Man allegedly makes false homicide confessions hours before breaking into Bellingham home
A man who reportedly confessed to a pair of homicides that did not happen was arrested hours later after he broke into the Bellingham home of one of the women he said he killed. Police say they believe the man is suffering from behavioral health issues.
The Bellingham Police Department booked Joseph William Warren, 42, into Whatcom County Jail Friday, March 25, on suspicion of violating an anti-harassment order, stalking, third-degree malicious mischief and residential burglary. Jail records show he is being held in lieu of $250,000 bail.
According to a Bellingham Police release late Friday on the incident:
▪ Warren walked into the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office on Thursday afternoon, March 24, and confessed to killing two women.
▪ The sheriff’s office contacted Bellingham Police detectives, who quickly found both women alive and that no homicide had occurred.
▪ The women spoke to law enforcement, and police learned Warren was suffering from behavioral health issues.
▪ One of the women Warren claimed he had killed had an anti-harassment court order against Warren, which he has violated three times in 14 days by texting, calling and visiting her. Bellingham police had arrested Warren via summons in each case.
▪ Warren was allowed to leave, “as there was no sufficient cause for an emergent detention.”
▪ Shortly after 3 a.m. Friday, police were called to the Alabama neighborhood home of the woman who holds the court order against Warren.
▪ Officers, who were already in the area, found Warren inside calling the woman’s name, and police were able to arrest Warren in the driveway without incident.
Before releasing Warren on Thursday afternoon, the sheriff’s office offered him additional services, spokesperson Deb Slater told The Bellingham Herald in an email Friday, but Warren declined those services.
“On (March 24) an adult man came to the Sheriff’s Office confessing to having caused the death of another person,” Slater wrote. “The Sheriff’s Office immediately investigated with both Patrol and Detectives. After determining that the confessions were false and there was no legal right to detain him, he was released.”
