UPDATE: On Friday, Mar. 1, 2024, Tukwila Police released an update on a suspect in relation to a recent homicide of a Redicab driver in the Southcenter Mall Parking lot.
As we previously reported, the murder victim – Nick Hokema, 34 – was a Redicab driver out of Thurston County whose body was found in a Southcenter parking lot on Jan. 15, 2024.
Police said that Jonathan Kang Lee has been named a suspect in Hokema’s murder; however, no charges have yet been filed.
During the investigation, Tukwila PD’s Major Crimes Unit (MCU) learned the Army Criminal Investigation Division (CID) was looking for Spc. Jonathan Kang Lee, an Army solider last seen on Jan. 14 and convicted of sexually assaulting children. He was sentenced to 64 years of confinement for those charges.
The Tukwila Police Department’s MCU and the King County Prosecutor’s Office, in conjunction with the Army’s CID, worked to take Lee into custody for the charge of desertion in the Redmond Ridge neighborhood near Redmond on Jan. 26.
At the time of Lee’s arrest by the Army’s CID, he was considered a person of interest in the murder of Hokema.
The Army Office of Special Trial Counsel is reviewing the case.
Tukwila Police’s MCU and Army CID are still actively investigating the homicide.
