-defendants."
David Jones Pedersen, known as Red, was 56. His brother told The Herald that Red was a former U.S. Marine and that his wife had helped him through hard times. He had been estranged from his son for years, and the two had appeared to be reconnecting shortly before the killings; his son called him "Pops."
Leslie Mae Pedersen, known as Dee Dee, was 69. The Herald described her as an Everett grandmother and the mother of two daughters, a kind and strong woman whose daughters valued the refuge she gave them, whose nieces sought her advice and who brightened when she talked about her grandchildren. One of her nieces told the court in 2012 that her aunt "always led by kind example." Her brother-in-law told The Herald that she "had to be a special person."
In September 2011, Leslie Pedersen's two daughters met Joey Pedersen and Grigsby for the only time, at a gathering at the Everett home. Joey Pedersen was friendly. Grigsby sat apart from the other women, said little about herself and avoided eye contact, the daughters told The Herald. "In hindsight, Joey was just too polite," one of them said.
Both of the Everett victims were killed on September 26, 2011, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office and the Associated Press. Red Pedersen was shot. Leslie Pedersen was stabbed to death, and she was found dead in Everett on September 28, the day the manhunt began.
Prosecutors alleged that Grigsby killed Leslie Pedersen. Court papers described by The Herald said Joey Pedersen had told people he could not bring himself to harm a woman and had asked Grigsby to do it. After her arrest, Grigsby told investigators in a five-hour interview that she had killed Leslie Pedersen, The Herald and CBS News reported. At her plea hearing in 2014, asked directly by the judge whether she had done so, she answered "No." She and her lawyer continued to deny it at sentencing.
The couple gave investigators and reporters a motive for the Everett killings. Grigsby told investigators that Pedersen planned to kill his father over allegations of abuse within the family many years earlier, and she told a prosecutor that Leslie Pedersen was killed because she had known of it and done nothing, according to an affidavit described by the Associated Press. Everett police said at the time that the allegations had not been confirmed. In 2012 the Snohomish County prosecutor, Mark Roe, said investigators had found evidence supporting them. Leslie Pedersen was not married to Red Pedersen then, and one of her daughters said in court that her mother was "completely innocent" and likely knew nothing of her husband's past.
The federal indictment also charged robbery, kidnapping, interstate transportation of Red Pedersen's stolen vehicle, and credit card fraud and identity theft involving both victims' cards. The couple drove Red Pedersen's Jeep south into Oregon. On October 8, Oregon authorities announced that a body had been found near Lebanon, Oregon, which was later confirmed to be Cody Myers.
Cody Faye Myers was 19 and lived in Lafayette, Oregon. The Herald described him as an Oregon college student and a devout Christian. CBS News reported that he had thought about going into the ministry and that he called his mother every day. On a Saturday at the start of October 2011, he set out for a jazz festival on the Oregon coast.
He did not come back. The U.S. Attorney's Office said he was carjacked and murdered to eliminate a witness; its 2012 indictment release gave the date as October 1, and its 2014 release placed the killing near Newport. He was shot. His car, a white 1999 Plymouth Breeze, was seen in Salem on the Sunday, when Grigsby allegedly tried to use a stolen credit card at a gas station, the Associated Press reported. CBS News reported that a store camera recorded the couple using Leslie Pedersen's stolen card. A body was found late on October 4 in the Willamette Valley, and Oregon State Police said the death was not accidental. Investigators confirmed it was Myers.
Grigsby told detectives that they killed Myers because they believed his surname was Jewish, according to court documents reported by the Associated Press. He was not Jewish.
Reginald Alan Clark was 53 and lived in Eureka, California. The Herald described him as a disabled man, and the Associated Press reported that he was Black. On October 3, 2011, according to the federal indictment, he was killed in Eureka. The U.S. Attorney's Office said he was carjacked and murdered so the couple could take another car and eliminate a witness. He was shot.
His death was discovered in Eureka on October 7, 2011, the Eureka Police Department said. By then the couple were already in custody. After interviewing them in jail, Eureka police said they would ask the Humboldt County District Attorney's Office for murder warrants for both. Pedersen later said in federal court that he and Grigsby had targeted Clark because he was Black, the Associated Press reported.
When Leslie Pedersen was found on September 28, Everett police began searching for the couple. Red Pedersen was reported missing, along with the family's black Jeep Patriot. Oregon State Police warned the public that they should be considered armed and dangerous. "We want to emphasize the public safety danger these two suspects pose in our community," Lt. Gregg Hastings of the Oregon State Police said on October 5. Investigators had received 29 tips by then.
Grigsby's appearance had changed: the Appeal-Democrat reported that her hair appeared to have been dyed from light brown to red.
Just after 1 p.m. on Wednesday, October 5, 2011, California Highway Patrol Officer Terry Uhrich noticed a white Plymouth pulled over on a rural road in Yuba County, north of Sacramento, with a woman standing beside it. He asked whether she needed help, and she said she was "just stretching." He drove on, then remembered a lookout bulletin for a similar car from Oregon. He turned around, checked the plates, found they were linked to a homicide, called for backup and followed the car for about two miles until it stopped. The couple surrendered without a struggle, and officers found a rifle and two handguns in the car.
Uhrich told CBS News the couple seemed calm, "like they knew it kind of was over." "It's a huge relief to all of us that our two suspects are in custody," Sgt. Robert Goetz of the Everett police told the Appeal-Democrat. A Yamhill County sheriff's captain called the week before a "vicious, vile reign of terror."
Both were booked into the Yuba County Jail and held without bail. They first pleaded not guilty in California to weapons possession and vehicle theft.
In jail in Marysville, both spoke to reporters. Pedersen told the Appeal-Democrat that he had killed his father over the family allegations. Grigsby told the paper, "I'm hoping the sacrifice we have made will open some people's eyes," and, "This is what I was born to do." Later, in letters to other white supremacists, she wrote that the killings would not individually advance white supremacy but could "light the spark" of a revolution, the Associated Press reported. The pair said their aim was to cleanse the country of Jewish and Zionist influence. Pedersen carried a pre-written press release that Grigsby said was to be used if they attacked Jewish religious and community centers in Portland.
The federal indictment said Pedersen had researched the names and addresses of Jewish organizations in Seattle, Portland and Sacramento to identify "potential targets for elimination," according to the Associated Press.
On October 11, 2011, at the Yuba County courthouse in Marysville, both agreed not to fight extradition to Washington. The Snohomish County prosecutor, Mark Roe, had charged them with aggravated murder in the deaths of Red and Leslie Pedersen. On October 19, in Everett, both pleaded not guilty. Oregon and California cases were expected to wait behind the Washington charges, the Associated Press reported, and the Lincoln County, Oregon, district attorney said he planned to prosecute the couple for Myers's death once the Washington case against Grigsby was resolved.
Pedersen's Washington case ended first. On March 12, 2012, he pleaded guilty in Snohomish County Superior Court to two counts of aggravated murder, and on March 16 Judge Linda Krese sentenced him to life in prison. Roe had decided not to seek the death penalty. He said a death sentence could be justified, but he did not believe a jury would agree unanimously on execution once it heard the evidence of Red Pedersen's past abuse. At that sentencing, Pedersen's sister, in a statement read by a victim advocate, called his actions vile and asked the court for no leniency. Grigsby, then 25, still faced the aggravated murder charge, and Roe had not said whether he would seek death against her.
On August 17, 2012, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Oregon, Amanda Marshall, announced a federal indictment of Pedersen and Grigsby. It charged them with racketeering under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, racketeering conspiracy, use of a firearm in a crime of violence causing death, kidnapping resulting in death, carjacking resulting in death, interstate transportation of stolen vehicles, aggravated identity theft and credit card fraud, and felon in possession of a firearm, with an allegation that Pedersen was an armed career criminal. Several of the counts carried a possible death sentence.
The indictment described a ten-day spree from Everett to Eureka. It alleged that the two had committed violence to promote a white supremacist movement whose aim was to "purify" and "preserve" the white race; that they targeted Jewish leaders, members of prominent Jewish organizations and others they called "Zionists"; that they meant to use the news media to publicize the movement and spark a revolution; that they robbed victims to finance the enterprise and get vehicles; and that they killed victims to eliminate witnesses. It listed four murders, each with kidnapping and robbery: Red Pedersen and Leslie Pedersen in Everett on September 26, 2011, Cody Myers on October 1, 2011, and Reginald Clark in Eureka on October 3, 2011. The FBI, the Oregon State Police and the Everett and Eureka police departments led the investigation. Grigsby was scheduled to be arraigned before a federal magistrate judge in Seattle.
On February 7, 2014, Marshall announced that Attorney General Eric Holder had decided not to seek the death penalty against either defendant. She said the process was confidential and had involved "a careful and detailed consideration of all the circumstances of this case." Trial was set for July 7, 2014, before U.S. District Judge Ancer L. Haggerty. By then Pedersen was representing himself, and Grigsby had two lawyers.
On Tuesday, March 11, 2014, Grigsby pleaded guilty in federal court in Portland to one racketeering count. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office said the count covered all the crimes alleged in the case. The plea agreement called for life in prison with no chance of release, and it provided that she would not be prosecuted in the state courts of Oregon, Washington or California.
In court she acknowledged her part in the conspiracy. When Judge Haggerty asked whether she had stabbed Leslie Pedersen, she said "No." Asked about Pedersen, she said, "I have nothing to say about Joey."
Pedersen changed his plea the next month. In April 2014 he pleaded guilty to two federal counts of carjacking resulting in death, one for Myers and one for Clark. His lawyer said he did so reluctantly. Under the deal he dropped motions asking the court to find the government had acted in bad faith, which followed reports that investigators had failed to share required information with the defense and that prosecutors had obtained recordings of his telephone calls that included defense strategy. The agreement also brought lighter sentences for a couple who had helped the pair in Oregon.
That couple were Corey Eugene Wyatt, of Springfield, Oregon, a mixed martial arts fighter, and his wife, Kimberly Scott Wyatt. Federal prosecutors said Corey Wyatt gave Pedersen a gun and helped dispose of a stolen vehicle. He pleaded guilty to federal charges, was convicted as an accessory after the fact and of transferring a firearm to a convicted felon, and on July 8, 2014, U.S. District Judge Garr M. King sentenced him to 100 months in prison. The U.S. Attorney's Office said he did not know the gun would later be used in the murders. Kimberly Scott Wyatt, also convicted as an accessory after the fact, received five years of probation on July 30, 2014. A third man, Bryce Woods, of Portland, was convicted of an attempted carjacking with Pedersen in September 2011.
Grigsby, 27, was sentenced on July 15, 2014, to life in prison without possibility of release. The U.S. Attorney's Office described her offense as "conducting and participating in a pattern of racketeering activity" that included all four murders, and noted that she had not been convicted or sentenced for any of the murders before.
Before the sentence she apologized to the friends and relatives of the victims. She said that explaining her drug addiction would sound like an excuse, "or make it feel like I'm rationalizing my own insane behavior." She did not renounce her beliefs. "My actions have further damaged the reputation of a movement misunderstood," she said. "I deeply regret this."
Relatives spoke. Leslie Pedersen's daughter said the killings were "beyond cruel" and reminded Grigsby that she had been welcomed into the family home: "I hugged you for God's sake." Joey Pedersen's sister told her that "animals are treated more humanely going to slaughter than your victims were."
On August 4, 2014, Judge Haggerty sentenced Pedersen to two concurrent terms of life without possibility of release for the deaths of Myers and Clark. He offered no apology. He said he could not sit idle while "Western identity is being destroyed by other cultures," and that he regretted being stopped by police before he could do more damage. "I offer no excuses because none are needed," he said, and called the hearing "rather anti-climactic," since he was already serving life in Washington. His sister, who spoke again, told the court he had shown no remorse and that she was glad he would no longer be able to use the courtroom and the press as a "personal soap box."
"Both of these misguided killers will spend the rest of their lives in prison," Marshall said in announcing the sentences.
Who killed Leslie Pedersen. Prosecutors alleged that Grigsby did, and Grigsby told investigators after her arrest that she had. At her plea hearing she denied it, and she and her lawyer kept denying it at sentencing. Her guilty plea was to a racketeering count whose pattern included the murder; she was not separately convicted of killing Leslie Pedersen in any court.
Influence and duress. Her husband told the Associated Press in 2011 that she had been manipulated by Pedersen. Federal prosecutors said she had held white supremacist beliefs since her early teens and was not drawn in by him.
The allegations against Red Pedersen. The couple's stated motive for the Everett killings rested on allegations about Red Pedersen's conduct within his family decades earlier. Everett police said in October 2011 that the allegations were unconfirmed; in 2012 the Snohomish County prosecutor said investigators had found evidence supporting them. No court tried those allegations, and Leslie Pedersen's family said she knew nothing of them.
Dates and details that differ between accounts. The arrest is dated October 5, 2011, by the California Highway Patrol's account and most reports, though at least one Associated Press report gave a later date. Reginald Clark's age was reported as 53 in most accounts and 54 in one, and his middle name appears as both Alan and Allen. Federal releases gave Red Pedersen's full name both as David Jones Pedersen and as David Joseph Pedersen. Reports place Cody Myers's killing near Newport, on the Oregon coast, though an early report named a different location in western Oregon. Grigsby's age was reported as 28 in one February 2014 report and 27 in others from the same year.
1997: David Joseph Pedersen, 16, is convicted of robbery in Marion County, Oregon.
2006: Grigsby begins serving prison time on charges including identity theft and unauthorized use of a vehicle.
2008: She is sentenced again on identity theft charges and serves two years.
May 2011: Pedersen is released from prison.
June 2011: Grigsby and Pedersen meet through mutual friends.
September 2011: Leslie Pedersen's daughters meet the couple at the family home in Everett.
September 26, 2011: Red Pedersen and Leslie Pedersen are killed in Everett, Washington.
September 28, 2011: Leslie Pedersen is found dead in Everett; the manhunt begins.
October 1, 2011: Cody Myers is killed in Oregon.
October 3, 2011: Reginald Clark is killed in Eureka, California.
October 4, 2011: A body later confirmed as Myers's is found in the Willamette Valley.
October 5, 2011: Grigsby and Pedersen are arrested in Yuba County, California.
October 7, 2011: Clark's body is found in Eureka.
October 8, 2011: Oregon authorities announce that a body has been found near Lebanon, Oregon.
October 11, 2011: Both waive extradition to Washington.
October 19, 2011: Both plead not guilty to aggravated murder in Everett.
March 12, 2012: Pedersen pleads guilty to two counts of aggravated murder in Snohomish County Superior Court.
March 16, 2012: Pedersen is sentenced to life in prison in Washington.
August 17, 2012: A federal indictment charging both with racketeering and other crimes is announced in Portland.
February 7, 2014: The Attorney General decides not to seek the death penalty.
March 11, 2014: Grigsby pleads guilty to one federal racketeering count.
April 2014: Pedersen pleads guilty to two counts of carjacking resulting in death.
July 8, 2014: Corey Wyatt is sentenced to 100 months.
July 15, 2014: Grigsby is sentenced to life without possibility of release.
July 30, 2014: Kimberly Scott Wyatt is sentenced to five years of probation.
August 4, 2014: Pedersen is sentenced to two concurrent life terms without release.