Why did he do it? Accused killer's neighbors left to wonder
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NORTH BEND, Wash. - A small community is left to cope with strong feelings - and lingering questions - after the dramatic conclusion of accused double murderer Peter Keller's bunker standoff on a Cascade mountainside.
SWAT officers found Keller dead of a self-inflicted gunshot to the head Saturday morning after surrounding the underground hideout on Rattlesnake Ridge he spent eight years secretly building.
The guns and ammo seized from his mountainside bunker are no longer a threat to anyone.
And now, neighbors in the small town of North Bend struggle with their emotions.
"Just a week ago there was a whole family living here - mother, father, teenage daughter looking forward to the rest of her life," says neighbor Tom Tucker.
Tucker lives next door to the Keller home, where investigators say 41-year-old survivalist Peter Keller killed his wife Lynnette and teenage daughter Kaylene before setting fire to the crime scene. He even killed the family pets.
"And now they're all gone - wiped off the face of the earth," Tucker says.
Kaylene's best friends must reconcile that they will probably never know why it all happened - or what was going through Peter Keller's mind as he painstakingly built his mountainside fortress over eight years then killed his family and torched his North Bend home.
"We wanted him to be alive so that he could ... answer for what he did, answer questions," says one friend.
Another friend, Mia Graves, says, "This man stole our comfort, our security and our ability to trust. He stole a piece us that can never be replaced."
Hikers can once again walk the trails of Rattlesnake Ridge. SWAT officers closed the area for nearly two days after surrounding Keller's camouflaged and well-fortified hideout.
King County Sheriff's Sgt. Peter Linde is one of the helicopter crewmen that dropped in the SWAT teams at the bunker site.
"If you didn't know it was there, you wouldn't have recognized it," he says.
Photographs found in Keller's home after they found his wife and daughter gave authorities an idea of where it was. In one picture that they enhanced, detectives could make out buildings in nearby North Bend. Combined with reports from alert hikers who remembered seeing his faded red pickup truck at the Rattlesnake Ridge trailhead, the sheriff's office sent experienced trackers to the area, where they found off-trail boot prints confirming their belief that he was somewhere on the ridge.
They could smell smoke from its woodstove before they found it.
Authorities pumped tear gas into the structure Friday, but it failed to flush Keller out, either because it didn't penetrate deep enough into the structure or because he was wearing a gas mask.
On Saturday morning, a SWAT team was able to maneuver in close enough to blow a section of the bunker's roof off with explosives. And that's when they found Keller dead inside in a pool of blood, with a handgun nearby.
Linde now marvels at the photos that reveal a split-level bunker made of logs and earth and stocked with enough firearms, ammo and provisions to withstand a lengthy standoff.
Deputies found at least 13 rifles and handguns, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, gun scopes, bullet-proof vests, binoculars, a portable generator, propane tanks, stove, food, gas mask and other supplies. The bunker had its own ventilation and plumbing system.
Despite all his preparations, Keller ended the standoff without ever taking a single shot at any of the deputies and SWAT officers who surrounded his mountainside fortress.
SWAT officers found Keller dead of a self-inflicted gunshot to the head Saturday morning after surrounding the underground hideout on Rattlesnake Ridge he spent eight years secretly building.
The guns and ammo seized from his mountainside bunker are no longer a threat to anyone.
And now, neighbors in the small town of North Bend struggle with their emotions.
"Just a week ago there was a whole family living here - mother, father, teenage daughter looking forward to the rest of her life," says neighbor Tom Tucker.
Tucker lives next door to the Keller home, where investigators say 41-year-old survivalist Peter Keller killed his wife Lynnette and teenage daughter Kaylene before setting fire to the crime scene. He even killed the family pets.
"And now they're all gone - wiped off the face of the earth," Tucker says.
Kaylene's best friends must reconcile that they will probably never know why it all happened - or what was going through Peter Keller's mind as he painstakingly built his mountainside fortress over eight years then killed his family and torched his North Bend home.
"We wanted him to be alive so that he could ... answer for what he did, answer questions," says one friend.
Another friend, Mia Graves, says, "This man stole our comfort, our security and our ability to trust. He stole a piece us that can never be replaced."
Hikers can once again walk the trails of Rattlesnake Ridge. SWAT officers closed the area for nearly two days after surrounding Keller's camouflaged and well-fortified hideout.
King County Sheriff's Sgt. Peter Linde is one of the helicopter crewmen that dropped in the SWAT teams at the bunker site.
"If you didn't know it was there, you wouldn't have recognized it," he says.
Photographs found in Keller's home after they found his wife and daughter gave authorities an idea of where it was. In one picture that they enhanced, detectives could make out buildings in nearby North Bend. Combined with reports from alert hikers who remembered seeing his faded red pickup truck at the Rattlesnake Ridge trailhead, the sheriff's office sent experienced trackers to the area, where they found off-trail boot prints confirming their belief that he was somewhere on the ridge.
They could smell smoke from its woodstove before they found it.
Authorities pumped tear gas into the structure Friday, but it failed to flush Keller out, either because it didn't penetrate deep enough into the structure or because he was wearing a gas mask.
On Saturday morning, a SWAT team was able to maneuver in close enough to blow a section of the bunker's roof off with explosives. And that's when they found Keller dead inside in a pool of blood, with a handgun nearby.
Linde now marvels at the photos that reveal a split-level bunker made of logs and earth and stocked with enough firearms, ammo and provisions to withstand a lengthy standoff.
Deputies found at least 13 rifles and handguns, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, gun scopes, bullet-proof vests, binoculars, a portable generator, propane tanks, stove, food, gas mask and other supplies. The bunker had its own ventilation and plumbing system.
Despite all his preparations, Keller ended the standoff without ever taking a single shot at any of the deputies and SWAT officers who surrounded his mountainside fortress.
