JORDAN STEWART - 5 yo (2011) - Seattle WA

After a long chase on Interstate 5, when police finally approached the
wrecked car they'd been following for miles, they found David Stewart
and Kristy Sampels inside, dead from gunshot wounds. Later, they would
announce that Stewart, a 38-year-old two-tour Iraq veteran and PTSD
sufferer, shot his wife during the chase, then turned the gun on
himself. Meanwhile, back at their home, the couple's 5-year-old son
Jordan Stewart also lay dead. But how he died is a mystery that
investigators think they may never solve.
There is one clue to the boy's death--or at least a serious accusation.

The boy's grandmother, Dolores Jordan, his father's mother, says
she's certain that Sampels killed her son in order to hurt David.

KOMO News reports that the grandma says the couple had serious marital problems and fought often.

The night of the incident had seen one of those fights, she says. And
David had stormed out of the house, leaving his wife to fume at home.

Sampels began calling relatives, Jordan says, and then, at her wit's end, she did the unthinkable.

"She couldn't find my son. She decided that was the thing to
do -- to hurt him where it would hurt him the most, to kill his child,"
she said.

The Stewart-Samples family in better times

​
So when David came home to find his son dead, he took his wife in the
car and began to drive, setting up the high-speed chase that eventually
ended with a crash and two gunshots.

Or so says Jordan.

Little of that is certain, of course. And a dead man's mother is
usually inclined to defend his memory. What is certain is that the
couple's son was killed via asphyxiation--a plastic bag
slipped over his head until he stopped breathing.

The bag, in fact, was still on his tiny head when police found him.

Fingerprint and DNA analysis are being performed on the bag, but
since both parents lived in the home, both parents' DNA and fingerprints
could be on it.

Pierce County sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer sounded already defeated when he talked about finding the boy's true killer.

"All it will tell you is who touched that bag; it doesn't
mean it will tell you who put the bag over him," Troyer said. "That bag
could have been touched by many people . . . Hopefully, we'll have some
answers. But we may never know."

Meanwhile, Sampels' 10-year-old daughter from her previous marriage
is still alive, suddenly without the mother, stepfather, and stepbrother
she's known for years, and with  more questions than answers.

Whether answering any of them will bring her any more peace remains anyone's guess.

http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/dailyweekly/2011/04/jordan_stewart_5-year-old_span.php

Insight about family.

http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/dailyweekly/2011/04/sampels_and_stewartthe_deaths.php


David Stewart, Family, Die in Apparent Murder-Suicide Similar to Another Army Family's Death
By Rick Anderson, Wed., Apr. 6 2011

Sampels and Stewart
​The deaths yesterday, April 5, 2011, of David Stewart and his wife and child have an eerie similarity to the April 4, 2003 deaths of Thomas Stroh and his wife and child.

Photo of little Jordan


http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/dailyweekly/2011/04/jordan_stewart_5-year-old_span.php

Jordan Stewart, 5-Year-Old Spanaway Boy, Murdered With Plastic Bag--But by Whom?

Details more family issues.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-20051426-504083.html

Wash. couple dead after police chase; 6-year-old son's body found at home
Posted by Camille Mann

David Stewart and Kristy Sampels (Credit: KIRO)
(CBS/KIRO/AP) TUMWATER, Wash. - A man fatally shot himself and his wife while they were fleeing a state trooper on a highway in Washington state, according to police who then later discovered the couple's 6-year-old son dead with a plastic bag over his head Tuesday in their home.

http://www.komonews.com/news/problemsolvers/120421019.html

'Bath salts' suspected in Spanaway double murder-suicide
By Michelle Esteban

Investigators suspect the designer drug may explain the deaths of 5-year-old Jordan Stewart, and his parents, David Stewart and Kristy Sampels, as they found the substances on David Stewart, in his car and in his house.

How Jordan was found and how the parent's met....


http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2014703591_spanaway07m.html

Police say Spanaway boy's homicide may never be solved
By Christine Clarridge

..."The child, Jordan Stewart, was found suffocated with a plastic bag over his head and wrapped in a blanket at the foot of a bed in their Spanaway home, according to the Pierce County Sheriff's Office."...

..."Stewart and Sampels met near Redmond, Ore., where she was a nurse and he was a paramedic.

"They met when he brought people into the emergency room," Stout said. "They were just smitten."...

Signs of abuse.

http://mynorthwest.com/?nid=11&sid=459017

Coroner: Boy found after chase died of asphyxiation
By Brandi Kruse

"The Pierce County Coroner says the 6-year-old boy found dead in his Spanaway home on Tuesday, following a high speed chase on I-5, died of asphyxiation. Jordan Stewart had bruises on his body that showed he may have been abused."

Photos.

http://www.q13fox.com/mostwanted/kcpq-photogallery-david-f-stewart-kristy-sampels-6yearold-jordan-stewart-20110405,0,1718695.photogallery

Photo Gallery

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2014703632_apwachasesuicide.html

..."that 5-year-old Jordan Stewart had been dead for at least 24 hours before deputies found him at his home."...

Video report and evidence Jordan struggled.

http://www.kirotv.com/news/27456225/detail.html

Memorial Marks Home Of Slain Boy, Parents

WATCH IT: Candles, Toys, Prayers Left For Boy
Posted: 1:43 pm PDT April 6, 2011
Updated: 6:31 pm PDT April 6, 2011

TACOMA, Wash. -- A boy who likely spent his last moments struggling to live is being honored with a memorial on the front porch of his family’s Spanaway home.