Washington woman escapes being buried alive by husband: police

A Washington state woman escaped after her estranged husband allegedly kidnapped her from her home, stabbed her and buried her alive in the woods earlier this week, according to court documents.

Police responded to the Rossberg Street home of Young An, 42, on Sunday afternoon after a dispatcher answered a call and overheard “muffled screaming and sounds of a struggle,” the Lacey Police Department said in a statement. “There was just constant screaming, and it was unknown if it was medical or not,” according to court documents. The dispatcher also overheard banging and a barking dog – but then it got quiet.

An later told police she dialed 911 from her Apple watch after her hands were bound behind her back with duct tape, according to a probable cause statement obtained by Fox News Digital. She said he eventually smashed her watch with a hammer and dragged her out of the home.

Responding officers arrived at an empty house with the garage door open, according to police. The couple’s children turned up a few minutes later and told them that their parents had been there 30 minutes earlier. A friend also arrived and told police she had received an “emergency text notification” from An’s phone.

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An previously had a domestic violence protection order against her 53-year-old estranged husband, Chae An, according to authorities. Court records show the couple is in the middle of divorce proceedings. However, the order had been rescinded, and Chae An visited the house once a week to do laundry, according to court documents.

Police found “used duct tape” at the scene, however, and due to the circumstances, issued an endangered missing person alert to state law enforcement and an emergency blast to cellphones throughout Thurston and Pierce counties.

Detectives recovered video showing Chae An had left moments before police arrived.

Then, around 1 a.m. Monday, Young An reappeared, banging on a door on Stedman Road – about 7 miles away from her home – saying her ex was trying to kill her and begging the residents for help.

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They called police, and she told responding deputies that Chae An had driven her into the woods, placed a “heavy tree” over her and threw dirt over her. After waiting hours for a chance to escape, she told police that she clawed her way out of her bindings and the shallow hole, then stumbled through the woods for about a half-hour before she banged on a residential door and begged for help.

When police arrived, she was cowering behind a shed on the property, clearly in distress, according to investigators.

“When Young realized the deputy was law enforcement, she sprinted at them, screaming and crying for help,” according to the probable cause statement. “She grabbed onto the deputy frantically and said, ‘My husband is trying to kill me. Help me.”

She had “extensive” bruising all over her body, was covered in dirt and had duct tape hanging from her neck, face and ankles, according to the document. She had also been stabbed multiple times in the breasts.

The deputy secured the scene, and Young An told him her husband was still somewhere in the woods nearby. She was taken to a hospital.

After sunrise, a hiker saw the suspect’s vehicle parked nearby and called police – who arrested Chae An at the scene. Responding officers also found a fresh “grave type” hole in the woods with more duct tape inside. On it, they found some of Young An’s hair and the face of a broken Apple watch, according to the affidavit.

Chae An faces charges of attempted first-degree murder, first-degree domestic violence kidnapping and first-degree domestic violence assault. 

He is being held at the Thurston County Jail without bail, records show.

He is due in court on Oct. 27 for a firearms review hearing, and his arraignment is scheduled for Nov. 1.