Tacoma-Pierce County Crime Stoppers is spotlighting a decade-old slaying of a 39-year-old woman that remains unsolved.

The body of Sharon Y. Van Gilder was found shortly after midnight March 21, 2002. She was lying along the road in the 7400 block of 156th Street East in Spanaway.

Van Gilder had been strangled. Investigators believe she was left along the road a few hours before she was found. Detectives have offered no motive for her slaying.

Van Gilder, a lifelong Tacoma area resident, was last seen the night of March 20, 2002, at El Gallo de Oro tavern at 32nd Street …

Read more »

The King County Sheriff’s Office has exhumed the remains of a young woman killed in 1969 in hopes of identifying her more than 42 years later and possibly finding her killer.

The remains were discovered on a dirt road June 5, 1969, about one mile west of the Tolt River Bridge near Carnation, the Sheriff’s Office said in a press release issued today. The victim’s body was nude and heavily decomposed.

Investigators couldn’t determine who she was and dubbed her “Tolt Hill Jane Doe.” They believe the woman was white, 23 to 25, 5 feet 1 to 5 feet 2 …

Read more »

The DNA profile of serial killer Ted Bundy has been added to a national database where it can be compared to evidence from unsolved cases.

Bundy’s profile was uploaded into the FBI-run database Friday, said Keith Kameg, spokesman for Florida Department of Law Enforcement. The database contains DNA profiles of about 10 million convicted felons.

The department has not been notified that Bundy’s DNA matches any unsolved cases, Kameg said Monday.

“We are waiting the results,” he said.

Law enforcement officials hope the addition of Bundy’s DNA to the national database solves some cold cases or eliminates him in slayings …

Read more »

A Kent man wanted in connection with the 1993 execution-style slaying of two Navy sailors in southern California was arrested today as he headed to work.

The 34-year-old man, who lived with his family and worked in Kent, was taken into custody without incident, the Kent Police Department reported.

Work by the San Diego Police Department’s cold case squad and Kent police detectives led to today’s arrest. San Diego police reopened their slaying of two sailors and identified the Kent man as a suspect, Kent police reported.

The California investigators contacted Kent police in February. The Kent investigators followed up …

Read more »

Ten years ago, little Teekah Lewis vanished from a Tacoma bowling alley.

The 2 1/2-year-old girl was last seen playing near a coin-operated racing game as her family bowled nearby at New Frontier Lanes the night of Jan. 23, 1999.

Then she vanished. Teekah has not been seen or heard from since. Police investigators suspect a stranger might have snatched Teekah but have never had a suspect description to release.

Her mother says 10 years is long enough.

“My daughter has been missing for almost 10

Read more »

Jackson

On the third anniversary of her disappearance, Lakewood Police are still looking for information about what happened to Adre’anna Jackson.

Jackson, who was 10 at the time, was last seen walking from her family’s apartment on Portland Ave. SW to Tillicum Elementary on the morning of Dec. 2, 2005. Her remains were found on April 4 2006 in a vacant lot at the 7500 block of 146th Street SW in the Woodbrook area of Lakewood. Police suspect foul play and are looking for any information.

Tacoma/Pierce County Crime Stoppers are

Read more »

King County prosecutors announced today that they have filed a second-degree murder charge against a man in a 1980 Des Moines homicide case.

James Maynard Blair, 54, was linked to the unsolved crime by DNA. He is currently in prison on another charge and was scheduled for release in November — instead he will be arraigned at the regional justice center in Kent on Aug. 26.

According to charging documents:

Authorities did a welfare check on Kirk Parker on Feb. 27, 1980. He was founded dead in his trailer. He had been strangled and beaten. Cigarette butts,

Read more »

The Lacey Police Department’s investigation into the disappearance of Connie Vannausdle continues as the 15 year anniversary of when she was last seen by her husband and two young children approaches. And now, new forensic technology may be the key to resolving the case. Connie Vannausdle, who was 31 years old at the time of her disappearance on April 25, 1993, left behind a four year old boy and a two year old girl and she may have been pregnant with her third child. Connie’s family has described this young mother as completely devoted to her children and they

…

Read more »