Community Police & Fire

Suspect in Fox Island killing sentenced to 90 months following plea agreement

Pierce County Superior Court Judge Alicia Marie Burton last week sentenced Lars Eugene Nelson to 90 months in prison for shooting and killing Sophie Tinney, 27, at a home on Fox Island in April 2025.

Nelson pleaded guilty to second-degree murder under an agreement between Pierce County prosecutors and his attorneys. Both sides recommended the 90-month sentence (seven and a half years), below the standard sentencing range of 123 to 220 months for second-degree murder.

In documents filed in Superior Court, the attorneys argued that the lower sentence is justified because Nelson never wanted to kill Tinney. In fact, she worked for months to talk him into it, according to prosecutors and defense attorney Michael Austin Stewart.

Anti-natalism and negative utilitarianism

Tinney subscribed to a number of fringe philosophies, including anti-natalism and negative utilitarianism. She was a prominent figure in online communities espousing the unusual beliefs.

Negative utilitarianism, according to documents filed with the court by Stewart, is “the idea that reducing suffering was the paramount objective. Sophie believed that life was suffering and she wanted to end hers.” 

Anti-natalism holds that people should not procreate. Tinney believed “that she was born without consent and that no one would consent to a life of suffering.”

Tinney suffered from severe mental illness, according to Stewart, and previously attempted suicide via overdose. She was resuscitated and “was persistently angry that she was resuscitated.”

Her greatest fear was that she would attempt suicide again, become incapacitated and be forced to live against her will. So she turned to Nelson, whom she dated off and on since high school, for assistance.

Lars Nelson

“Ms. Tinney wanted to die, could not die without assistance, sought Mr. Nelson’s help persistently and deliberately, and secured his compliance only through her sustained efforts,” deputy prosecutor Derek Keenan wrote in documents requesting the reduced sentence.

Nelson struggled to overcome ADHD symptoms and to form connections with other people, his attorney wrote. Nonetheless, he spent a year volunteering through AmeriCorps and held down a warehouse job for more than six years.

After reconnecting with Tinney, Nelson soon became her caretaker. He moved in with her and attended to her needs, including when she suffered debilitating migraines.

Tinney pressured Nelson to shoot and kill her while she slept. She encouraged him to drink alcohol and smoke marijuana to overcome his anxiety about what she asked him to do.

She even encouraged him to take his own life after hers, so he could “come with her.”

“For days, Lars paced and cried, and faced Sophie’s anger each morning when he did not follow through,” Stewart wrote.

Reported as a suicide

Nelson finally succumbed to the pressure on April 20, 2025. At the time, investigators said Tinney died of multiple gunshot wounds to the head.

Nelson called 911 to report the death as a suicide. Police arrested Nelson and prosecutors charged him with murder two days later.

“However much Ms. Tinney wanted to die, Mr. Nelson was the one who ultimately took her life,” deputy prosecutor Keenan wrote. “In doing so, he eliminated any possibility for her to rediscover the abundance of brightness and joy in this world that could have possibly changed her mind. No matter how certain she was in those final days, the future holds no certainty — and her future was extinguished before it could unfold. For that, Mr. Nelson must be held accountable.”