Eight months after 57-year-old North Bend resident Lucinda Pieczatkowski was hit by a truck and killed on a dark road near Snoqualmie, King County prosectors have filed charges against the teenage suspect.
Senior deputy prosecuting attorney Amy Freedheim filed a count of felony hit and run Wednesday, Aug. 7, against Cody Joseph Eads, 19, of North Bend.
An arraignment is scheduled for Wednesday, August 21.
According to the prosecution’s case summary, King County Sheriff’s detectives believe Eads left a New Year’s party around 1:30 a.m. on January 1, 2013, and drove home on Stone Quarry Road outside Snoqualmie. There, he allegedly struck Pieczatkowski with his Ford F150 pickup without stopping or calling for help. Eads was 18 at the time.
Pieczatkowski died from catastrophic injuries, say charging papers. Her body was discovered in a ditch a few hours later.
The next day, charging papers state, the Eads family attorney contacted sheriff’s deputies, informing them that the truck involved in the crash was parked at the family home. The truck was impounded. Detectives believe it had damage consistent with striking a pedestrian and that debris found on the road matched the truck, court papers say.
Charging documents show how investigators spoke to Eads’ girlfriend and the parents who hosted the New Year’s Party over the following months to build their case. Detectives also tracked Eads’ cell phone, and allege that his movements put him at or near Stone Quarry Road early on January 1, according to the court papers.
According to media reports, Pieczatkowski, her boyfriend, her son and his girlfriend had been driving on Stone Quarry Road, after a night out, when an argument began. Pieczatkowski and her boyfriend got out of the car and began walking in opposite directions on the road. When the driver, Pieczatkowski’s boyfriend, returned to the car, he began driving around, looking for her. Unable to find her, the group went home. Her boyfriend returned, but, still unable to find her, contacted police, who discovered her body.
An autopsy report showed that Pieczatkowski died from blunt force to the head and torso.
