Suspect in ‘horrific' stabbing of UW student appears in court
Six hours after Seattle police released photos of a person suspected of stabbing a University of Washington student in the laundry room of an off-campus apartment complex, Christopher Leahy, a 31-year-old Bellevue man, turned himself in to Bellevue police and was taken to Seattle police headquarters late Wednesday.
Booked into the King County Jail, Leahy made his first court appearance Thursday, and King County District Judge Matthew York found probable cause to hold him for investigation of premeditated first-degree murder.
Citing "the horrific nature and brutal execution of this attack," York made a finding that Leahy is substantially likely to commit a future violent offense and set bail at $10 million.
Though defense attorney Todd Maybrown argued there was insufficient evidence to make a finding on premeditation required for first-degree murder, Senior Deputy Prosecutor Don Raz countered that the student, a 19-year-old transgender woman, was stabbed 40 times, demonstrating an intent to kill.
The King County medical examiner's office identified Juniper Blessing as the woman who was killed.
The University of Washington School of Music's website identified Blessing as a member of the UW Chorale, an advanced undergraduate ensemble of music and non-music majors. Last year, Blessing was a soloist for the school's "Blue Planet" program. She graduated in 2024 from New Mexico School for the Arts.
The Human Rights Alliance in Santa Fe, N.M., shared a statement from Blessing's family, saying Blessing was courageously living their life as who they were until it was cut tragically short."
Blessing, who was born in Princeton and moved to Santa Fe in 2018, was majoring in atmospheric science and continuing to study music and philosophy at UW. Blessing had a "gifted voice" and worked as an usher at the Santa Fe Opera during summers.
"Juniper was simply the most amazing human being we have ever known - highly intelligent, extremely talented, and deeply sensitive to the needs of others," the statement said. "Juniper's loss not only devastates us but diminishes the world.
The investigation
According to the statement of probable cause outlining the police investigation, officers were called a little after 10 p.m. Sunday to the Nordheim Court apartment complex at 5000 25th Ave. N.E., just north of University Village, after a resident called 911. They found Blessing unresponsive on the floor of the first-floor laundry room.
An autopsy determined Blessing suffered 40 stab wounds to her head, neck, shoulder, arms and hands and died from blood loss, the statement says.
Another female resident later told police a man had followed her as she walked to her apartment and so she ducked into the laundry room, according to the statement. The man claimed he was waiting for his laundry, then left, and the woman was able to go to her apartment, it says. She provided police with a suspect description.
That encounter happened about 10 minutes before Blessing was found on the floor.
Police reviewed video surveillance footage and saw Blessing take a bag of clothing and a jug of detergent to the laundry room a little before 9 p.m., then return an hour later, according to the statement.
A camera inside the laundry room was found unplugged, but a police video specialist was able to recover footage from the camera's memory card that showed Blessing cleaning a dryer's lint tray when the suspect entered the room and looked directly into the camera, the probable cause statement says.
Though the statement doesn't say whether the attack was captured on camera, it notes that no other person was seen entering the laundry room until the woman who called 911 entered and found Blessing.
Photos taken from the footage were posted to the Seattle Police Department's online blotter on Wednesday afternoon. Two tipsters - a relative of Leahy and one of his school friends - contacted police and provided Leahy's name and phone number, the statement says. The school friend also gave police a video of Leahy, and he appeared to match the person captured in the laundry room video, according to the probable cause statement.
Leahy, accompanied by his parents, turned himself in to Bellevue police around 10:30 p.m. Wednesday.
A charging decision in the case is expected Monday. The Seattle Times typically does not name suspects before they're charged, but is doing in this story because of the high-profile nature of the case.
Personality shift
An old classmate of Leahy said the man went through a "big personality shift" when they were at University Prep together, a nonprofit private school in Seattle's Wedgwood neighborhood.
The classmate, who asked to remain anonymous because they didn't want to be associated with a high-profile murder case, described Leahy as friendly and "somewhat popular."
But in tenth grade, "there was a moment where the light went off a little bit where he wasn't social," the classmate said. "He went from him hanging out with us to him sitting by himself and reading books."
Leahy had started to exhibit behaviors that were "erratic," the classmate said. In one instance, he'd given a lecture to his classmates about drawing boxes inside of boxes that made no sense.
Court records indicate that as a teen in 2012, Leahy and his parents sued University Prep, alleging the school failed to protect him from harassment and bullying by other students, including being called racist and anti-gay slurs. He is identified as disabled and biracial in the complaint.
The lawsuit states the then-teen took a leave of absence during his junior year "for medical reasons related to the anxiety and stress caused by the bullying and harassment."
The family's lawyers wrote he "went from being a socially active teenager who attended school functions, to being a withdrawn young man who became an outcast that was excluded from social circles."
In 2012, Leahy was not allowed to return to the school for his senior year, a move the family's attorneys argued was "unwarranted." In 2014, the case was dismissed after the school settled with the family.
Leahy's parents paid over $25,000 in tuition to the private school for their son annually when he attended. Court records indicate he went on to attend a boarding school in Ireland.
Concerns for safety
An air of fear had settled over many University of Washington students in the days after the killing.
Students banded together. They offered to do laundry together and walk to and from classes in groups. Some laid flowers in Red Square to honor the woman who was killed. Turning Point USA postponed an event at the university after the community decried the planned speaker's opposition to gender-affirming care for minors.
Others questioned their safety at Nordheim Court in particular. One resident in the off-campus student housing complex, who spoke to a reporter, said her apartment unit had been broken into while she and her roommates were home, 15 days before the killing.
Residents also said it's relatively easy to get into the laundry room without an access code. Someone on foot could follow closely behind a vehicle entering the parking garage and walk through the building to the laundry room where the 19-year-old died, they said.
"I hope the arrest brings some sense of relief to our community," said UW President Robert Jones in a statement. "But this arrest does not lessen the profound shock and grief that the victim's loved ones and our campus are still experiencing or bring back a beloved, promising and talented member of our university."
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This story was originally published May 14, 2026 at 4:55 PM.