Siblings claim cousin killed their dad after starting incest relationship

Two Washington state siblings say their cousin killed their father on Christmas Day after they began an incestuous relationship and ran away together to Belize.
Jennifer Ralston and her brother Caleb McNamara filed a civil lawsuit last week against their cousin Tracy Shannon Nessl, who moved back to central Washington after the death of their father, Timothy McNamara.
The two claim their cousin put their dad's life insurance policy and his property in her name before she shot him in the back of the head. The U.S. does not have the authority to arrest Nessl since the alleged murder happened in Belize.
"It's insane," Caleb McNamara said. "This is absolutely insane."
The brother and sister said the 44-year-old Nessl started seeing her uncle, who was 22 years older than her, in 2012, just after he divorced his wife. Nessl's father was Timothy McNamara's brother.

 

 

Timothy McNamara's kids and his hometown of Soap Lake struggled to understand the new relationship.
"We had been raised in a very Christian, conservative home, and so it was hard for us to digest," Ralston said. "It was hard for us to understand."
The uncle-niece couple eventually took a romantic vacation to Belize — and never came back. While on their getaway, they purchased a 60-acre farm and moved in, the siblings said.
"I think my dad went to Belize because he really couldn't sell it in a small town, the relationship they were in." Caleb McNamara said.

Meanwhile, Nessl quietly put her lover's Washington state properties in her name and listed herself on his life insurance policy.
On Christmas Day 2014, the cousin shot Timothy McNamara in the back of the head with a shotgun, the siblings said.
She called Caleb McNamara a day later to tell him his dad died after he accidentally shot himself. Belize police later ruled his death a suicide.
"You don't shoot yourself in the back of the head," Caleb McNamara said. "It's borderline impossible."

The siblings pursued their dad's suspicious death and eventually got Interpol to issue a warrant for Nessl's arrest in Belize — but by then, their cousin was already back in Washington living on the family farm, one of the properties she put her name on before the shooting, they claimed.
U.S. officials do not have the power to arrest Nessl, and extradition back to Belize is a complicated process, the siblings said. That's why they filed the civil lawsuit.
Nessl has since cut communication with the siblings and won't allow them into the family farm, they said.
Instead, she now lives alone on the property Timothy McNamara dedicated his life to.
"The number one thing is you want justice for what happened to your dad, there's no doubt about it," said Jennifer Ralston. "But when you see everything he worked for his entire life and you were such a part of it and you're not even allowed to be there or go near it, you're like, this is so wrong."