We have updated developments in the arrest of two suspects in the 2020 murder of 7-11 clerk Nagendiram Kandasamy years ago. Snohomish County Superior Court documents initially showed a 26-year-old woman, arrested on suspicion of the murder, was ordered released on her own recognizance. That came from the same ruling that the judge said showed probable cause that she had committed the murder during an attempted robbery. From the documents, it was not clear whether she was even still in custody.

We are not naming the suspects or showing their photos at this time. It is our editorial policy that we name persons suspected of a crime after they are formally charged in court.

Updated information from the Washington State Department of Corrections shows that after her initial appearance in Everett last week, the suspect was not released, but was remanded to the Women’s Correctional Center in Purdy to await a hearing on an arrest warrant for a different crime. This one was for a robbery in King County. She remains in prison, pending a hearing on that charge. A second suspect in Kandasamy’s murder has been in Pierce County Jail all along on a different conviction.

The current suspects are the same two that police arrested in March 2020, just three weeks after a person burst into the 7-11 on Highway 99 at 238th Street Southwest, shooting and killing Kandasamy, the overnight clerk.

At that time, Edmonds police, working with the North Metro SWAT team, surrounded a home in Enumclaw in King County. For five hours they tried to talk two people out of the house; eventually used tear gas and then a K-9 to get them to surrender. Officers arrested the pair, identifying them as  “persons of interest” in the Edmonds murder. But neither was charged then.

Now that the woman is in custody, and Edmonds police say that she has implicated the male suspect, they will recommend first-degree murder, attempted robbery, and firearms charges against him.

Snohomish County Prosecutor Adam Cornell said last week that his office was unable to prepare formal charges within the legal 72-hour window after arrest, so when the judge technically released her, the state stepped in to take her into custody on another outstanding warrant. Edmonds police are confident they have a case ready for court, and detectives and prosecutors have a little more time prepare before trying to prove their case to a jury.

— By Bob Throndsen