Sumner Man Charged In Killing Of Parents: Police

SUMNER, WA — A Pierce County man has been charged with two counts of first degree murder, accused of a brutal and deadly attack on his parents over the weekend.

Probable cause documents filed in Pierce County Superior Court Tuesday accuse 29-year-old Zachary Rorvik of a premeditated attack using "knives, scissors, a machete, a drill, a wheel chock and a tree branch to assault and kill his parents."

According to investigators, Rorvik broke into his parents home in unincorporated Sumner around 9:30 a.m. Sunday. Investigators say he later told them he had first come to the house around midnight, but had waited around on the back porch for hours because he was nervous and "pretty sure he was going to kill them."

Court documents say that after Rorvik broke in, he was confronted by his mother, but stabbed her in the head and stomach with a large serrated knife. Once he believed she was dead, Rorvik then attacked his father, stabbing him several times as well, the documents say. The father survived the initial assault and ran to the yard, where Rorvik continued to attack him with a branch and machete, the documents say.

At that point, a neighbor saw what was happening and dialed 911. The neighbor briefly held Rorvik at gunpoint, and even fired a warning shot from his pistol, but by the time deputies arrived Rorvik had escaped back into the home, the documents say. When deputies did arrive, they say they found him covered in blood, but that he otherwise was arrested without incident.

Police say during an interview, Rorvik told them he had killed his parents for kicking him out of the house two years prior. Police also interviewed two of the victim's daughters, who reportedly told officers that Rorvik had been kicked out for violent behavior, and that he had been previously diagnosed with schizophrenia and often exhibited delusional and paranoid behavior which had landed him in jail several times.

Following his arrest, he received medical treatment for a cut to his head, and has since been booked into the Pierce County Jail, where he is being held without bail.