EVERETT – David Thorsen of Arlington admitted to killing his sister and will serve 17 years in prison for it.

Superior Court Judge Ellen Fair sentenced Thorsen to 204 months in prison at a hearing June 11. That was four years and two months longer than the negotiated agreement between Thorsen’s attorney and the prosecution.

Thorsen killed his sister, Karen Harris, on June 9, 2013, during an argument when he brutally attacked her on the family farm.

Fair said there are many disturbing facts in the case.

“I can’t ignore the elements,” she said. “The court can’t make this family whole again.”

She called it a family tragedy.

“In an instant half the family was gone,” she said.

In letters and in testimony at the sentencing family

and friends asked for the maximum sentence. They said Thorsen destroyed the family, forcing them to live in pain. They called him evil and a liar with a long history of alcohol and drug problems, for which he refused to seek help.

“He’s a danger to himself and the community,” Douglas Shuman said. “He’s unwilling to change. He deserves long-term confinement.”

He was judge, jury and executioner, and “now it is time for him to pay,” added Diane Shuman.

Thorsen’s attorney said nothing could fill the holes in the lives of the family. But to save his family the ordeal of a trial Thorsen changed his plea to guilty. He said in prison Thorsen would seek a positive change and sobriety.

Thorsen said he was “dreadfully sorry” for killing his sister, and he wished he could “bring her back.”

“She was my closest sibling growing up,” he said. “I love and miss her.”

Thorsen said in his two years in the Snohomish County Jail God has sustained him.

“I will never turn my back on the Lord again,” Thorsen said.

Deputy Prosecutor Hal Hupp said Thorsen took responsibility for the murder and recommended 154 months.

Court papers say before Harris’s body was discovered on her mom’s property in Arlington Heights, Thorsen talked to John Gilbert of the fire department.

Thorsen said, “My job is done.” Gilbert asked what he meant by that.

Thorsen replied that it was his job to look after his dad, mom and sister, then indicated again his job was done. His dad, Jack, also died in a fall.

Harris’s body was found soon after that.

Sheriff’s spokesman Shari Ireton said Thorsen also was investigated in the deaths of both of his parents, but the lead detective closed the cases because of a lack of evidence.

“If additional evidence surfaces, he could reopen the case,” she said.

That previously unreleased information was provided in a supplemental affidavit filed by Hupp.

Other evidence in that document says there was evidence of a fight near where Harris’s body was found. There was a broken chair, a pair of broken sunglasses and a shoe belonging to Thorsen. The medical examiner reported that Harris died from an intracranial hemorrhage due to blunt impact to the head.

Police later found the other shoe in the family home Thorsen had been staying in with his mother, who reportedly fell down the stairs in the house and died the day before Harris was killed.

Thorson moved to the home two months prior, after his dad had died.

DNA found on Thorsen’s shorts and shirt had his blood and also Harris’s, the papers say. When Thorsen was examined that June 9, he had puncture wounds on his left hand. Blood was recovered from the bushes where Harris’s body was found. It was a genetic match to Thorsen’s.

Thorsen apparently didn’t like his mother or sister much. In a letter addressed “Dearest Mom” 12 days before her death, Thorsen used disparaging language and curse words toward his mother, Betty, adding he hoped she would die.

On June 8, 2013, Betty Elaine Thorsen, 80, was dead, having fallen down the basement steps. Thorsen found her there and called police, who arrived at about 5:43 a.m.

Thorsen’s older sister, Harris, 53, arrived later that day at the home at 13229 240th St. NE. Thorsen wrote that he didn’t care much for Harris either. He used disparaging remarks about her, saying in a suicide letter she was not to receive any property upon his death.

According to charging papers:

Thorsen, now 52, has been in jail since June 9, 2013, on second-degree murder charges.

On that afternoon, once police left following the investigation of Betty’s death, neighbors heard screams.

Eight hours later, Harris’s son, Joel, saw on Facebook that his grandma had died. He couldn’t figure out why his mom or uncle hadn’t told him. So he went to his grandma’s house and saw Uncle David extremely intoxicated. Joel filed a missing person report and searched all night for Harris.

About 5 the next morning he saw Thorsen riding a lawnmower and towing something.

Sgt. Steve Plaisance of the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Department responded to the missing person report almost 6 1/2 hours later.

While talking to Joel, they heard a noise at the back of the property. They found Thorsen sitting in a car behind a barn. The car was running, and windows rolled up. Thorsen had a beer in his lap and a hose attached to the exhaust pipe that led inside the Honda.

Thorsen passed out in the suicide attempt. A fire department aid crew revived him.

Plaisance said Thorsen later told him his father was gone, his mother was gone, and he wanted to go, too.

It wasn’t long after that that Plaisance found Harris’s body in a hedge among sticker bushes.

In his guilty plea, Thorsen said he was attempting to assault Harris, and she died as a result.

In court papers, Joel told police there was contention in the family regarding his grandfather’s will.

His mother was part of the dispute on how the property was going to be divided.