Kimberly Feyhl: Issaquah Woman Charged with Murder After Allegedly Killing Boyfriend with Axe, Then Setting Him on Fire

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A 49-year-old Issaquah woman has been formally charged with first-degree murder and arson. According to prosecutors, she killed her boyfriend with an ax and set his body on fire in their apartment earlier this week.

Kimberly Feyhl was charged on September 18, 2025, with premeditated first-degree murder with a deadly weapon enhancement and first-degree arson in the death of 43-year-old Richard Schnepf. 

Prosecutors are also alleging the acts were crimes of domestic violence. 

Feyhl has pleaded not guilty at her arraignment and she is being held in the King County Jail on $3 million bail.

Kimberly Feyhl 


According to police reports, firefighters responded to a distress call at the Rose Crest Apartments just before 8 a.m. on September 16, 2025. 

A maintenance worker led them to a smoke-filled unit, where they found Schnepf’s body in a bedroom with a serious head wound.

The fire department immediately alerted the local police department about the grim discovery, leading to an investigation. 

While at the scene, firefighters met Feyhl outside the house and prevented her from leaving until the police arrived. 

When Issaquah police detectives questioned her, she allegedly confessed.

“I killed my roommate,” Feyhl told investigators, according to the probable cause document, sighted by Law&Crime. 

She explained that Schnepf was her roommate and an occasional boyfriend. 

She allegedly told police that “God told her to” kill Schnepf with an axe because she believed he was a demon who planned to kill her.

Feyhl stated that she had waited the previous night for Schnepf to come into her room to kill her, but he never did. 

Instead, she took an ax, entered his room while he was sleeping the nect day, and struck him in the head multiple times.

The crime scene


Even after hitting his head with an axe, Feyhl was not convinced he was dead, so she then allegedly poured rubbing alcohol over his body and set him on fire with a lighter. 

Investigators later found the bottle of alcohol on the bed and the ax, which had "blood and hair on the blade," under the mattress.

An autopsy confirmed Schnepf died from sharp force injuries to the head, which caused skull fractures and a severe brain injury.

Feyhl’s next court appearance is scheduled for October 9, 2025.

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