Murder suspect Peter Keller’s Rattlesnake Ridge bunker won’t last long enough to become a hiking destination for the curious.
Crews with Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and King County Parks have already begun demolition, as of Tuesday.
Keller spent eight years building the bunker, on land in the Rattlesnake Ridge Natural Recreation and Conservation Area jointly owned by DNR and King County Parks.
With the sheriff’s investigation at the sight wrapped up, crews have removed and bagged material from the bunker. They also have dismantled the top of the structure and begun filling in the structure with wood and dirt. Crews are expected to obliterate the multi-story bunker by Wednesday evening.
Doug Williams, a spokesman for King County Parks, said demolition will remove chemicals and other potential dangers to wildlife, but will leave behind inert materials and food.
Tools will be removed.
“He had a lot of tools, saws, and some hand tools,” Williams said.
Once the bunker is cleared, crews will cut some of the supporting timbers in the roof and the walls—”Basically cave the structure in on itself,” Williams said.
“It’s on such a steep slope, and above it… there’s rock and trees, and dirt that would be pretty easy to move down and help bury it.”
Crews are also taking down a pulley system over a small stream nearby.
“He put that in there, we think that’s how he got his logs across the stream,” Williams said. The pulley was very well hidden.
“Nobody ever saw it,” Williams said.
The Rattlesnake Ridge trail reopened this weekend after Keller was found dead.
However, Williams said the bunker site is a difficult site to reach.
“You don’t access the site from the trail.” Keller and the SWAT teams who followed had to cross privately held land to get there.
“I don’t envision any people making it to the spot,” Williams said.