An Uber driver was fatally stabbed as he was driving in Issaquah, Washington and a couple has been charged with first-degree murder in his death, according to court documents.
The victim, identified as 28-year-old Cherno Cessay, “was found stabbed to death in his car that had crashed into a tree,” in Issaquah on Dec. 13, documents say. He had multiple stab wounds in the back of his head, neck and temple that were determined to have come from behind the victim, according to the documents.
The suspects, Olivia Bebic and Devin Wade, both 21, remain in the King County Jailon $2 million bail.
They were formally charged on Monday.
On the night of his death, the driver picked up his last rider within 100 yards from the crash site, documents say. Records from Uber helped to determine the phone number and email of the last rider — or passengers — whose account was created 15 minutes before the driver picked them up, according to documents from the King County prosecuting attorney’s office.
After the driver was killed, his phone continued to travel north on Renton-Issaquah Road, along with the same number associated with the Uber rider’s account for a few hundred yards before the rider’s number was disconnected from the Uber app, documents say. The victim’s phone number remained active on the Uber app for 155 minutes.
The Uber driver’s phone was tracked to Factoria, where “Bellevue traffic cameras located a white vehicle with a black bag whose route perfectly corresponded with the GPS locations of [the victim’s] stolen phone,” documents say. The car was identified as a white Nissan Altima with a Nevada license plate.
Police located the Nissan on Dec. 15 “near the Factoria Mall where the victim’s phone had traveled after the murder,” documents say. A man and a woman, identified as Wade and Bebic, were found inside the car and they were later arrested by Bellevue officers for shoplifting, according to documents.
When police searched the Nissan, they found the victim’s phone and two bloody knives, documents say.
Bebic told police that she and Wade, her boyfriend, were living in the Nissan, which was hers, with their two dogs, according to documents. Bebic confirmed Wade’s phone number was the same as the one associated with the Uber rider’s account, documents say.
She said she was with Wade delivering food in Issaquah on Dec. 13 before the time of the stabbing but that they were back in Factoria where they stayed for the rest of the night afterward, documents say.
Bebic asked for a lawyer after she was “confronted with [her boyfriend’s] cell phone locations after the murder,” according to documents.
Wade “claimed to not own a phone” and that he had “not had a phone since he left Las Vegas in February 2020,” documents say.
