A Washington woman was arrested and charged with first-degree attempted murder after her parents discovered a journal entry describing a plan to kill her ex-boyfriend and alerted police, authorities said.
Trinity Morley, 19, was taken into custody after Ring camera footage captured her outside her ex-boyfriend’s Maple Valley home carrying a shotgun, the King County Sheriff’s Office and prosecutors said. Morley’s parents told investigators they found the journal entry on July 27 and called 911 to request a welfare check after she left the home.
Prosecutors said the journal contained a detailed description of the weapon and the plan. “I have the gun now, three rounds of buckshot. The shotgun is heavy,” the document read, according to court records cited by prosecutors. Morley allegedly wrote that she had “three chances to get this right” and that she did not “want to resort to knives.”
Ring footage provided to investigators showed Morley wearing a black sweatshirt and a mask while standing and looking at the front door of the house, prosecutors said. The ex-boyfriend was not at home, and family members who saw the footage ran upstairs to hide and called for help, they added.
Deputies located Morley after deploying a drone and found her on a nearby dock still holding the shotgun and a knife, the sheriff’s office said. Using de-escalation tactics, a deputy spoke with her, persuaded her to drop the weapons and placed her in handcuffs. Body camera footage released by authorities showed the deputy calmly approaching Morley and securing the scene.
Prosecutors said Morley told officers she intended to kill her ex-boyfriend and then herself and that her motive was frustration that rape allegations she had filed against him did not result in criminal charges; the police investigation into those allegations was closed as unfounded, they said. The sheriff’s office said investigators found Morley’s demeanor after the arrest “eerie,” noting she smiled, rolled her eyes and laughed at times. At one point she allegedly told a deputy taking notes, “It's a good story.”
Court documents reviewed by prosecutors said Morley apologized in her journal to her current boyfriend for tricking him into lending her a shotgun. She allegedly told him she had been receiving “threatening texts from an unknown number,” prompting him to let her borrow the weapon. Prosecutors said Morley’s parents had filed for an extreme risk protection order for their daughter on July 18, a week before the journal entry was discovered.
Morley’s parents told police she has a history of mental-health treatment and had been hospitalized for self-harm incidents, including a prior suicide attempt, prosecutors said. She has been charged with first-degree attempted murder and is being held in the King County Jail on $500,000 bail.
The sheriff’s office said the victim in the case believed she would have been killed had Morley been given the chance. Prosecutors said the woman tried to enter the house armed with the weapon but ultimately fled when family members became aware of her presence.
The case remains under investigation, and court proceedings are pending. Authorities did not immediately release information about whether additional charges could be filed or about the status of the earlier investigation into the rape allegations.