Investigations
Prosecutors cited burned homicide victims recovered from Olympia's Jungle
A field report walked the 21-acre Olympia camp and Bellingham's King Mountain woods as a trespass sweep closed in.
In Olympia, Washington, YouTuber Tyler Oliveira walked a 21-acre homeless encampment known as the Jungle with journalist Jonathan Cho, filming shacks, Narcan stapled to trees, and a roadside memorial for Zebediah Schoening. The same report continued to Bellingham, where roughly 200 people had been living in woods locals call the King Mountain Autonomous Zone.
Thurston County prosecutors cited prior Jungle homicides in charging documents KOMO News quoted in June 2026. "Olympia police have previously recovered homicide victims in The Jungle that had been burned in burn pits as a way of disposing of the body, and recovered a body dumped in woods across the street from The Jungle," they wrote. On the walkthrough, residents pointed to the memorial for Schoening, nicknamed Donkey, and said he was set on fire about two years earlier.
Court records and local news accounts describe that attack on Oct. 8, 2024, when Kevin James Hinzpeter and Christopher Edward Snyder confronted Schoening at the camp near Martin Way East and Ensign Road Northeast. Witnesses told police the pair threw a burning chemical described as homemade napalm; Schoening died Oct. 25, 2024. Hinzpeter pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and received a 171-month sentence in November 2025, and a jury convicted Snyder of first-degree murder and other charges.
A longtime resident who gave his name as Mike guided the crew deeper into the Jungle, past surveillance cameras, a bike-repair shop, and trees stocked with injectable Narcan. County-backed outreach workers handed out pipes, needles, and fentanyl test strips while Mike said he was conflicted about foil. Former addict Jenny Burton, who now works on homelessness, told the crew that endless supplies without consequences can maintain addiction, while housed programs often fail people who never learned rent or work.
Workers at businesses beside the encampment said they had seen police remove bodies, heard cries from the woods, and turned away residents with fresh stab wounds asking for paper towels. None of those workers said they had entered the Jungle themselves. City officials told KOMO in June 2026 that about 200 people lived there and that federal authorities had recently found a missing Arizona teenager in the camp, but they had no timeline to clear the site.
In north Bellingham, attorney Julie Jansen described a knife confrontation at her flower stand and said a 19-time felon Whatcom County released against her objections returned to the woods. Resident advocate Lyle Story said booking restrictions dating to 1986 mean many misdemeanors never lead to jail, and that police need a search warrant to search a tent that serves as someone's domicile. WeHeart Seattle founder Andrea Suarez brought detox referrals, food, and hygiene kits ahead of a trespass deadline residents said would arrive on a Monday.
At King Mountain, shopping-cart bridges and propane scorch marks sat beside tents where residents denied trafficking while others described past arm amputations and gang violence. After formal trespass notices on Aug. 3, 2026, Bellingham required an estimated 200 campers to leave the 40-acre site by Aug. 10. Police entered with warrants, found fewer than 10 people still there, and Alliance Properties began a cleanup and timber harvest the Bellingham Herald reported could cost millions and take more than a year.
Hinzpeter is serving his sentence in the Schoening killing while Olympia's Jungle remained occupied with no announced clearing date.
Source video: Inside the Deadly Jungle Where Homeless People Burn Alive...