RECORD SOUTH WHIDBEY
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2011 | Vol. 87, No. 73 | WWW.SOUTHWHIDBEYRECORD.COM | 75¢
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INSIDE: Block party, Sports, A10
Documents show victim’s wife is suspect in murder
is where the hugs are
BY BRIAN KELLY South Whidbey Record
Rebecca Leisher / The Record
Jacob Mafuleni of the marimba band Mbira dzeMuninga hugs Simone White at the band’s farewell party. After a summer of teaching and touring the West Coast, Mafuleni and his three fellow musicians will return home to Zimbabwe this weekend.
Zimbabwean musicians say goodbye after another summer on South Whidbey BY REBECCA LEISHER South Whidbey Record
FREELAND — Americans’ freeflowing hugs startled musicians Jacob Mafuleni, Peacheson Ngoshi, Tonderai Ndava and Martha Thom when they arrived in the United States from Zimbabwe, but they were eager to open their arms Thursday evening. The members of the marimba band Mbira dzeMuninga bid farewell to Whidbey Island on Thursday evening after an almost four-month stay in the United States, where they’ve been touring throughout Washington, Oregon, California and Colorado. “We can travel around but we know that we have to go back home, meaning this place,” Mafuleni said one recent evening at the Rubatano paChitsuwa Marimba Center in
Langley. The return to Zimbabwe is a bittersweet goodbye to a place and people that have come to form a home away from home for the musicians. “I am very excited to go home, to see my children,” said Thom, who is married to Mafuleni. “But also I am very sad. We have so many wonderful friends here.” This was Thom’s first trip to the United States, but Mafuleni, Ngoshi and Ndava have already spent two summers here with Whidbey Island as their base. “This was our first place to come, Whidbey Island. That is our motherland in the states,” Ndava said. Mafuleni, Ngoshi and Ndava are “gwenyambiras” — master players of the mbira, a traditional Shona SEE GOODBYE, A20
Rebecca Leisher / The Record
Martha Thom, the newest addition to Mbira dzeMuninga, plays the hosho.
The wife of the Langley man who was murdered on the day after Christmas 2003 has been a suspect in the killing for more than six years. Two people have already been charged with firstdegree murder in the death of Russel Douglas: Peggy Sue Thomas, a friend and former co-worker of the victim’s wife; and James “Jim” Huden, a former boyfriend of Thomas who police have identified as the triggerman in the slaying. Island County authorities have not publicly named Brenna Douglas, the wife of the murdered man, as a suspect. According to documents obtained by the Record, however, which include a statement signed by Island County Prosecutor Greg Banks made during a civil lawsuit, detectives and the prosecutor’s office have identified Brenna Douglas as a suspect in the murder. Public records also allege that Douglas became a suspect because of the life insurance policies that covered her husband, her connection to Thomas, and that Douglas “did not exhibit great emotion when she was told by law enforcement of her husband’s death.” Russel Douglas had three life insurance policies when he died. His wife collected on one policy, but had to file lawsuits against two other insurance companies when the insurers delayed payment of the proceeds from the policies. Attempts to reach Brenna Douglas for comment through the attorneys who have represented her in the insurance lawsuits were unsuccessful.
In court records, Douglas has vigorously denied any involvement in her husRussel Douglas band’s death. Island County detectives claim Russel Douglas was lured to a remote property on Wahl Road by Thomas, who claimed she had a Christmas present for Douglas’ wife, where he was shot in the head by Huden. Documents indicate that the homicide investigation determined Douglas was last seen on the morning of Dec. 26, 2003 when he left the home where Brenna Douglas was living. Though the couple had split — they married in June 1994, but had separated, with Russel Douglas moving to Renton while Brenna Douglas stayed on Whidbey Island with their two children — Russel Douglas spent Christmas with his estranged wife. He was found dead Dec. 27, 2003, though investigators later estimated he had been shot about 1 p.m. the day before.
Police name wife Detectives concluded their homicide report nearly a year after the murder, and sent the referral to the prosecutor’s office on Dec. 21, 2004. The report — more than 3,500 written pages and a dozen compact discs — pointed to three suspects: Huden, Thomas and Brenna Douglas. In the months and years SEE SUSPECT, A6