TACOMA, Wash., April 3 (UPI) -- Police in Washington state say they need help finding a man suspected of a killing captured on video last year in which the victim was first tortured.
The gruesome video was turned over to the Spokane Police Department in February.
KOMO-TV, Seattle, reports the grisly killing is thought to have happened last July in the City of Lakewood, south of Tacoma. Police there are asking for public input as they search for Maalo Semu "Oos" Samaota.
Samaota is thought to be the man seen in the 19-minute video, in which a bound victim is tortured and killed with a knife. Police urge the public not to approach him, and say the 31-year-old is considered "extremely dangerous."
Another man, Michael Crossman, was arrested and has admitted filming the killing, the report said.
Crossman told police the young victim was lured to the apartment by a woman before being bound, and that he was killed because he had stolen a car containing drugs from Samaota, officials said.
Human remains located by hikers in Harts Lake, Wash., March 10 are thought possibly to be those of the victim, though they have not been positively matched, KOMO said.
Police say they think Samaota may currently or at one time have been living in the Portland, Ore., area.
