Guard's boyfriend upset about delay in search

MONROE — Jayme Biendl was so prompt "you could set your watch" by her, so why did she remain missing for nearly 90 minutes on the night she died, her boyfriend wondered during a memorial vigil Sunday night.

"Does that mean she's lying there for an hour and a half?" asked Ken King, who had dated Biendl for five years. His conclusion: "They did not bother to look for Jayme."

Biendl, found strangled at the chapel of the Monroe Correctional Complex late Saturday, felt "isolated" at that post, said King, describing the chapel as "out there on an island."

"She's been expressing her concerns for quite a while," said King, 46, of Mukilteo. "She's out there alone at this time of night with inmates in there for anything from rape to murder."

About 100 people, many of them fellow correctional officers, joined a roadside vigil lit with candles late Sunday.

Other corrections officers shared King's frustrations, including Ann Sorenson, who helped train Biendl.

"It's always been said that something would have to happen before something was done," Sorenson said. "Now it's happened."

Scott Frakes, superintendent of the prison, said the delay in finding Biendl must be examined in a review.

King said he and Biendl had talked about marrying. "Jayme's got a smile and a set of eyes that would freaking light the world," he said.

Jonathan Martin reported from Seattle.

Olivia Bobrowsky: 206-464-3195 or obobrowsky@seattletimes.com.