A 57-year-old man accused of killing a woman in an Olathe hotel room was booked into the Johnson County jail Saturday following his February arrest in Arizona.
Franklin Bluelake, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, is being held on a $1 million bond after Johnson County prosecutors charged him Feb. 2 with first-degree premeditated murder. He is accused of killing Rhoda Morgan, 53, of Gardner, on Jan 29.
For the past month, Bluelake was held in police custody after he was arrested in Coconino County, Arizona, roughly 150 miles north of Phoenix.
A federal arrest warrant was issued in February after the U.S. Marshals Service suspected Bluelake fled to avoid a murder charge in Johnson County. He was suspected of hiding out on tribal lands in Arizona.
On Jan. 29., Olathe police officers were dispatched to the Econo Lodge at 20662 W. 151st Street to check the welfare of a guest who had not checked out by late morning. Responding officers found Morgan dead inside a hotel room, prompting a death investigation.
On Jan. 31, the Olathe Police Department announced the case was being investigated as a homicide following close work between investigators and the Johnson County Medical Examiner’s Office.
In an affidavit seeking federal criminal charges against Bluelake, a Johnson County Sheriff’s Office detective and U.S. Marshals task force member said an autopsy revealed Morgan was “murdered and suffered a broken neck.” Investigators were led to Bluelake as a suspect based on surveillance video from the area, interviews with Morgan’s relatives and “other investigative techniques,” according to court documents.
Bluelake was released from federal prison in 2018 after serving eight years of a 10-year sentence for beating a woman and fellow member of the Navajo Indian Tribe with whom he had previously been romantically involved.
In 2009, he was accused of sexually assaulting her and threatening to kill her because her brother “sent” him to prison, according to court documents.