A Washington state man is facing murder charges after allegedly stabbing his girlfriend to death and dismembering her body, leaving her remains in a north Seattle apartment. Willie James McCoo, 55, was arrested and charged in the gruesome killing of 31-year-old Kiara Sewell.
Seattle police officers responded to the scene on June 15 around 12:20 p.m., after receiving a report of a possible body inside an apartment in the 900 block of North 143rd Street. Upon arrival, officers discovered Sewell’s body showing “obvious signs of trauma,” according to a police report obtained by NBC affiliate KING.
Investigators say surveillance footage from the apartment building shows McCoo and Sewell entering and exiting together on June 8 and 9. After that, only McCoo is seen, often carrying large duffel bags and trash bags. A medical examiner determined Sewell likely died on June 10.
Seattle police executed a search warrant on McCoo’s storage locker and reportedly found a machete with an 18-inch blade and a hunting knife with an 11-inch blade—both believed to be connected to the crime.
“What in the world did she do that you could have done something like this?” Sewell’s grieving mother, Taneika Tigner, told ABC affiliate KOMO. “I want him to pay for what he did to my daughter; he needs to rot. He stabbed her in the face. The back of her neck is decapitated.”
McCoo was taken into custody Monday and is currently being held in the King County Correctional Facility on $4 million bail. This isn’t McCoo’s first violent offense. He was previously convicted of first-degree assault after a 2005 knife attack on a sleeping woman. Sentenced to more than 28 years in prison, McCoo had his sentence reduced after the Washington Supreme Court’s 2021 “Blake Decision” ruled the state’s drug possession law unconstitutional.
With nearly 10 drug-related convictions vacated, McCoo was resentenced to around 20 years and released from custody in late 2024 after serving nearly two decades. Sewell’s family is devastated and says the system failed them. “He’s lived on this earth for this long and hasn’t done anything but cause destruction,” her uncle, Sekou Forrester, told KING.
Sewell leaves behind four young children. A GoFundMe page set up in her memory urges loved ones to remember her spirit. “Kiara wouldn’t want her friends and family… to sit in sadness,” the post reads. “When you think of her, think about her beautiful smile, her wild and crazy stories, and her (off-key) singing.”