Once they were officially released the Thurston County Sheriff’s were super quick with getting me the second installment of files related to the murder of Katherine Merry Devine (I think they sent them before I even paid). There’s about 30 ‘tif’ files that look like newspaper articles, I’m having problems uploading them (as well as a 31 minute video) but once I figure it out I’ll attach them.
In late April 2024 I requested the files related to the murder of Kathy Devine from the Thurston County Sherrif’s department in Washington state, and they finally got around to getting them to me at the end of June. I shouldn’t be so salty, I’m very thankful they were willing to send them to me. Included in the information was a bunch of newspaper articles about Kathy, and I almost didn’t include them because most of them I found on newspapers.com (and are in my article), but it was important that I release Kathy’s case file in it’s entirety. They did tell me that sometime in August additional information will be ‘made available’ so… that’s also exciting.
Written by Teri Phillips-Offield.
Intro: Jessica told you about the monster behind these heinous crimes, and now, I am going to tell you about the victims. I think it is important to know about their lives and not the fact that they died, but that they lived. The victims are the ones who should be remembered.
I feel that his sisters were among his first victims along with Helen Pilkerton. They suffered abuse at his hand and also were used to lure unsuspecting victims. To my utter disbelief, there were not much information for the beautiful lost souls, and none for the hitchhikers they fell victim to him. I want them to know that I, a complete stranger, do not know who you are or where you are, did not forget you.
I also feel that if his parents would have not covered for him and turned him in, many lives would have been saved. This is my opinion but after hearing the whole story from his sisters, my opinion is that they didn’t protect them and then did not protect the poor innocent girls from this monster.
Ted Bundy was suspected of Kathy’s death, but DNA proved to be William Cosden Jr. He was in prison for attacking Beverly Pearson already hiding right under their nose. It took 28 years and DNA evidence to find the truth. Here is the havoc this man created and the grief he inflicted on the families of his victims. I will start with his earliest victims, his sisters, and then go on to victims he raped, and killed, and finally Kathy Devine, his final known victim. A story full of senseless killings that never should have happened if he would have stayed in jail where he belonged.
Early Victim, Helen Pilkerton: Cosden was sent to a mental hospital in Maryland for killing a woman in 1967 and was serving a three to four-year term at the McNeil Island Corrections Center near Tacoma for a 1976 rape and murder conviction. Her name was Helen Patricia Pilkerton. She was an employee of the Lexington Park Motel and was just 20 years old. Helen Patricia Pilkerton was born on May 24th, 1945, in St. Mary’s, Maryland, her father, John was 22 and her mother Helen was 21. She had one brother and four sisters. She died on April 16, 1967, at the age of 21, and was buried in Hollywood, Maryland.
Helen was found in a stream by two teenage girls and her body was badly beaten. Cosden had just returned from active duty in Vietnam where he was discharged due to violent behavior. The family of the victim had to sue the Military because of the outrageous leniency of the sentence. To my utter disbelief, Cosden was free after 6 years to rape and kill again. Deputy Prosecutor Philip Harju said, “He is an obvious danger to society.” Yet, he was released to rape and kill again. The story should have ended here, better yet not allowed at all.
His sisters, Karen and Susan: They were told their brother was away at a hospital and so his sisters thought he was all better when he came home. There was no warning from their parents whatsoever. They never told them why he was away and never took steps to protect them. He would get in constant trouble at home and in school almost like he invited the punishment. He always had to be in control. His sisters wished their parents were more aware. He loved to torment his sisters and animals. He got pleasure in making his sisters cry. When Karen was 4, he started sexually abusing her. He warned her he would hurt the whole family if she told. The same thing happened to Susan in a few years. He took steps to encourage them to not be close.
When Susan was 8, her brother can downstairs all dressed up to go out. The next morning, she woke to find the sheriff at the kitchen table. They came for her brother. He had confessed to his father that he had killed a woman the night before. The sisters were beginning to see just how evil he was. He did four years in a mental hospital. Four years. His parents told the girls he had went to get well and he was well. That very night he came home, he sexually assaulted his sister.
He was also a firebug and burned down the family home. His mother suspected it was him but did nothing. Again. The cause of the fire was listed as electrical. A house down the block burned too. He seemed to get away with everything. He would also burn his truck to cover evidence.
Then one day the paper was showing about a body found. He got more and more agitated as the paper was read and screamed at them to stop reading. This turned out to be Kathy. He would go to “help” people on snow days when in fact he was looking for prey. One day after a snow day he was arrested for rape.
In 1986, Susan came across his file that showed he was going to be released, she freaked out. She went to the police department to talk about her abuse. The detective she talked to said he believed her brother killed Kathy and would not retire until he found out. Susan told her story and wanted to make sure he didn’t get out. DNA tests were done, and he was convicted. She even flipped him the bird as they were sentencing him. Her family was actually mad at her for doing this. Susan, you are a hero to me.
In 2015, he died alone of a heart attack. They had to deal with the effects of their traumatic past as adults, with one of the sisters even nearing death. Despite the difficulties, the sisters band together to discuss the harm done to them and make an effort to make things right. About a week after filming, Sisters in Silence, Karen Harris passed away following a battle with lung cancer. RIP Karen.
Hitchhikers: Restover Truck Stop in Tumwater, just off Interstate 5, focal point for hitchhikers where he worked there, and his father owned. As I pointed out, Susan says her brother Williams Cosden Jr. would use her as bait to pick up women hitchhikers. The women would feel safe getting into his truck with a little girl there. He would tell his mom he was taking Susan to get ice cream and then take her to pick up hitchhikers. Once the girls were in the truck, he would lock Susan in the back. Many hitchhikers would disappear during this time. We may never know all his victims and which ones were Bundy’s. I apologize for not finding any names of the hitchhiker victims, it makes me wonder how many girls are in unmarked graves all over because of men like Cosden. I wonder if these families ever knew what happened to their daughters. My heart goes out to these families. I hope they found some kind of closure.
Beverly Pearson: On November 30th, 1975, 24-year-old Beverly Pearson stopped to get gas. As she was filling up, she encountered Willian Cosden Jr. She recognized him, but finished getting gas and drove away. On her way home, she lost control of her truck and pulled over. She noticed that Cosden pulled over right behind her. She told him she was fine, but when she went to get back in her truck, he hit her with a rubber mallet. He then forced her into his truck and kept threatening her and she kept saying to not hit her again.
He pulled over at a wooded area and sexually assaulted her. She remembers thinking to try to get him to talk. Her step father was a police commissioner and taught her to try and get anyone who attacks you to talk. She asked him personal questions and told him if he let her go, he could come visit her at home. It worked and he took her back to her truck. She immediately called the police and Cosden was picked up Cosden was found guilty and was sentence to serve a 49-year sentence. Because of her bravery, he was off the streets.
Kathy Devine: I got most of Kathy’s story from Jessica because she wrote it better than any article I read. According to Jessica, Katherine Devine was born to Sally and William L. Devine in Seattle in King County, Washington, on December 25, 1958. She was a Christmas baby. Her family remembered how the kind-hearted teen thought she was destined to become a Minister after being born on Christmas Day. Kathy regularly brought home stray animals and homeless children living on the streets to take care of them. She had a big heart and always sought to help the less fortunate and helpless individuals.
Witnesses last saw the 14-year-old teen hitchhiking in Seattle near North 91st Street and Aurora Avenue North. Her mother stared Kathy had just broken up with her boyfriend and was headed south to visit relatives in Rockaway, Oregon. Her family had reported her to the authorities as a runaway. Little did they know that was the last time their daughter would be seen alive. On December 6, 1973, a young couple stumbled across the remains of the 14-year-old girl in Margaret McKenny Campground in Thurston County.
The victim’s throat had been slashed, and she was lying face down. An examination further revealed she had been brutally sodomized and strangled to death. According to police reports, the officers found the victim’s pants were deliberately torn. Authorities figured that since the place was deserted and it would take a local to know their way around the campground, the killer must be local. The decomposed remains were not immediately identified until Kathy’s sister Sherrie Devine, then 16, saw a television news program in Seattle of the discovery and recognized an embroidered patch on the pair of jeans the victim was reported wearing.
Witnesses saw Cosden come in the night of the murder with stains on his clothing. The witnesses called police. After leaving the truck stop, Cosden’s truck caught fire and was destroyed three miles from the truck stop. During initial interviews with police, Cosden denied ever seeing Kathy Devine.”
Kathy was first thought to be a victim of Ted Bundy. When Ms. Devine disappeared in 1973 Ted was attending the University of Puget Sound Law School and lived within two miles from where she was last seen. Everyone knows he drove the yellow, cream-colored Beetle for years before his arrest, but supposedly his brother owned a white pickup truck. During his death row confessions before his execution in 1989, Bundy told law enforcement that he picked up a hitchhiker in 1973, killed her then left her body close to where Kathy’s remains were found in Olympia, however he couldn’t remember the exact location. He denied having any involvement with Devine’s murder. But this makes me wonder if he did indeed kill Kathy. Cosden was surprised to be convicted and Bundy admitted to killing a hitchhiker and they only found Kathy at that site.
Kathy’s ex-boyfriend was a suspect but passed the polygraph. Another man said he saw the whole thing but was very uncooperative with police. While searching his house, a lot of newspaper articles about Kathy were found along with a blood-stained knife. When they brought him in, he denied all charges and said he could explain. He said the knife was for hunting and after testing, the knife did indeed have animal blood on it. He was cleared of the charges.
An anonymous man called detectives and suggested they investigate Cosden. The man said he looked in the back of Cosden’s truck and found a blood-soaked sleeping bag along with a single shoe. He was looking in Cosden’s truck because he claimed he was a co-worker and Cosden was stealing from him. Before the police had a chance to investigate Cosden’s truck “mysteriously” caught in fire. Remember, Kathy was found missing a shoe. The shoe found on Kathy matched what the man described but they never got the evidence since it burned.
The police went to the jail to confront Cosden and he denied it even though they have DNA proof found on Kathy. Luckily, they had enough to convince a jury and his sister, Susan helped, and he was convicted.
He lived in the area at the time of Kathy’s disappearance and murder. According to witnesses, William was seen wearing bloodstained clothes at the Truck Stop on November 26, 1973. He worked at the truck shop owned by his father and was reportedly working an early morning shift. After leaving the truck stop, Cosden’s truck caught fire and was destroyed three miles from the truck stop.
Additionally, witnesses claimed to find what appeared to be bloodstains inside William’s truck late on November 25, the very day Kathy was last seen alive.
William Cosden was already in prison for sexually assaulting Beverly Pearson when he was convicted of Kathy’s death. it was be the oldest open murder case in the state to have been solved by DNA “fingerprinting,” authorities said.
After Cosden was finally convicted of his daughter’s murder, Mr. Devine said: ‘It’s finished. There’s a justice system, and it works.″ ‘It doesn’t bring Kathy back, but it sure does help. “It was very creepy,” Sherrie Devine, the victim’s older sister, said of the court appearance. Devine’s mother, Sally, said she was nervous about seeing Cosden for the first time. “It would have been worse if we would have had to look directly at him,” I cannot help thinking that if the justice system kept this monster behind bars after his first murder and rape in 1967, Kathy would still be alive. And why weren’t his sisters protected from this monster? They were just little girls.
Conclusion: It took many years to finally catch her killer, but finally the family has answers and hopefully a little bit of peace. Such an unnecessary waste of her and of the beautiful souls who left this world too soon. My heart goes out to everyone whose life was touched by William Cosden Jr. I want to thank Jessica for not letting these girls be forgotten and reminding us they did live and not only die. And Charlene and Sherrie, you should have never had to endure this kind of horror in your family. My heart goes out to you and much respect for coming out the other side of this tragedy. A long as Jessica and I are here, we will not let her be forgotten.
Cites:
Katherine Devine Murder: Where is William Cosden Jr Today? Update (thecinemaholic.com)
Life term for man whom DNA linked to murder (seattlepi.com)
Closing ceremony, tour of McNeil Island prison (seattlepi.com)
Evil Lives Here, Sisters in Silence. Season 13, Episode 10.
Katherine Devine Murder: Where is William Cosden Jr Today? Update (thecinemaholic.com)
Katherine Merry “Kathy” Devine. | Another Bundy Blog. (wordpress.com)
Most pictures were taken from Another Bundy Blog: Kathy Devine
Facebook page Cowards ad Killers
Man sentenced to life in prison for 1973 murder | The Seattle Times
Historical Newspapers from 1700s-2000s – Newspapers.com
On the case with Paul Zahn, Season 12, Ep 4, Waving Goodbye.
Other info, Another Bundy Blog. (wordpress.com)
https://www.heraldnet.com/news/rapist-charged-in-1973-killing/
Written by Jessica J. Jurewicz-Woods.
William Earl Cosden Jr. was born on December 19, 1946 to William Earl Sr. and Janet (nee Bakke) in Baltimore, Maryland. The couple were married on June 6, 1945 and eventually settled down near Seattle in Washington and had two girls and two boys: Karen (Harris), Susan (Keller), William Jr. and Timothy. Mr. Cosden worked as a mechanic and owned a truck stop near Olympia, WA. After high school (I’m not sure if he graduated and I couldn’t find the name of the institution he attended), ‘Billy’ joined the Marines and fought in the Vietnam War. Not long after arriving back in the US, he was charged with the murder of Helen Patricia Pilkerton. The 22 year-old disappeared on April 16, 1967 and her body was eventually found by two teenage girls in a stream by Flat Iron Road in the Great Mills area of Baltimore. Two court appointed psychiatrists testified in court that the war vet ‘lacked the substantial capacity to appreciate the consequences of the crime.‘ Circuit Court Judges Perry Brown and J. Dudley Diggs determined that the then twenty-year-old Cosden was ‘insane at the time of the murder,’ which saved him from ‘hard time.’ He was sentenced to reside at the Clifton T. Perkins Hospital in Jessup, MD until ‘he no longer constitutes a danger to others or himself under the dictates of the law.’ Regarding the verdict, Judge Diggs said that ‘the facts substantiated by the State prove that the defendant (Cosden) is really but not responsible for his actions because of mental illness.’ Just as a side note, this really passes me off. If the judges realized who exactly they had in their custody and sentenced him to prison it may have prevented the death of Katherine Devine and the brutal rape and assault of Beverly Pearson.
Four years later Cosden was released from the psychiatric hospital and moved to Washington state to be with his family. He began working at his father’s business, the Restover Truck Stop in Tumwater, which happened to be a popular hangout for hitchhikers. On November 25, 1973, Katherine Merry Devine vanished without a trace while attempting to hitchhike about 200 miles away to her cousin’s house in Rockaway, Oregon. The next day, a coworker noticed bloodstains in Cosden’s truck, which coincidentally caught fire immediately after. Although LE had their suspicions about Cosden being involved in the 14 year old’s death, they had no proof tying him to the crime.
William managed to fly under the radar until 1975, when he was arrested for the brutal assault and rape of Beverly Pearson (in some older newspaper articles she has the last name Frederick). Early in the morning on November 30, 1975, thirty year-old Cosden brutally raped and assaulted the 24-year-old, who was a customer at his truck stop. The weather that night was snowy and driving conditions were treacherous, and he asked the pretty young pharmacy technician if she’d like him to follow her home to make sure she got there safely. She politely declined his offer however he insisted. At some point during their drive, Billy purposely drove his truck into a ditch then pretended to need help getting it out. After Beverly got out of her car to check on him, Cosden subdued her by hitting her on the head from behind and threatening her with a rubber mallet. Pearson told him that she would ‘do anything if he wouldn’t hurt her’ and at one point during the assault Billy grabbed her by the throat and asked how she was going to explain her ‘new bruises.’ After raping her twice, he took her to his property in Maytown. During the drive, Beverly tried to jerk the wheel in an attempt to make him lose control, and even tried to escape by trying to open the door and crawling out. She was unsuccessful.
The attack took place in a secluded wooded area near Maytown Road. Miraculously, Beverly was able to convince her attacker to let her go and he was arrested a few days later, just hours after she made the report to police. Pearson told the sheriff’s department that she was assaulted by a man ‘named Bill at the Lathrop Road Truck Stop.’ FBI Agent Myron Scholberg said the victim’s hair was found on Cosdens overalls and in his truck, which helped officially link him to the crime. A second federal agent named Allison Semmes positively identified stains that were left behind on Beverly’s underwear and panty hose as Cosdens sperm; the same substance was found on the overalls he was wearing that night. Strangely enough, when law enforcement examined his truck they were unable to find any identifiable fingerprints.
At Cosdens’ trial, a nurse that treated Pearson the night she was assaulted testified that she had ‘bruises and reddened areas around her head and shoulders’ and a Doctor said her injuries were consistent with the results of wounds caused by a blunt object. Dr. Torre Nielson (a Psychiatrist for the defense) said that ‘the performance of two sexual acts in succession in cold weather was highly unlikely.’ He also said that it’s common for a man to experience impotence when thinking of his wife and child. A Seattle based pathologist told the jury that based on lab tests done at around 9 AM later the same day the attack took place, no intercourse had occurred in the previous 12 hours.
While testifying in his own defense, Cosden said when Beverly first saw him early that morning she waved to him, flirting as if they knew each other and happily accepted his offer to follow her home because of the weather. The defendant said that Pearson deserted her pickup in the middle of the intersection at 101st Ave and Case Road, backing it up into the wrong lane then leaving it to get in his vehicle ‘to talk.’ He went on to say that she sat in the middle of his seat, wrapped her arms around him, and asked him to drive them to a place where they could ‘be alone.’ William testified that she talked about her divorce and that he never threatened her or hit her in any capacity. He took her to some property he owned in Mayfield and at no point during their time together did Pearson try to get away from him or leave his company; he also said that at any point if she changed her mind about being with him he would have stopped everything and taken her back to her pickup. He shared with the jury that he never threatened her with a gun ‘hidden under the seat, as she had testified’ and didn’t even keep a weapon in his truck. The married man also claimed that he completely turned down her advances, and that he couldn’t partake in sex with Beverly because all he could think about was his wife and child. When asked how he felt about what happened, Cosden said that he ‘felt like a damned fool.’
Cosden also testified that Beverly drove to his house on January 5, 1976 looking for him. After she pulled away, he immediately called his Attorney Don Taylor and told him about the incident.
On February 18, 1976 William Earl Cosden Jr. was sentenced to 32 years in prison for the rape and brutal assault of Beverly Pearson. He was up for parole in 1990 however the board denied his release, saying he was not safe to be released into the community. Apparently Cosden had quite a temper and on two separate occasions he was brought back to prison after being thrown out of pre-release housing units. In 1999 he was up for parole again but was denied.
In 1986, Thurston County Detective Mark Curtis got a court order for Cosdens blood, but because the technology wasn’t available at the time the sample sat in evidence for so long that he forgot it was even taken. Because of some grant money available through the WA state Attorney General’s HITS program, Curtis was able to take part of the DNA sample to compare to Devines. In 2001, a comparison was done and the test came back a match: William Cosden Jr. killed Katherine Merry Devine. After the successful identification, Detectives Joe Vukich and Brian Schoening went to the prison Cosden was being housed at on McNeil Island and questioned him about his involvement with the murder of Devine. He claimed to know nothing about it.
In 2002 the rest of the DNA sample Cosden provided in 1986 was used in a second analysis, and there was no doubt about it: he was the man that killed Kathy Devine. Detectives David Haller and Tim Rudolf went to talk to Cosden about the positive identification; this time he said he may have had sex with her but didn’t kill her. He was furious when detectives arrested him for the 1973 murder, despite already being in prison. Thankfully, prosecutors were able to argue that Kathy’s DNA was a match to the blood found in his truck and on his clothes. William Cosden Jr. was 55 when he was sentenced to life in prison without the chance of parole in June 2002. Former Deputy Prosecutor Philip Harju said that he was ‘an obvious danger to society,’ and former Thurston County Superior Court Judge Daniel Berschauer agreed with his assessment before passing on the life sentence.
William Earl Cosden Jr. died at the age of 69 in 2015 while incarcerated outside of Seattle, Washington. William Cosden Sr. passed away on December 8, 1983, and Mrs. Cosden died on May 3, 2014 at the age of 88. Susan Cosden-Keller began her career as a teacher but went back to school for her nursing degree. Karen Cosden-Harris worked as a reading specialist at Evergreen Elementary School in Washington. Timothy Cosden was a massage therapist until recently, when on October 5, 2022 his license was suspended after he was accused of sexual assault (Bilbao, The Olympian).*
On Easter Sunday 2023, an episode of the Discovery Plus show ‘Evil Lies Here’ premiered that featured William Cosden Jr.’s two younger sisters. Karen and Susan also fell prey to their older brother, who made them keep his secrets to themselves. The two women lost touch over the years, each one becoming busy with their own careers and lives all while trying to heal and move on from their painful childhoods. But after Karen received a terminal diagnosis of stage four lung cancer, they reunited on the show to talk through their shared trauma in hopes of healing and coming to terms with what happened to them in their younger years. Karen Cosden-Harris sadly passed away on November 4, 2022.
* Bilbao, Martin. ‘Thurston County Massage therapist, 68, suspended for alleged sexual assault.’ October 12, 2022. https://www.theolympian.com/news/local/article267212417.html
Katherine ‘Kathy’ Merry Devine was born on Christmas day in 1959 to William and Sallyann (nee Dayton) Devine of Seattle, Washington. Bill was born on September 14, 1935 in Yakima, WA and Mrs. Devine was born on May 15, 1935. They were wed on September 20, 1954 in Seattle and had three daughters together: Sherrie, Katherine, and Charlene. Kathy was the middle child and there is a twelve year age gap between her and Char; Sherrie is just a year older than Katherine. The couple at some point divorced, and Bill remarried a woman named Beverly (nee Clark) on Valentine’s Day in 1989. He was employed in the fire equipment sales and service business for over 35 years before retiring.
Just as a side note, this was one of the very first articles I wrote, and recently when I went back to edit it I was shocked at how incomplete it was. I’ve been writing for about two years now and I’ve gained a lot of skills and resources since then, so I’ve really been able to dig into Kathy’s case and find out more about not only her but also the man that killed her. In April 2024 I began the (long and tedious) process of editing her piece after not only finding more articles (and pictures) about her but also meeting her younger sister and mother. Earlier in the month I went to Portland and Seattle, and had the privilege of meeting both ladies, and Char was kind enough to show me her childhood home as well as the corner at the end of their street where investigators strongly suspect her sister initially hitchhiked from. From there we went to the mausoleum where the remains of her sister were kept in the north part of Seattle, and as beautiful as it looks in the pictures it’s even more stunning in person. When we were done she took me to the retirement community where Mrs. Devine lived, and we spent about an hour together, sitting and reminiscing about not only Kathy but also the hitchhiking ban the family attempted to get off the ground. Sitting there on that beautiful spring day, it was as if I’ve known both women my entire life. In fact, I found myself telling Char things that my husband doesn’t even know (sorry Charlie). I’m really finding it incredibly hard as an adult to meet new people, especially ones that I have such a strong connection with (working two jobs makes things especially difficult). Back when I was in Florida I was able to track down Sue Justis’ sister on FB and I sent her my newly finished article, and she was NOT HAPPY. I feel very fortunate that both Charlene and Mrs. Devine were both so kind and welcoming to me. Both women are very easy to love.
In the fall of 1973 fourteen year old Kathy Devine was struggling: she had recently ended things with her boyfriend and was beginning to dabble in substance abuse. Talking to Char about it, her drug use wasn’t anything extreme, and sounded like normal teenage fun (especially in the early 1970’s). Described by those that loved her as sweet and kind, Katherine loved poetry and lined the walls of her bedroom with poems. She doted on her little sister, and I saw this with my own eyes when watching home videos of the Devine’s: Kathy was always playing with Charlene, and showing her all the love and affection a big sister should give to their little sister. The Sunday after Thanksgiving on November 25, 1973 Kathy disappeared while hitchhiking near her Seattle residence after getting into an argument with her mom about dating. Before leaving the Devine family home, she wrote her mom a note explaining that she needed to escape and was going to Rockaway Beach, Oregon to visit with her cousins. She ended it with: ‘PS. Don’t worry mom I’ll be back.’
Kathy was last seen by two girlfriends getting into a beat up old pickup truck driven by an unknown male near North 91st Street and Aurora Avenue North; investigators strongly theorized that she walked roughly a quarter mile down the corner of her street and took off from there. Devine told them she was ‘thumbing a ride’ to her cousin’s house about 200 miles away and intended to hitchhike the entire way there. After meeting Charlene she shared with me that investigators suspect she was picked up at the end of their street and was dropped off at the Restover Truck Stop near Tumwater, and it was there that she met the man that killed her. Kathy’s parents said that she had some depression and mental health issues and reported her as missing to police after they found her note and she failed to return home. Mrs. Devine said of her daughter: ‘she was beautiful inside and out, but she was a normal troubled teenager.’… ‘I don’t think she had more troubles than anyone else her age during that time.’ At the time of her murder Devine was a sophomore at Ingraham High School, and like so many Bundy victims she was beautiful, tall, and willowy, weighing 120 pounds and standing 5’8″ tall; she had startling blue-gray eyes and light brown hair that fell mid-way down her back. I’m pulling this quote from her ‘FindAGrave’ site from an interview someone did with one of her sisters: ‘there’s a million things I could tell you about Kathy but I wouldn’t even know where to start. Since she was born on Christmas Day, she felt it was her calling to become a minister. I don’t know if she would’ve ever done it but she always talked about it. She constantly brought home both stray animals and unfortunate children. She had such a big heart and was always looking to help someone.’
Sadly, two of Devine’s girlfriends were with her when she got in the strangers truck, and were forced to watch their friend drive away with a man she didn’t know, completely unaware that they’d never see her again. Kathy was last seen wearing a white peasant blouse, navy-colored bell bottom jeans with a dragon patch on the back pocket, a mock-suede brown coat with fur trim and her black ‘waffle-stomper’ boots. She was also wearing some inexpensive ‘costume jewelry,’ including a florentine-style friendship ring, an imitation blue-green zirconia ring, and a pair of cross earrings.
Eleven days after she was last seen on December 6, 1973 the remains of Katherine Merry Devine were discovered roughly 80 miles away in Margaret McKenny Campground in the Capitol State Forest. Park Caretaker Barbara Saling was out with her husband picking up trash when she stumbled upon the remains at the edge of a clearing. About the incident, Saling said ‘we knew it was a murder. We knew it was not an accident.’ The couple found Devine laying face down in an overgrowth of ferns, salal, moss, and kinnickinnic in a depression in the forest floor next to Campground Space #1. Retired Thurston County Undersheriff Neil McClanhan commented that ‘it was a horrific crime, she was just dumped, left for the animals and the environment. What a shock it was to the community.’
Thurston County forensic experts were able to tell that Kathy was killed shortly after she disappeared (most likely on December 1), but unfortunately the winter of 1973 was unseasonably warm so decomposition had set in quickly making it hard for forensic experts to determine her exact cause of death. Additionally, small animals had ravaged her body, coming in at the neck; her heart, lungs, and liver were missing. Despite being found fully clothed, the young woman’s bell bottoms were cut in the back, exposing her backside from the waist to the underwear area; evidence suggested she had been sexually assaulted and sodomized. Devine had a deep wound on her neck and it was the ME’s determination that she had been strangled to death. She had deep knife wounds on both of her breasts and investigators found a piece of rope underneath her body. Kathy also had noticeable cuts on her coat, jeans, and underwear, and neither her wallet, purse, or left boot were found with her.
When Kathy’s remains were discovered they weren’t immediately identified: Sherrie Devine was watching television several weeks after her sister disappeared and saw a news report that mentioned the discovery of a body at a local park and recognized the embroidered dragon patch on the victims bell bottoms as belonging to Kathy. She never arrived in Oregon.
After Kathy’s remains were discovered her uncle Delmar Bennett positively identified her body (it was actually his house in Oregon that she was hitchhiking to). Devine was a frequent hitchhiker, and according to reports it was not the first time she traveled that way to Rockaway Beach. She reportedly stayed at a friend’s house the night before she disappeared along with a third girl, and on the day of the three agreed to travel to Oregon together. When someone pulled over and Kathy got in, the other two girls thought she was joking and stayed behind, fully expecting the vehicle to pull over after a few blocks and for their friend to jump out. Before she was killed Sherrie tried to educate her younger sister on multiple occasions about the dangers of hitchhiking, and Mrs. Devine had no idea she was participating in the activity until she got a ticket in the summer of 1972 for doing it ‘too close to a freeway.’ It’s worth mentioning that in 1973 you needed to be 18 to do it.
The eleven days between her disappearance and the discovery of Kathy’s body made it almost impossible to pinpoint exactly who abducted her. Former Thurston County Sheriff Don Redmond commented that: ‘it’s that damned new hitchhiking law. Kids can stick their thumbs out and get in a car with anybody.’ Devine’s murder case was one of the longest unsolved homicides in Washington state history, and for most of the 28 years after she was killed her family said they learned next to nothing about the identity of her killer.
A few weeks after Kathy’s remains were found the Thurston County Sheriff’s Department received a four page letter sent sent by an anonymous individual that purportedly named Kathy’s killer. The correspondence included a sketch of the mustachioed perp as well as a second drawing of his ‘scarred hand.’ (Retired) Thurston County Lieutenant Don Snook told the public that ‘we would like to hear more from this writer,’ and (retired) Sheriff Don Redmond commented that the letter said the slayer was ‘sick and would kill again.’ The details from the letter were investigated and two homes were looked into as the potential hideouts of Devine’s killer, one in Nisqually Valley and another on Waldrick Road. In addition to the letter, the ‘Crime Checkers’ (which is a hotline of sorts to report crime-related activity) received an anonymous phone call from a man who simply said, ‘I know who killed Katherine Devine,’ then immediately hung-up without elaborating. Nothing ever came of either incident and were eventually deemed to be hoaxes. When I asked Char why anyone would do such a thing, she simply shrugged her shoulders and said, ‘people are nuts.’
Before Kathy was killed on May 17, 1973 nineteen year-old Theresa A. Granulas out of Spokane was murdered after being stabbed in the stomach, and roughly twenty days after her remains were discovered another body was found in a nearby wooded area outside of Seattle. The ME was able to determine that the remains belonged to thirty-eight year old Jimmy Frank Hildebrand, a GI from Fort Lewis; he died from two small caliber bullet wounds to the neck. Almost immediately Sheriff’s determined that the three murders were unrelated, mostly due to the fact that they were committed in different ways and their methods of disposal greatly varied. After putting in some good detective work, it was eventually determined that two men from Tacoma murdered Hildebrand, and in July 1973 a jury of his peers found a man named Frank Chase (who also went by the alias ‘Frank White Eagle’) guilty of Granulas’ murder; he was sentenced to forty years in prison. Additionally, on Mothers Day in 1973 a Richester, WA mother named Elaine Bills killed her four year old daughter after shooting her in the temple with a .22 caliber revolver. The twenty nine year old was sentenced to twenty years in prison, and was later transferred to the Purdy Treatment Center for Women.
On January 2, 1974 the skeletal remains of a waitress named Debbie Poller was found in a shallow grave in Tacoma. The nineteen year old was identified through dental records and her autopsy showed that she was strangled and suffered a blow to the head; she was found wrapped in a red bedspread. Strangely enough, while researching I learned about two more young women that disappeared from the greater Seattle area in 1974: eighteen year old Melody Logan and seventeen year old Linda Hamilton. All I could find about Linda was that she was last seen at a restaurant called ‘The Frontier Cafe’ (this is most likely due to her fairly common name), and looking into Logan it turns out she eloped in Carson City, Nevada with her bf.
Just two days after Kathy’s remains were discovered, sixteen year old Sherrie came up with the idea to organize a petition to ban hitchhiking across the state of Washington, titled ‘Initiative-283.’ In an interview with The Longview Daily News published on December 18, 1973, she said that ‘we don’t want anything to happen to anyone else. We’re not against hitchhikers. We just want to prevent hitchhiking.’ In addition to collecting thousands of signatures, the Devine family also testified before the WA state legislature in hopes to help make the act illegal. Just some general background on hitchhiking in Washington state: in 1972 it had been legalized amid the ongoing gas crisis and the carefree days of the early 70’s when it was considered ‘cool’ (I know I said it in past articles, but my own mother spoke of doing it very casually with her friends). Unfortunately, the 86,000 signatures that the family obtained just wasn’t enough and the bill stalled in Olympia. In an interview with a reporter in July 1974, Mr. Devine commented that: ‘because it was legal, she thought it was safe.’ … ‘My oldest daughter thought she had failed. I told her, ‘look how many people became aware of the problem. You didn’t fail.’’
At the time of Kathy Devine’s disappearance in November 1973 Ted Bundy was living at the Rogers Rooming house on 12th Ave in Seattle’s University District. He was in an established, long term relationship with Liz Kloepfer (and was dating multiple other women as well) and was taking his first crack at law school at the nearby University of Puget Sound in Tacoma. He had been unemployed since September (when he was the assistant to the WA State Republican chairman) and remained so until May 3 of 1974, when he started work at the Department of Emergency Services in Olympia. He did have his infamous tan VW in November 1973 as he purchased it earlier that spring, and according to the ‘TB MultiAgency Investigative Team Report 1992,’ on the day Kathy disappeared Bundy ‘had a beard’ and ‘bought gas on the Washington IBH-521 in Seattle.’
For the first 28 years after Kathy’s murder the Devine’s strongly felt it was Ted Bundy that brutally took her life, as she fit the physical description of (most of) his victims and the way she was murdered was similar to the technique he was known to use. When Ms. Devine disappeared in 1973 Ted was living only two miles from where she was last seen, and where everyone knows he drove a light cream colored Beetle for a couple years before his Utah arrest few are aware that he also owned a pick-up briefly to help with his move from WA to SLC (although this was in 1975); his brother Glenn owned a (white) pick-up truck at some point as well. During his death row confessions Bundy told LE that he picked up a hitchhiker in 1973, killed her, then left her body close to where Kathy’s remains were found in Olympia (although he couldn’t remember the exact location), but he specifically denied having any involvement with her murder. Even crime author and Bundy bff Ann Rule (kidding) brought up the possibility that Ted killed her in her crime classic ‘The Stranger Beside Me.’ Oddly enough, as I sit writing this I have the movie adaptation playing in the background and right away I recognized the Devine case as it was being discussed (even though they used a fake name I still recognized the details). Just my own personal observation: both Brenda Baker and Kathy Devine are both frequently included as TB victims in early articles about him (before he was caught).
On March 7, 2002 the Thurston County Sheriff’s office announced that they finally solved the murder of Kathy Devine: using DNA that was collected at the original crime scene in 1973, forensic experts were able to determine that a Vietnam vet named William E. Cosden Jr. killed Devine, who was already in prison serving a sentence for rape. In 1967 he was found ‘not guilty by reason of insanity’ for the sexual assault and murder of a young woman in Maryland (law enforcement commented that there were a lot of parallels between the two cases) and he was sentenced to reside in a psychiatric facility until he was ‘deemed to no longer be a threat to society.’ Unfortunately the former Marine wasn’t locked away for very long, and in 1973 he was released from the mental institution and moved across the country to live with his parents in Washington state.
At the time of Devine’s murder, William Cosden Jr. was 26 years old and resided with his family on Scott Lake in Thurston County. Just a few years after he was released from prison in late 1975 ‘Billy’ raped a young woman in Thurston County named Beverly Pearson. According to the Washington State Department of Corrections, he was sentenced to just over 32 years in prison in 1976 for that crime and was sent to McNeil Island in Pierce County, WA to serve out his sentence. Cosden was sent to two different ‘pre-release’ facilities in late 1989, however eventually returned to prison because of ‘disciplinary problems’ of some sort, according to Corrections Department spokeswoman Mary Christensen. He came up for parole multiple occasions (the last time in May 1999) but thankfully his requests were denied largely due to the fact that he wrote ‘some kind of rambling, pornographic discourse’ while he was in custody proving that he may not be completely rehabilitated, according to one time parole board Chairman John Austin.
In 1986, Thurston County detectives interviewed Cosden in prison about his possible involvement in the murder of Kathy Devine, and he denied having anything to do with her death. At that time they took blood, hair, and saliva from him (thanks to a warrant), and in 2001 those samples were sent to a Washington state crime lab where they were compared to a vaginal swab taken from Devine during her autopsy in December 1973. William Cosden Jr.’s DNA was a match to the semen found inside of Devine. Later that year Detectives David Haller and Tim Rudolf went to McNeil Island to share their findings with the incarcerated man, who still insisted that he had nothing to do with Kathy’s murder. It wasn’t until a few days later when they returned for a second time that he admitted to having sex with the teen, but he still denied killing her. Strangely enough, despite the hard DNA evidence against him Cosden still seemed genuinely shocked when he was arrested for Devine’s murder: Thurston County Sheriff Gary Edward said that he was not happy about being blamed for the crime and was actually angry at the news.
Cosden was 55 years old in March of 2002 when he was booked for the murder of Katherine Merry Devine at the Thurston County Jail in Olympia. He pleaded not guilty when he was arraigned on first-degree murder charges in front of Superior Court Judge Richard Hicks and didn’t say a single word during the arraignment. Because Cosden faced the murder charge under the law as it was written in 1973, the case was not eligible to be tried with death-penalty laws (they were eventually deemed constitutional in the late 1970’s). To the arraignment he wore the standard white jailhouse uniform and his hands and feet were shackled. At the time, Sheriff Gary Edward said of Cosden: ‘my main purpose today is to let those criminals out there, who think they got away with something, know that we’re coming.’ … ‘I hope they all get ulcers.’ Bail was set at $500,000 with a trial scheduled to begin May 6, 2002.
After finally seeing the man who killed her little sister after so many years, Sherrie Devine said: ‘it was very creepy.’ Sally commented that she felt anxious about seeing Cosden for the first time but was happy he wasn’t facing them: ‘It would have been worse if we would have had to look directly at him.’ Immediately following his arrest, William’s attorney John Sinclair said he didn’t know how critical the alleged DNA evidence would be to the case, and that: ‘with a case this old, I don’t know to what extent the prosecution can put together a case.’… ‘It’s surprising they even still had evidence going back 30 years.’ Philip Harju was Thurston County’s Chief Criminal Prosecutor at the time of the arrest and admitted that where the case did present some challenges he was confident it was solid, and: ‘we’re trying to find witnesses from 28 years ago.’ … ‘but I believe we have enough evidence. There is other evidence, circumstantial evidence.’
William Cosden Jr.’s father owned the Restover Truck Stop and in the 1970’s, and it was a popular hangout for hitchhikers. A gas station attendant that was present the night Devine disappeared named Carl Clark testified that he saw drops of blood on Cosden’s shirt as he was fueling up his pick-up truck in the early morning hours of November 26, 1973. Another individual named David Perschon also testified that he saw blood in the back of his truck with Williams’ brother Tim when looking for ‘tire rims’ late in the evening on November 25. Cosden told them that the blood was from a deer he had recently killed and shooed both of them away from the vehicle, and Tim later testified that he didn’t remember looking in his older brother’s truck that night.
During the trial the prosecution called to the stand Gail Amster of Florida, who was Kathy’s childhood best friend and one of the two girls that was with her the night she disappeared. She said that her friend was upset because she had just gotten into a fight with her bf and really wanted to see her cousin in Rockaway Beach. Amster (who knew Kathy since the two were four!) testified that Devine had gotten into a green pick up and that ‘we just waved goodbye. She looked back at us, and we went home.’ When questioned again about the type of vehicle that Kathy had gotten into, Amster repeated her answer about the pick-up truck, and the prosecutor showed her the original statement she made in 1973, that said she saw Devine get into a ‘faded blue hippie-type van.’ This might make sense when you go back to the theory that Kathy may have initially caught a ride to the truck stop from someone else, so she wouldn’t have gotten into a vehicle that was different from William Cosden Jr.’s pick-up truck.
A little after midnight on November 26, 1973 William Cosden Jr.’s pick-up truck caught fire about three miles from the Restover Truck Stop, which is just a few miles away from the campground where Devine’s remains were found. According to police reports: ‘witnesses saw Cosden come in the night of the murder with stains on his clothing. / The witnesses called police. / After leaving the truck stop, Cosden’s truck caught fire and was destroyed three miles from the truck stop. / During initial interviews with police, Cosden denied ever seeing Kathy Devine.’
At the time Devine’s case was solved in 2001 it was the oldest open murder case in the history of Washington state to have been solved using ‘DNA fingerprinting.’ Thisis a lab technique used to determine the probable identity of a person based on the nucleotide sequences of certain parts of DNA that are unique to an individual. About Cosden being caught after so many years, (retired) Thurston County Sheriff Edward said that, ‘this case came about through a lot of hard work by a lot of individuals for a long period of time.’ … ‘it has been continually investigated. Let those criminals know who thinks they’ve ‘gotten away with it’ that we’re coming.’
Investigators played close to the vest with Cosden’s possible involvement with Kathy’s murder, and despite the fact he was a chief suspect from the beginning they didn’t even share their suspicions of him with her family. It wasn’t until the DNA fingerprinting came back a match that law enforcement finally told the Devine’s they had a suspect, as they wanted to be certain and didn’t have enough evidence to charge and take him to trial until then.
The Olympian reported that Thurston County Sheriff’s Captain Dan Kimball never closed the case files on Kathy’s murder even after Bundy was executed. When detectives came to her family after so many years and told them they had a suspect, they were never told who it was, so logically Mr. Devine’s mind always went to Ted Bundy: ‘Everyone deals with this in their own way.’ … ‘I have to admit I clinged to that belief.’ When detectives came back to the family about a month later to tell them the DNA pointed to William Cosden Jr., Bill admitted that he felt oddly disappointed, mostly because his gut instinct told him it was the infamous mass serial killer who killed his daughter: ‘Then all of a sudden, it came to me that maybe we’re right this time, and if we’re right this time, that’s all that matters.’ … ‘what can I say to (Cosden) that’s going to make him feel any worse? He’s already got his little cell to live in. Let him rot where he’s at.’ Regarding Bundy being ruled out as a suspect, Mr. Devine said: ‘He was my, if you will, my quasi-closure.’… ‘He seemed to be the most logical person. All of these years, I had wanted to believe it.’ Both Bill and Sallyann were shocked and relieved at the announcement that their daughters case was finally solved after so many years. Of the development, Mr. Devine said ‘we’re feeling a great sense of relief’ … ‘it’s truly amazing’ and Mrs. Devine commented that she was ‘just so flabbergasted.’
After Cosden was convicted of Kathy’s murder, Mr. Devine said: ‘it’s finished. There’s a justice system, and it works.″ … ‘It doesn’t bring Kathy back, but it sure does help.’ … ‘They said time heals all wounds, but I’m here to say they just scab over a little. It’s been a long time. But at this point what we’re seeing is a light at the end of the tunnel.’ Sallyann shared that she frequently thinks of her daughter, even after all these years: ‘She was just a sweetheart.’…. ‘It is nice to know that this has finally been solved. We’ve been wondering for 28 years. I still feel like it’s a dream and I’m going to wake up and it’ll all be over.’ … ‘I thought she was beautiful.’ … ‘But she was beautiful inside and out. She was softhearted, and she loved poetry. She wanted to be a preacher.’ Regarding the conviction of William Cosden Jr. for the murder of Katherine Devine, former Sheriff Gary Edward said that: ‘DNA made the case.’ … ‘This came about as a result of technology and a lot of hard work.’
It’s strongly speculated among Thurston County LE that William Cosden was responsible for the murder of Brenda Joy Baker as well as Kathy Devine. The 14 year old from Maple Valley had a bit of a rebellious streak and was known to frequently hitchhike, and on May 27, 1974 she ran away from home for a second time. Brenda was last seen near Puyallup, Washington getting into a blue pickup truck, and her remains were found on June 17, 1974 in a corner of Millersylvania State Park stuffed underneath two logs. Her cause of death is usually listed as a slit throat, but initial reports also suggest that she was strangled. According to Charlene, most of the detectives that worked her sister’s case also felt that Cosden was responsible for Bakers murder, not Bundy. When I asked if there was any hope of one day linking her death to Cosden she sadly shook her head no while looking at her feet: apparently investigators never took any DNA samples from the crime scene so they have nothing to compare it to. I mean… in 2024 it sounds like such a normal, almost routine concept, but in the early 1970’s that was something most investigators didn’t do, and Char even said the fact that they took samples from her sister’s murder scene is a small miracle in itself. Although Bundy is still considered a suspect, as of April 2024 William Cosden Jr. is the prime suspect in Bakers murder.
Katherine Merry Devine was cremated, and her final resting place is at the Evergreen-Washelli Memorial Park in Northern Seattle. William Earl Cosden Jr. maintained his innocence until he took his final breath in June of 2015, when he passed away after having a heart attack in prison. He died without serving a single day for the murder of Kathy due to the fact he never was paroled for his prior rape charge. At least he died away from the general public in prison and no other women were attacked.
William Devine passed away at the age of 77 on June 7, 2013 in Seattle. His obituary says that he ‘loved and lived life to the fullest, never met a stranger and always had a kind word and corny joke to share with his innumerable friends and customers, to keep everyone around him smiling.’ Sallyann Devine is a real firecracker, and currently (as of April 2024) resides in a wonderful retirement community in Everett, WA. Kathy’s older sister Sherrie lives in Everett as well, but currently prefers to stay out of the public eye regarding her sister’s brutal murder. Charlene Devine-Gonzales resides in Marysille just outside of Seattle and has two beautiful daughters, Amanda and Christina (who now have children of their own). Sadly her husband Greg passed away in 2022 after battling a plethora of health issues, something that most likely could have been prevented had he been under the care of competent medical providers.
Works Cited:
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7643386/katherine-merry-devine
https://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/DNA-match-leads-to-arrest-in-girl-s-1973-slaying-1082515.php
https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/?date=20020309&slug=oldmurder09m
http://www.murders.ru/Ann_Ru_stran_vnytre.pd
Another Bundy Blog. 