The Careaga Family (Update)

There has been an update in the story of the Careaga family (episode #207 from just a few weeks ago). Yesterday, on 6 June 2022, authorities announced the arrest of three men associated with the Bandidos Motorcycle Club, charging them with the murders of Johnny Careaga, Christale Carreaga, Johnathan Higgins, and Hunter Schaap...

Hey everyone, it's Micheal.

Just a couple of weeks ago, I brought you the story of the Careaga family... a blended family that had lived in a forested region of Kitsap County, west of Port Orchard and Bremerton. There, 43-year-old Johnny Careaga and his wife, 37-year-old Christale, lived with their two 16-year-old sons, Hunter Schaap and Johnathan Higgins. Both entered the marriage with one son from prior relationships, and the four members had become a family during their time together.

Johnny and Christale operated a few businesses nearby, including a coffee stand, a taco shop, and a legal medical marijuana grow operation... the latter of which spawned many theories about what happened next.

On the vening of January 27th, 2017, Hunter Schaap called 911, pleading with the operator to send help, as both he and his family had been shot.

By the time that authorities arrived at the Careaga home minutes later, they found it engulfed in flames. Firefighters would work to extinguish the blaze, and inside, would discover three bodies - Christale, Johnathan, and Hunter - but the body of family patriarch Johnny Carreaga was missing.

Days later, the body of Johnny was found on a remote road in North Mason County. There, on an isolated road on a tree farm, his body had been left inside of his truck, which had also been burned.

While police have been circling around persons-of-interest in the five-plus years since this crime occured - including a member of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club named Danie Kelly Jr. - no one was ever officially named a suspect or charged with involved in the crime.

At least, until yesterday - June 6th, 2022 - when three men were officially charged in connection with the quadruple murder of the Careaga family.

On Monday, approximately 70 police officers in multiple counties executed a plan that had been weeks in the making: the arrest of three separate suspects in different parts of the state.

These suspects were:

- 43-year-old Danie Jay Kelly Jr. from Bremerton

- 49-year-old Johnny James Watson from Bremerton

- 50-year-old Robert James Watson from Gig Harbor

According to the Kitsap County Sheriff's Office, these three men were booked into local jail, and charged with a grand total of 16 felonies each, which - according to KOMO News - ranged from first-degree aggravated murder, first-degree murder, first-degree arson, and first-degree burglary. Bail for each was set at $20 million, and each arrived in court today - Tuesday morning - to plead not guilty.

As reported by Kitsap County Sheriff's Lt. Ken Dickinson:

"Two of the three people we've arrested today are associated with the Bandidos Motorcycle Club. We've been working very hard and these are the types of people we need to get off the street."

According to statements made by police yesterday, it seems like Johnny Careaga had been involved in the transporation and distribution of cocaine for some time, having made multiple trips down to California; during which, he was reported to have returned with a kilo of the white powder, which he would then distribute to associates in Kitsap County. This had reportedly brought him into contact with the Bandidos Motorcycle Club; primarily Robert James Watson, the leader of a local chapter, to whom one of Johnny's associates began directly selling cocaine to.

As reported in my original episode, Danie J. Kelly Jr. was one of the first persons-of-interest identified by police. An old close friend of Johnny's, the two had many ties to one another... Danie had been Johnny's best man at his first wedding, and the home the Careagas lived in had originally belonged to Danie's family. However, some time before the murders, the two had had a falling out, reportedly related to Danie stealing money from Johnny.

Eventually, when Johnny started selling cocaine in Kitsap County, he came into contact with other members of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club. At the time, Danie J. Kelly Jr. was in the process of joining said club.

On the night of the murders, the Careaga family had some friends over, but at some point that evening, Johnny had received a phone call prompting him to leave quickly. He ended up driving to the parking lot of a nearby grocery store, where surveillance images found him parked next to another vehicle for a few moments before driving off. At around this time, it's believed, the friends that the family had over had left.

Before Johnny could make it back home, police allege that the three men charged with the family's deaths arrived at the Careaga home and began shooting. In quick succession, they reportedly killed Johnny's wife Christale, then her son Johnathan Higgins, and then finally Johnny's son, Hunter Schaap. Hunter, it's believed, was walking inside with a pizza at the time the men arrived, and was shot by the three men in the family's driveway and left for dead. When the gunmen were inside - supposedly looking for money - it's believed that Hunter made his panicked phone call to 911. The call ended rather-abruptly, leading investigators to believe that the gunmen either ended the call or destroyed Hunter's cell phone, before shooting him a third time... this time, in the head.

They then reportedly started fires on opposite ends of the home, using fire-starter logs and some kind of accelerant. They then threw rocks into the family's windows, providing oxygen to the fire, which then grew over the next hour or so.

Later on, the three man charged with the deaths of the Careaga family exhibited strange behavior, or had evidence implicating them in the shooting deaths and cover-up come to light.

Danie J. Kelly Jr., the primary person-of-interest since 2017, had been spotted by a witness driving Johnny's truck away from the crime scene. This struck the witness as odd, because they knew Danie and knew he had had a falling out with Johnny.

Additionally, do you remember the surveillance footage of Danie from inside of a local Target, publicized by authorities in 2018? Well, it turns out that this footage - recorded more than a week before the murder - shows Danie going into the store to purchase a prepaid burner phone. He then reportedly used this phone to communicate with Johnny Careaga almost exclusively for 10 days before the killing. Suspiciously, these calls ended shortly before the murder, even though the phone didn't expire until April of 2017.

Robert Watson, another suspect in the crime and the leader of the Bandidos local chapter, reportedly arrived at another club member's house at approximately 4:00 AM the day after the murders. Missing his pants, he reportedly asked to borrow a pair and clean himself up, claiming - per the Kitsap Sun - that he'd gotten into a fight with a "homeless black man."

The next evening, Watson called 911 and claimed that his truck had been broken into days beforehand, and a handgun he'd stored inside had been stolen. Why he only thought to report it then, the day after a quadruple murder nearby, we can only guess at.

Johnny Watson, the third individual charged with the murder of the Careaga family, was believed to have been the driver of the second vehicle that Johnny Careaga met with on the night of the murders. The week after authorities released this surveillance video - showing this random meetup in a grocery store parking lot - Watson's Mercedes was found "stripped and dumped in the Puyallup River," according to detectives. It's also worth pointing out that DNA found on at least one of the rocks thrown into the Careaga home was consistent with Johnny Watson.

While police have only leveled charges against these three men - two of whom are associated with the Bandidos Motorcycle Club - they believe that others may have knowledge of or have been involved in the crime itself. They encourage anyone with information to reach out to investigators at FBI.gov or 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324), as doing so may help prevent them from spending a lifetime behind bars.

Now, I'm going to play audio from a press conference held this afternoon, on June 7th, 2022. In it, authorities in Kitsap County speak about this arrest and what it means for their case, as well as other avenues they are still exploring in their ongoing investigation. If you're not interested in listening, you can just skip forward to the end. (Video link HERE)

While we can almost assuredly look forward to a long trial process in the near-future, there seems to be hope on the horizon that this story is close to being resolved.