PO man victim of Tacoma shooting

Daniel Jacob Varo, a 22-year-old Port Orchard man, was one of three victims in an apparent triple homicide last week in Tacoma.

Tacoma Police Spokesman Officer Mark Fulghum said that Varo, along with a 21-year-old female, was found dead Wednesday, Feb. 8, in the home of the third victim, a 27-year-old man.

All three died of gunshot wounds, Fulghum said.

Fulghum said the investigation into the shooting is ongoing, and as of Thursday afternoon he said there had been no arrests in the case.

Fulghum said a significant concern regarding the investigation is that although the reporting party did not call his office until approximately 4 p.m. on Feb. 8, friends of the victims had discovered them several hours earlier.

“A friend (of the victims) had gone to the house to check on them and found them deceased that morning, but did not report it at that time,” Fulghum said, explaining that his office has no idea whether any of the evidence may have been tampered with at that time.

However, even if the people who discovered the bodies did not touch or take anything, Fulghum said the loss of up to eight hours is still a concern.

“Our biggest concern is the delay,” he said. “It would have been nicer to get an earlier start, closer to the time of death.”

Fulghum said the callers gave being scared as the reason for not reporting the shootings earlier.

He said there are no suspects as of yet.

Varo was born in Bremerton and attended South Kitsap Schools.

Mostly recently, he was working part-time at Pizza Factory in Port Orchard, and had begun his own business, D@n Imports.

Fulghum said Varo had apparently been staying with the male victim for the past couple of weeks.

He is survived by his parents, Ernest and Debra Martsching of Port Orchard, and Donald and Cheryl Varo of Mossyrock, WA.

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