Investigators say a roommate’s return home on Feb. 24 uncovered the death of 61-year-old Thuy Nu Thu Ton.
AUBURN, Wash. — What began as a welfare check at a condominium complex near Thomas Jefferson High School has become a murder prosecution after investigators said a 30-year-old man admitted killing his mother and leaving her covered in blankets in the living room.
The allegations center on the death of Thuy Nu Thu Ton, 61, whose body was found Feb. 24 at Stonebrook Village Condos in unincorporated King County, between Auburn and Federal Way. Prosecutors later charged her son, Antony Ton Le, with second-degree murder. The case now stands at a critical early point because a planned arraignment was delayed after Le’s attorney raised concerns about his competency to stand trial, putting the next steps in the hands of the court.
The details in the public record trace the case back to the moment a roommate came home and saw something out of place. According to probable cause papers, the man had left for work that morning while Ton was on the couch looking at her phone and Le was believed to be in his room. When he returned, he saw a pile of blankets in the middle of the living room that, as he later told investigators, should not have been there. He pulled the blankets back and found Ton lying on her back with her eyes open and her arms folded across her chest. He saw obvious injuries to her face and immediately sought help from a neighbor because he did not have a phone. That call brought deputies to the condo at about 1:50 p.m., starting what law enforcement first described publicly as an active homicide investigation.
Inside the unit, deputies found Ton unresponsive. Records say she had swollen eyes, visible blood from her nose and clear signs of blunt-force trauma. Despite life-saving efforts, she was pronounced dead at 2:09 p.m. Officers then had to locate Le, who did not answer when deputies tried to make contact. A tactical team later entered the residence and found him in a bedroom. As officers took him into custody, the records say, he told them, “I did it.” In a later interview, investigators wrote, Le said he and his mother had argued about school, finances and inheritance. He allegedly said he grabbed Ton in a chokehold around 11 a.m., threw her down and stomped on her neck multiple times. He then described putting pillows and blankets on her in what he claimed was an attempt to help or heal her. Investigators said he told them he heard her making sounds for about 30 minutes before she died.
The area where the killing happened is not a downtown crime scene or a busy commercial strip. It is a residential complex in a border area that many locals describe by reference to both Auburn and Federal Way. The early official notice from the King County Sheriff’s Office said only that major crimes detectives were working the case after a welfare check in the 28700 block of 34th Avenue. Over the next several days, court records filled in the rest. Those records say Ton often stayed at the condo to support her son, cooking, cleaning and doing laundry. The roommate told deputies Le had previously been diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and had become more unstable after stopping medication about five months earlier. He said Le had become increasingly hostile and that he had tried to avoid conflict with him. Those details do not settle the criminal case, but they explain why the roommate told authorities he feared Le could be violent.
The records also capture the unsettled nature of Le’s interview with detectives. At times, investigators wrote, he spoke directly about killing his mother and acknowledged the act. At other moments, he made statements about demons, artificial intelligence and starlight that detectives described as incoherent or nonsensical. He allegedly said a demon from the television was involved, then gave a different version in which he was simply angry and killed his mother for nothing. He also said he felt disrespected by her for years. Investigators wrote that he admitted using marijuana the same day and said he had stopped taking medication. When detectives asked whether he knew killing his mother was wrong, the records say he answered yes, unless she deserved it. Those statements have become a major part of the file because they go both to the state’s account of intent and to the defense argument that his mental state may now affect whether he can be prosecuted on a normal schedule.
Medical and court officials quickly pushed the case into the formal system. The King County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled Ton’s death a homicide caused by multiple blunt force injuries. At a first appearance hearing on Feb. 25, prosecutors asked for $2 million bail, and the court granted it after finding probable cause for arrest. On Feb. 27, prosecutors filed a second-degree murder charge against Le. The next expected milestone was an arraignment on March 4, where he would normally enter a plea. But according to the prosecutor’s office, defense counsel filed a motion for a competency evaluation before that step could move forward. In the motion, counsel said Le presented as irrational, delusional and unable to assist in his defense. That filing changed the case from a fast-moving charging process to one waiting on a mental competency decision.
The combination of domestic setting, violent allegations and unresolved competency issues has made the case stand out in the local court system. Yet key unknowns remain. Public records do not fully explain how long the argument lasted before it turned violent, whether neighbors heard anything that morning or what additional forensic evidence investigators collected inside the condo. Those answers may come later through hearings, motions and possible trial filings. For now, the public account rests on the roommate’s discovery, the medical examiner’s ruling and the statements investigators say Le made after his arrest. Each of those parts adds a different piece to the picture of how a quiet condo complex became the center of a homicide case.
As of now, Le remains jailed on $2 million bail and the murder charge is pending. The next major development will come when the court decides how to proceed on the defense request for a competency evaluation and any rescheduled arraignment date.
Author note: Last updated March 25, 2026.