Man with Idaho Falls ties charged with killing stepfather in brutal attack
Published at | Updated atTACOMA, Washington (KOMO News) — New disturbing details have been released in the murder of a man inside his home in Tacoma.
The victim’s stepson, Gaven Flowers, 28, is now charged with his murder, and family members shared with police that Flowers has a history of mental illness and was previously held in a psychiatric hospital.
Flowers and his family lived in Idaho Falls for years before moving to Tacoma in 2018.
Officers responded to the home on the 4500 block of Heron Ridge Drive NE in northeast the afternoon of Feb. 11 after the suspect arrived at the northeast substation to report the murder.
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The suspect appeared in court on Feb. 13 and was ordered to be held without bail as he completed a mental health evaluation.
According to court documents, family members were afraid of the suspect’s erratic behavior. They had even called a crisis response team to speak with him just days before the murder, and that crisis responder was scheduled to come back to the home the very next day after the murder.
Court documents detail the brutal murder inside the northeast Tacoma home Tuesday morning, with the victim found dead in an upstairs bathroom after being stabbed 18 times.
“The defendant in this case initially told police that he wanted to report a homicide by self-defense,” Pierce County Deputy Prosecutor Dalton Smith told the court Thursday. “The facts do not support a self-defense claim in this case.”
Hours after the murder, police say Flowers went to the nearest police station to report the death, telling police, “I want to talk to give you as much info to go there, and then I want a lawyer.”
Court documents detail his history of mental health issues, including a stay at a psychiatric hospital in 2021 and a 911 call to the home for his disturbing behavior in 2024.
“The victim had previously expressed concerns about the defendant, and the defendant’s mother acknowledged that her son thought the victim was trying to poison her relationship against him,” Smith said. “He also thought that the victim had him under surveillance via the victim’s hearing aids.”
Family members say Flowers had been diagnosed with psychosis and was paranoid. Court documents state they “would lock the lower door so that Gaven would not be able to come upstairs while they were asleep, and at one point, they hid the knives in the house.”
Though Flowers initially claimed self-defense, detectives believe the attack started in the bedroom, possibly while the victim was still in bed, and then moved to the bathroom, where he lost a large amount of blood. Investigators observed signs in the home, and Flowers allegedly placed the victim in the shower after the murder and tried to clean up blood on the bathroom floor.
They also found shorts and a towel with blood on them soaking in a tub of water and the suspected murder weapon hidden inside a vacuum attachment.
Flowers is due back in court on Feb. 27 following a mental health evaluation. He will be held without bail in the meantime.
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