Suspect in slaying, posting death photos caught

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A man surrendered in Oregon after police say he killed his girlfriend, posted gruesome photos of her body and the crime scene online, and wrote that he wanted authorities to kill him.

David Kalac’s arrest Wednesday night nearly 200 miles from the crime scene in Washington state came after a daylong manhunt. He’s accused of killing Amber Lynn Coplin, whose teenage son heard the couple loudly arguing and then found his mother dead in their apartment.

Kalac, 33, texted a friend Tuesday morning to say he would read about Kalac in the news, then evaded police in the woman’s stolen car until he emerged from a wooded area and turned himself in to a passing police officer, authorities said.

Authorities confirmed the grisly online photos were of Coplin, 30, and the crime scene in Port Orchard, Washington, said Scott Wilson, a Kitsap County sheriff’s deputy.

The images appeared on 4chan, an online bulletin board whose free-wheeling and anonymous nature has led to some of the Web’s darker moments. Earlier this year, hundreds of private pictures of nude celebrities were posted on the site.

Kalac is the sole suspect, so investigators believe he shared the photos, commented online about how the woman was killed and wrote of planning to be fatally shot by police, Wilson said.

The suspect on Wednesday gave himself up to an officer patrolling the area around a transit center in Wilsonville, Oregon, about 20 miles south of Portland.

“He basically said, ‘I have a warrant for my arrest,”’ Clackamas County sheriff’s Sgt. Nate Thompson Thompson said in a telephone interview. Kalac was cooperative but provided no details about how he got to Wilsonville, the spokesman said.

Kalac was charged with second-degree murder and was held in Portland on $2 million bail.