Meth use alleged at site of 3 homicides; $3.5 million bail set

Editor’s note: The following story originally appeared Jan. 27, 2019. It has been updated to correct the spelling of a last name. Information about the case is accurate as of the original published date.

PORT ANGELES — A Port Angeles man jailed last week on $3.5 million bail in connection with a Dec. 26 triple homicide was allegedly tangled with the victims in a web of drug-fueled violence, sex and methamphetamine use.

A seamy side of life on the North Olympic Peninsula that many never see was revealed in the allegations of a 39-page probable cause statement released Friday.

Dennis Marvin Bauer, 50, a commercial floor cleaner with a criminal record in Oklahoma, is accused of three counts of second-degree murder and one count of attempted murder, including the execution-style killing of Iverson Trucking Company owner and alleged drug dealer Darrell C. Iverson, 57, according to the probable cause statement released Friday (https://tinyurl.com/PDN-ProbableCause).

Clallam County Superior Court Judge Brian Coughenour set the $3.5 million bail on Friday, an amount that Sheriff Bill Benedict said Saturday is among the highest amounts, if not the highest, in the county’s history.

“I have no wish to be released, your honor,” Bauer told Coughenour in a video hearing from the courthouse basement jail.

Coughenour set a court hearing for 1 p.m. Tuesday for the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office to file formal charges against Bauer, whose arraignment is tentatively set for Feb. 8.

Iverson, his son, Jordan D. Iverson, 27, and Jordan Iverson’s girlfriend, Tiffany May, 26, were slain at Darrell Iverson’s 52 Bear Meadow Road residence, each shot multiple times, including once in the head.

Bauer’s alleged partner in the shootings, Kallie Ann Wade, 34, also known as Kallie Ann Letellier and Kallie Ann Buchanan, is being sought by authorities on suspicion of second-degree murder for allegedly killing May, according to the probable cause statement.

The three bodies were discovered New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day at the 4.8-acre, debris- and vehicle-riddled parcel.

Methamphetamine use was significant at the residence, according to the probable cause statement.

It was supplied by Darrell Iverson, traded for weapons and smoked and injected by people who visited and lived there, including Iverson, his son and his son’s girlfriend, according to the probable cause statement.

A former girlfriend of Bauer’s said that Iverson had stashes of $1,000 in cash “in each room” of Iverson’s home.

Their deaths had less to do with drugs or money than it did a woman, according to the report, which includes interviews with 11 associates of Darrell Iverson.

Bauer allegedly wanted to get back at Darrell Iverson for Iverson’s treatment of Wade, according to Ryan Warren Ward, Bauer’s nephew and a key part of the investigation, according to the probable cause statement.

Ward, 37, was arrested by county sheriff’s deputies at gunpoint Wednesday at the Lower Elwha Food and Fuel convenience store under a Snohomish County warrant on a charge of second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm.

Bauer was arrested Thursday.

“The whole issue was that Dennis had a beef with Darrell over keeping Kallie and holding her as a ‘pet,’” Sheriff’s Detective Josh Ley said in summarizing Ward’s interview with authorities.

“Regarding motive for the homicides, Ryan said the only motive he could of was how Darrell treated Kallie,” Ley said.

“Kallie told Dennis ‘about s—-,’ and Dennis got upset ‘and he starts being all big and bad ass like he’s gonna do something about it,’” Ward said, according to Ley.

Bauer, who does not have a criminal record in Washington state, was charged in 2005 with felony possession of a firearm, serving 90 days of a two-year sentence, according to the Stephens County, Okla., district attorney’s office.

He also received a year suspended sentence for misdemeanor domestic assault and battery on a 2005 charge, according to Stephens County records.

“The state’s concern is largely for community safety on multiple levels,” Michele Devlin, Clallam County chief deputy prosecuting attorney, told Coughenour before he set bail.

The probable cause statement indicates “how gruesome and brazen these acts were” and is replete with threats against people who know about the case and their families, Devlin said.

They include Ward, a 6-foot-1, 240-pound “enforcer” who carried two pistols and wore a trench coat with a sling for one of his two sawed-off shotguns, the statement said.

Ward said Bauer told stories of doing “hits for the Mexican Mafia,” according to the statement.

Ward was quoted as saying he listened in as Bauer and Wade talked in their room around Dec. 22 or Dec. 23, “spying” on them about a week after she moved there and a few days before the triple homicide.

“They talked about going up to teach Darrell a lesson, according to the interview with Ward contained in the probable cause statement.

He overheard them again on Dec. 26 talking about Bauer walking out of the Iversons’ house and shooting Iverson and his son while Wade and May were inside, the statement said.

“Dennis spoke of shooting both males and that he emptied the ‘clip,’” according to the statement.

Ward said he heard Wade say that May ran outside, that Wade followed her, then shot her; and that Bauer dragged May’s body into a shed on the property.

Ward heard Bauer say he lost a gun clip for his .22 rifle at the homicide scene.

Authorities said they found a .22 clip at the scene that appeared to have a 25-round capacity.

The homicides occurred between 5 a.m. and 9 a.m. Dec. 26, according to the probable cause statement.

The time was determined “through interviews of neighbors, a neighbor’s dash camera footage, a postal delivery, a visitor who employed Jordan for odd jobs, and cellular phone activity found in the phone on Jordan’s remains,” according to the statement.

The afternoon of New Year’s Eve, a family member of the Iversons discovered one of two bodies partially covered by a tarp in the driveway. They were the remains of Iverson and his son.

Both men were shot once in the head and multiple times in the upper torso, according to the statement, with .22 long rifle and a .22 Winchester Magnum Rimfire bullets.

May’s remains were found New Year’s Day in a locked shed, shot multiple times, including once in the head.

Sheds, RVs, log trucks, cargo trailers, passenger vehicle and “extreme clutter” was near and surrounding the house.

Multiple firearms, suspected methamphetamine, drug paraphernalia and indoor surveillance cameras were in the home.

Bauer told authorities he had visited the Iversons’ four or five times, the last of which was about Dec. 11.

Bauer said he traded tools and a pistol with Darrell Iverson for methamphetamine.

The attempted murder charge against Bauer grew out of a shooting incident around Dec. 2 involving Gabriel Oueilhe, Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Michele Devlin said.

It was related to the use of guns for Darrell Iverson as collateral for a $1,000 loan for drugs.

Bauer, Ward and a former girlfriend of Bauer’s drove Bauer’s van to “fetch” Oueilhe at the Deer Park rest stop east of Port Angeles at Darrell Iverson’s bidding after Oueilhe did not pay the loan in a timely fashion, according to the statement.

After Oueilhe got in the van and the woman said no one else was there, he looked in the back using his cellphone flashlight, saw Ward and Bauer, both of whom were armed, and fled, the statement said.

Bauer shot at him with a semi-automatic pistol and missed, his bullet ricocheting off Ward’s shotgun before striking the inside of the van, authorities said.

Anyone with information on Ward’s whereabouts is asked to contact Sheriff’s dispatch at 360-417-2459 or leave an anonymous tip at https://websrv7.clallam.net/cnmaster-c/nwformeml.php.

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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.