Cold Cases in Washington
ColdCaseIndex documents 18 cases in Washington, dated 1961 to 2019. 8 are recorded as unsolved. The earliest is Ann Marie Burr (1961) and the most recent is Nikki Kuhnhausen (2019).
- Unsolved 8 (44%)
- Partly resolved 1 (6%)
- Solved or convicted 9 (50%)
Homicide clearance in Washington, 1965 to 2024
A homicide is "cleared" when police make an arrest or close it by exceptional means, so an uncleared case is not always an unsolved one. Source: Murder Accountability Project analysis of FBI Uniform Crime Report data, as published by Project: Cold Case. These are statewide totals and are separate from the ColdCaseIndex entries listed below.
By type
All Washington cases
Nikki Kuhnhausen
Nikki Kuhnhausen, a 17-year-old transgender girl from Vancouver, Washington, went missing on June 6, 2019 after spending time with David Bogdanov. Her remains were found on Larch Mountain in Clark County in December 2019.
Ingrid Lyne
Forty-year-old nurse Ingrid Lyne was killed in her Renton, Washington, home on April 8, 2016, after a date. Her dismembered remains were found in recycling bins in Seattle.
Sky Elijah Metalwala
Two-year-old Sky Metalwala was reported missing in Bellevue, Washington, in November 2011 after his mother said she left him in a car that ran out of gas.
Lindsey Baum
Lindsey Baum, 10, vanished while walking home from a friend's house in McCleary, Washington, in June 2009. Her remains were found by hunters in remote eastern Washington in 2017 and identified in 2018, turning the case into a…
Sofia Lucerno Juarez
Four-year-old Sofia Juarez disappeared near her Kennewick, Washington, home the night before her fifth birthday in February 2003, prompting the state's first Amber Alert.
"Lyle Stevik" (John Doe)
A man who checked into a Grays Harbor County, Washington, motel under the alias "Lyle Stevik" was found hanged in his room in September 2001, and his identity eluded investigators for nearly 17 years.
Thomas C. Wales
Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas C. Wales, 49, was shot through a basement window of his Seattle home on the night of October 11, 2001, as he worked at his computer; he died the next day.
Leah Roberts
Leah Toby Roberts, a 23-year-old from Durham, North Carolina, disappeared in March 2000 after driving across the country to Bellingham, Washington.
Teekah Lewis
Two-year-old Teekah Lewis vanished from the arcade of a Tacoma, Washington, bowling alley while her family bowled nearby in January 1999.
Mia Zapata
Mia Zapata, the 27-year-old lead singer of Seattle punk band The Gits, was raped and strangled in 1993 in a killing that shook the city's music scene.
Sarah Yarborough
Sarah Yarborough, 16, was sexually assaulted and strangled at Federal Way High School near Seattle in 1991. The case went cold for nearly three decades until forensic genetic genealogy identified Patrick Nicholas, who was…
Michella Welch
Michella Welch, a 12-year-old girl, was abducted, sexually assaulted, and killed after disappearing from a park in Tacoma, Washington, in 1986.
Wah Mee Club Massacre
Thirteen people were robbed and murdered at the Wah Mee private gambling club in Seattle's Chinatown-International District on February 19, 1983; a fourteenth victim survived.
Green River Killer Victims
Gary Ridgway, the Green River Killer, murdered at least 49 women in Washington State. He targeted mostly sex workers and runaways. Ridgway was convicted in 2003 after DNA evidence linked him to four victims.
Robert Lee Yates Victims
Robert Lee Yates Jr., a former Army helicopter pilot, pleaded guilty in 2000 to 13 murders committed in Washington between 1975 and 1998 and was sentenced to 408 years.
Ted Bundy Washington Victims
Eight young women vanished in Washington and Oregon between February and July 1974, beginning with Lynda Ann Healy in Seattle. Remains of seven were later found near Issaquah and on Taylor Mountain; Donna Manson was never…
D.B. Cooper
A man calling himself Dan Cooper hijacked Northwest Orient Flight 305 in 1971, extorted $200,000 in ransom, and parachuted from the plane somewhere over the Pacific Northwest. He was never identified or found.
Ann Marie Burr
Eight-year-old Ann Marie Burr vanished from her Tacoma, Washington home. Serial killer Ted Bundy, who lived nearby as a teenager, has been speculated as a suspect but the connection was never proven.