King County Cold Case Unit

Occasionally you will see a post on ClarkBlog.net that is related to current news. I love a good mystery; what's sad is that the mysteries surrounding stories like this mean that someone has died. Like the cold case in Shoreline I wrote about in 2007, which involved a girl about the same age as my sisters (read the link to understand my connection to the story). Or an old news clipping I saw at the library, on a robbery/fatality that went unsolved. That is why I like people who investigate Cold Cases. These folks bring justice to those who can no longer speak for themselves.

Today I was thrilled to read that a federal grant is going to fund a Cold Case Squad for King County for 18 months. More power to them I say. Around 2000 I came across the above-stated news clipping about a gas station, at the corner of what is now 132nd Ave NE and Old Redmond Road. This clipping was from an November 1st, 1960 P-I Article, and was about the widow of the station owner, who had been shot and killed a year or two prior during a robbery. She was closing the station down for a full day in memory of him and to bring attention to the unsolved case. The widow eventually married the lead detective on the case and I was unable to find any more information it in later papers.

The whole thing intrigued me enough to contact King County Sheriff directly; I sent an email to John Urquhart, spokesman for the department, describing the case I came across and asking if KC had a Cold Case squad. "No we don't," he replied by email. "What is your connection to the case?" I explained that I really didn't have a connection to the case, other than living on the Eastside within a few miles of the scene and that I was curious if it ever got solved. He said he would look into it, but that's where it ended. I even forwarded information about the case to A&E's "Cold Case Files" to see if they could find out more. That too led to nothing.

This Gas Station case, along with 192 others dating back as far as 1942, will be be reviewed by a team dedicated to cold cases for the next 18 months. Here's to closure for many families, and justice for all. Amen.