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Published February 07, 2007

Rape suspect lived in Watershed
Jeremy Pawloski

Jeremy Pawloski


OLYMPIA - A man who has been living in an underground shelter in Watershed Park off Galloway Street is in jail, accused of raping an 11-year-old girl at knifepoint in her home early Monday morning, police said.

David Lukas Lynch, 23, appeared to have been living in the refuge - outfitted with a woodstove, a lantern and sleeping bags - since December, when he left a rental home on Galloway Street that he had shared with roommates, police said. A knife "similar to the one described by the victim" was seized from Lynch's shelter, along with a bill in Lynch's name, Olympia Police Lt. Steve Oderman said.

Police also seized notebooks containing "personal writings" of Lynch's; Oderman would not elaborate on what was in the writings.

Olympia Police Officer Mike Hovda spotted Lynch while on patrol after midnight Tuesday, when he saw a man hiding near a church on Eskridge Boulevard, Oderman said. Lynch lacked facial hair but otherwise matched the girl's description of the man who woke her between 12:40 and 1:15 a.m. Monday and raped her, police said.

Hovda "just wanted to find out what he was doing at the church in the middle of the night," Oderman said.

Lynch voluntarily accompanied Hovda to police headquarters for an interview.

"After additional conversation with the subject, probable cause was developed to place the individual under arrest," said an OPD news release. Lynch no longer is cooperating with police, Olympia Police Cmdr. Tor Bjornstad said.

Lynch was held Tuesday night at Thurston County Jail on suspicion of first-degree rape of a child, burglary and assault.

One of the many foot trails near Lynch's underground home in Watershed Park leads to the neighborhood off Cain Road where the 11-year-old girl was raped, police said. Her residence is less than a mile from the underground home.

Police obtained a search warrant Tuesday to take hair and DNA samples from Lynch. Also, "DNA and perhaps hair from the suspect" was taken at the crime scene, Bjornstad said.

"We have probable cause to believe it's him," Oderman said. "We'll find out when we get DNA results back."

It's possible that at some point, the girl will be asked to identify her attacker from a photo array of suspects including Lynch, Oderman said.

Police found Lynch's underground home based on information from one of his former roommates on Galloway Street, Oderman said. His former residence was visible from the shelter.

Oderman described the shelter as wood-fortified and about 4 feet deep and 12 to 16 feet long.

"He's got some survival-skill knowledge. ... He built this," Oderman said.

It is illegal and considered trespassing to live on city property in Watershed Park, Oderman said.

Olympia Police have not had any prior contact with Lynch, and as far as they know, he has no criminal record, Bjornstad said.

Neighbors across from the shelter in Olympia's Wildwood neighborhood and near his former home on Galloway Street spoke Tuesday of late hours, loud music, fights and an overdose at Lynch's previous home.

Teri Clay-Poole, a former neighbor of Lynch's on Galloway, said that the house where Lynch used to live seemed to have a "revolving door" of transients living there.

Clay-Poole said that as the mother of a toddler daughter, she is angry that the landlord of the home across the street was not responsive to complaints from her and other neighbors.

Neighbors Marlene McGee and Hannah Knudsen, 16, backed Clay-Poole's accounts of neighbors complaining to the landlord.

Knudsen said that she recently had taken her dog on walks through the section of the park where Lynch lived.

"I'm horrified," she said, standing in front of her home Tuesday.

A phone call to the landlord of the residence where Lynch formerly lived went unreturned Tuesday.

Jeremy Pawloski covers public safety for The Olympian. He can be reached at 360-754-5465 or jpawloski@theolympian.com.

What's next

David Lukas Lynch, accused of raping an 11-year-old girl Monday, will have a preliminary appearance today in Thurston County Superior Court.

Hole in the woods

The underground shelter in Watershed Park that police say David Lukas Lynch lived in doesn't look any more comfortable than his new address at Thurston County Jail.

It isn't tall enough to stand upright in, but it does have some creature comforts, such as a woodstove near a sleeping bag and a window at one end of the sleeping area. A lantern was atop the stove, and copies of "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" and "Potatoes Not Prozac" were nearby.

A torn banner on the wood-reinforced wall read "Believe in Your Dreams."

Trash was piled outside the bunker's window. Another pile outside the bunker's entrance included toilet paper, scissors and a portable tape recorder. Police think Lynch had been living in the bunker since December.