Police Say Curtis Engeland, 74, was Catfished, Defrauded and Murdered by Man He Met On-line

Even in retirement, Curtis Engeland was at all times on the transfer.

The 74-year-old Mercer Island, Wash., resident saved energetic by doing CrossFit, mountain climbing and mountaineering, trekking up the Half Dome at Yosemite Nationwide Park final summer time and Mount St. Helens final fall.

“We did some strenuous climbs collectively,” Engeland’s shut pal and mountain climbing buddy, Richard Sater, 63, tells PEOPLE. “He was very, very match. He definitely took his health critically.”

The 2021 demise of Engeland’s companion of 41 years compelled him to rebuild his life, together with looking for companionship, Sater says.

In January, he advised Sater how he tried on-line courting and met a youthful man named Philip Brewer, 32, on a web site referred to as Scruff.

However the comfortable retirement years Engeland envisioned for himself resulted in tragedy when was discovered lifeless on March 7, 110 miles away from his residence in Grays Harbor County after being reported lacking on Feb. 24.

“It is horrible,” says his neighbor Laurie Goeken. “He was a youthful 74 with a few years forward of him nonetheless.”

Investigators quickly discovered that Engeland had allegedly been the goal of on-line criminals who met him on a courting web site solely to steal his id and drain his accounts, a possible trigger affidavit obtained by PEOPLE alleges.

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“It’s simply so unhappy as a result of he was simply one of the best,” says Engeland’s niece, Tara Mirante, 44. “He was enjoyable. He was simply so concerned with our children, desirous to know each bit about their lives and what they have been doing. When my youngsters have been residence from school, he would sit and have conversations with them for hours on the desk.”

A Probability Assembly On-line

Engleland’s ordeal started in January when he met Brewer on-line after which in particular person for espresso and for a hike, inviting him again to his residence on Jan. 13 to look at a film, the affidavit says.

Engeland mentioned he fell asleep and when he awoke, Brewer was gone — and so have been Engeland’s pockets, telephone and automotive keys.

He referred to as the police when he discovered that hundreds of {dollars} had been transferred out of his accounts, checking in with detectives in regards to the investigation every now and then, Sater says.

Six weeks later, Sater and Engeland’s relations acquired improperly worded texts purporting to be from him in the course of the evening, saying he was going to be away for the subsequent three to 6 weeks.

Realizing what a stickler Engeland was for correct grammar, his family members knew one thing was improper.

They grew to become additional alarmed when Engleland purportedly mentioned somebody named “Christina” could be renting out his basement. Once they could not attain Engleland, they referred to as the police and reported him lacking.

Utilizing telephone data and GPS, authorities discovered his stays at a dump web site close to Cosmopolis.

Within the ensuing murder investigation, detectives began wanting into Brewer and a lady named Christina Hardy, 47, who they discovered at Engeland’s home, the affidavit says.

They advised officers they have been renting Engeland’s basement and didn’t know the place he was, in accordance with the affidavit. 

Alleged Assault within the Darkish of Night time

After receiving a tip from a witness, authorities mentioned they imagine that Brewer and Hardy snuck into Engeland’s home in the course of the evening and after a “violent confrontation,” the affidavit alleges, injected him within the neck with a potent dose of fentanyl.

They drove greater than 100 miles to Cosmopolis with Engeland within the truck of his personal 2003 Camry, the affidavit alleges.

Once they arrived on the dump web site, they realized he was nonetheless alive. Consequently, “Hardy held him down whereas Brewer stabbed him within the neck with a knife,” the affidavit alleges.

The pair was arrested on March 14 in Southern California and pleaded responsible to expenses of  homicide, kidnapping and id theft.

They’re every being held on a $5 million bond in a King County jail.

As they await trial, Engeland’s family and friends are nonetheless coping with the aftermath of his brutal killing.

“We misplaced a extremely pretty human,” says Goeken, who remembers how Engeland would bake cookies and convey them over to her home and share tomatoes, peas and rhubarb along with her and her household. 

She nonetheless tends to the backyard he cherished a lot to honor his reminiscence.

“His daffodils are blooming,” she says, including that she couldn’t imagine somebody so beneficiant and caring got here to such a horrible finish.

“If it was simply over cash,” she says. “How is that price an individual’s life?”