SOUTH BEND, Wash. -- Law enforcement officers continued their search Tuesday for evidence of two additional deaths at a Raymond home where investigators have already found one set of remains.

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REMAINS FOUND Slideshow: Images From Case, Scene

Sheriff John Didion said authorities were trying to search entire four-acre property. Workers in the back yard at mid-day were pouring dirt through screens, trying to sift out any evidence. In front, other workers were pulling up floorboards on the deck of the couple's home.

"We're looking for trace evidence. It's a very time-consuming, tedious process, but a very necessary process," Didion said. He said "information is coming in every minute" from tipsters.

Authorities believe remains found at the home of David and Michelle Knotek last weekend were likely those of Ronald Woodworth. The 57-year-old man had been staying at the couple's home when he disappeared in July, the Pacific County prosecutor's office said in court documents.

Authorities also believe Michelle Knotek's teenage nephew, Shane Watson, and a woman named Kathy Loreno died at the house. Both had been staying at the home when they disappeared in 1994, Prosecutor David Burke said.

Kathy Loreno Courtesy Willapa Harbor Herald

All three had been boarders at the home, he said.

In court documents, Burke said David Knotek acknowledged fatally shooting Watson, and also acknowledged burying Woodworth and burning the bodies of Watson and Loreno and dumping the ashes at the beach.

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Horrific Search For Remains

Witnesses who contacted Pacific County sheriff's officers in the past two weeks alleged Michelle Knotek abused Kathy Loreno until she died. A witness also alleged Michelle Knotek had physically abused Woodworth, Burke said in a probable cause affidavit. The witnesses were not identified by name in court papers.

At a hearing Monday in Pacific County Superior Court, the Knoteks were ordered held on $2 million bail each.

Judge Joel Penoyar found probable cause to hold the couple for investigation in Loreno's disappearance from the four-acre property on Monohon Landing Road, east of Raymond.

The Knoteks' initial jail booking was amended Monday from investigation of first-degree manslaughter to investigation of first-degree murder, Sheriff John Didion said.

Charges were expected to be filed by Wednesday, Burke said.

A search warrant was initially issued for the property as part of an investigation into the disappearance of Loreno, believed to have been in her mid-20s, Didion said.

"The investigation is ongoing. There is much that we need to learn about the case," Burke told a news conference Monday afternoon. "There are many more questions that I have than I have answers."

The Knoteks were arrested Friday.

On Saturday, investigators found remains, believed to be Woodworth's, in the back yard.

Searchers continued combing the house, grounds and vehicles, Didion said Monday.

"That search will continue until we're satisfied that we've processed the scene for all available evidence to support these charges," he said.

A deputy interviewed the Knoteks about Loreno in 1994 after her family reported her missing but was told she had left the house, Didion said.

Neither Woodworth nor Watson had been reported missing, probably because both had severed ties with their families, Deputy Prosecutor Lori Miller said.

The state Department of Social and Health Services said Monday it was investigating Michelle Knotek's possible association with the state's long-term care system. State records indicate that she previously was a case aide employed by the Olympic Area Agency on Aging, spokesman Dave Workman said. Those records indicate that agency, based in Aberdeen, terminated her several years ago.

An area agency on aging provides case management for vulnerable adults who live in their own homes, receiving publicly funded services as clients in the long-term care system, Workman said in a statement.

An autopsy on the initial set of remains was planned in King County.

The sheriff said a task force, including representatives of the King, Lewis, Grays Harbor and Clark county sheriffs' offices, South Bend police, Raymond police and the King County medical examiner's office, has been established to continue the investigation.