Two Washington state murder suspects arrested in Riverside County to be extradited

Two murder suspects from Washington state were arrested in Blythe and are set to be extradited, police said today.   

Philip James Brewer, 32, and Christina Joel Hardy, 47, were arrested Thursday on suspicion of murder, according to the Blythe Police Department Officers responded at 1 a.m. that day to information about two possible murder suspects from Washington who were reportedly in the city.

Officers subsequently stopped a vehicle in the 500 block of North Sola Avenue because it matched a description provided of the suspects' vehicle, police said.

"A joint investigation with (California Highway Patrol) showed the two occupants of the vehicle stopped were indeed wanted suspects for a murder which had just recently been discovered in the State of Washington,'' Blythe police said in a statement.

Brewer and Hardy were detained until the Mercer Island Police Department, the original investigating agency, confirmed that arrest warrants had been issued, according to police. Blythe detectives also obtained a local search warrant.

Hardy was booked into the Larry D. Smith Correctional Facility in Banning and Brewer into the John J. Benoit Detention Center in Indio, according to inmate records. They both remained held without bail. Extradition proceedings have been initiated.