Missing/Murdered Women in Washington state, 1965 to 1975.

Here is a complete list of missing/murdered women from Washington state from 1965 to 1975.

Lisa Wick and Lonnie Trumbull (June 23, 1966, Seattle): Wick and Trumbull were twenty-year-old United Airlines flight attendants who were brutally attacked in their Seattle apartment in 1966: Lonnie Ree Trumbull suffered a fractured skull and severe brain hemorrhaging and tragically succumbing to her injuries, but Lisa E. Wick survived, but was left critically injured and suffered permanent memory loss regarding the incident. A third roommate, Joyce Bowe, was not home at the time of the attacks. It is a case famously suspected of being linked to Ted Bundy (who had been nineteen at the time), however he denied any involvement and there is no official evidence tying him to the case.

Ruby Agnes Schwanbeck-Lampson (reported as missing on June 6, 1967, Spokane): Lampson lived in an apartment above the Falls View Tavern (a popular local establishment with a rowdy reputation) and was known to frequent and even work at the establishment; she was last seen alive at the nearby Hi-Neighbor Tavern with an unidentified, much younger man. Four years after she vanished, on November 16, 1971, her skeletal remains were discovered in a shallow grave in the remote woods of the Seven-Mile ORV Park (a 600-acre off-road vehicle area located inside Riverside State Park near Spokane); due to the advanced decomposition of her body, medical examiners were unable to determine an exact cause of death. The suspected killer of Dorothy Fielding was Duke J. Pierson, a former detective for the Spokane County Sheriff’s Department.

Dorothy Fielding (reported as missing on August 19, 1967, Spokane): frequented the same local tavern as Ruby Lampson; found in April 1968. disappeared in August 1967 and was found in a shallow grave eight months later in April 1968 at the Seven-Mile ORV Park. She was an avid member of the tavern’s bowling team. The suspected killer of Dorothy Fielding was Duke J. Pierson, a former detective for the Spokane County Sheriff’s Department.

Susan Galvin (discovered on July 13, 1967, Seattle): the twenty-year-old records clerk for the Seattle Police Department had recently moved to the area from her childhood home in Spokane; after failing to show up for work, her body was discovered inside a parking garage elevator at the Seattle Center complex. Autopsy results revealed that she had been sexually assaulted and strangled.

Verla Helen Winter (October 21, 1968, Kent): Last seen at home after she had an argument with her estranged husband, who stayed at the residence and supposedly went to bed. When he awoke, his wife and all of her belongings had disappeared, as well as $400 in cash; she left behind two children who were raised by her parents. Prior to this, Verla was in frequent contact with her family by phone and mail.

Linda Mary Louise Garrison (November 19, 1968, Sumner): about a month before her disappearance the nineteen-year-old had been thrown from a horse and had been treated for back injuries; it’s unknown if the injuries she sustained resulted in scarring or indications of trauma to the bones. She left home after a horse ride.

Murders Linked to John Dwight Canaday (1968–1969, Renton): I am going to touch on the murders committed by John Canaday as a whole, who is a lesser-discussed serial killer from Washington state that killed three women between late 1968 and early 1969. On the evening of December 17, 1968, pregnant newlywed Sandra Darlene Bowman was stabbed to death in her home after she opened the door to her Ballard apartment and apparently let her killer in; she was later found in her bedroom, tied up, raped and stabbed repeatedly, court documents say. On the evening of January 4, 1969, twenty-one-year-old Mary Annabelle Bjornson was at her apartment preparing dinner for a friend when a man knocked on her door claiming he was experiencing car trouble to gain entry. Once inside, he threatened her with a knife, tied her wrists, and drove her to Seattle’s Seward Park, where he strangled her. Canaday’s final victim was twenty-year-old University of Washington junior (some records mention her attending Washington State University) Lynne Carol Tuski, who vanished while walking to her car in northern outside a north Seattle department store; according to her autopsy, he strangled her to death. John Dwight Canaday was apprehended by police on February 22, 1969; he confessed to the murders,saying he strangled his victims and left their remains in Snohomish County; he died on December 26, 2012, while serving his time at the Clallam Bay Corrections Center.

Laura Lee Asynithe Flink (February 21, 1969, Aberdeen): Flink was last seen driving her live-in boyfriend’s 1967 Red Ford Ranchero toward Moclips at about 4 PM on Friday, February 21, 1969 (where she was supposed to pick up some furniture and children’s clothing); she never arrived at her intended destination. Flink’s brown leather wallet was found on a Hoquiam, Washington sidewalk on February 23, 1969, and the vehicle was subsequently recovered on February 24, 1969 (also in Hoquiam). Flink’s wallet was mailed by the Hoquiam Police to her Aberdeen post office box, where it was never picked up. She never returned to her waitress job, and there has been no contact with any family or friends since; she had no alternate source of income, and she left behind a sixteen-month-old son, who she had just won full custody of through the courts.

Dorothy May Thompson (August 25, 1969, Walla Walla): Thompson was fifty-three-year-old at the time she was last seen alive and had been in the custody of Walla Walla penal authorities; upon her release, official records state she was provided with a bus ticket to travel to Vancouver along with explicit instructions to report to a designated officer immediately upon arrival. While penal authorities confirmed providing the ticket, investigators note there is no official verification or proof that she ever boarded the bus; she never checked in with the officer in Vancouver and has not been seen or heard from since.

Murders Linked to Gary Gene Grant (1969–1971, Renton): I am going to touch on the murders committed by Gary Grant as a whole, who is a lesser-known serial killer who raped and murdered four young women in the Renton area between 1969 and 1971. Often referred to as ‘Seattle’s Forgotten Serial Killer, Grant was only eighteen when he began his killing spree, targeting victims who were primarily children or young teenagers: he killed nineteen-year-old Carol Adele Erickson on December 15, 1969, while she was walking home from the Renton Municipal Library; she was stabbed and raped. Grant killed seventeen-year-old Joanne Zulauf on September 20, 1970 after she left her home to take a brief walk before dinner. When she failed to return, her family reported her missing, and her body was discovered two days later in a heavily wooded area; she had been attacked and strangled. On April 20, 1971, Grant committed his final two murders when he abducted two six-year-old boys that were in their front yard playing: he threatened Scott Andrews and Bradley Lyons with a knife and took them into the woods less than two miles away from the Bradleys’ residence; he beat them both and then stabbed Andrews then strangled Lyons. Their bodies were found two days later, and when examining the crime scene, investigators found footprints of the offender’s tennis shoes, of which plaster casts were taken. Following his arrest, Grant confessed to the four murders on April 30, 1971, however, during his trial, he denied legal guilt by claiming he was legally insane. On August 25, 1971, a jury rejected his insanity plea and convicted him of four counts of first-degree murder; he was sentenced to four consecutive life terms in prison.

Grace Foster (1970, Olympia): one-year-old Foster vanished during a family picnic in Olympia sometime in the summer of 1970. Despite the case going cold, Grace’s older brother, Daniel Foster, never gave up hope. He spent decades holding onto the belief that his little sister was still alive somewhere.

Patricia Garrison (January 5, 1970, Olympia): seventeen-year-old Patricia Garrison was found stabbed in a hospital parking lot on January 5, 1970 in Olympia; two days later she died from the over twenty stab wounds and injuries that she sustained in the attack.

Bertha Louise Burke (February 20, 1970, Port Angeles): Burke was a twenty-nine-year-old mother of three when she disappeared on a Friday night in early 1970: she had tucked her young children into bed at their East 13th Street home, and she was gone when they woke up in the morning. She left behind her purse, clothes, and all of her other personal effects.

Gladys Thelma Williams (February 20, 1970, Seattle): Williams was last seen on February 20, 1970 when she dropped her children off at her sister’s residence. Very little information is available about her disappearance.

Jeannette Rose Miller (September 16, 1970, Arlington): seventeen-year-old Miller was last seen walking on the Lincoln Bridge in Arlington, Washington.

Nancy Mae Richards-Winslow (July 26, 1970, Bellingham): twenty-three-year-old whose disappearance and murder became a noted unsolved cold case. Due to the timing, location, and nature of her disappearance, her case has frequently been studied by true-crime researchers investigating unconfirmed victims of the serial killer Ted Bundy.

Janice Marie Hannigan (March 1, 1971, Wapao): the sixteen-year-old was was discharged from a hospital on December 24, 1971. Janice was suffering from numerous bruises on her chest and head when she was admitted to a hospital three days prior. According to her hospital discharge summary, Janice was admitted to the hospital with multiple contusions around the head. It’s not known which hospital Janice was admitted to or the cause of her injuries. She was discharged in satisfactory condition. She never arrived home after her discharge and she hasn’t been seen since. At the time of her disappearance, Janice was living with her father on family land west of Harrah. Their parents were separated and the six younger children were with their mother in Buena.

Joyce Margaret LePage (July 22, 1971, Pullman): on the evening of Thursday, July 22, 1971, Joyce took a skydiving lesson with a friend, went out for a beer afterward, and was dropped off outside her off-campus apartment around 10:00 PM. This was the last time she was seen alive. She failed to show up for classes the next day and missed a planned weekend trip to visit her family in Pasco.

Marilyn Kay Pratt (October 8, 1971, Spokane): Marilyn was last seen on the evening of October 8, 1971 by her husband and friends at a local restaurant. Marilyn’s husband was working as a bartender at the race track. Marilyn was supposed to meet her husband at the track that evening, to bet on a race with him. She didn’t make it, so he placed the bet anyway and lost, which made him angry.

Jamie Grisim (December 7, 1971, Vancouver): climbing into Forrest’s light-blue van near downtown Vancouver. Her remains were found exactly two years later in a shallow grave on Clark County parks property at Tukes Mountain. Jamie Grissim has been missing since December 7, 1971, after she vanished while walking home from Fort Vancouver High School in Vancouver, Washington. Although she was initially categorized by police as a runaway, her high school identification card and purse were found months later along a rural road in the Dole Valley area, prompting authorities to treat her disappearance as a homicide. Her remains have never been found, and her disappearance stands as the oldest active missing person case in Clark County.

Ivah McDonnell (December 2, 1971, Pasco): the sixty-year-old was found dead inside her home at 5008 W. Sylvester Street; she had been brutally beaten with a blunt object, knocked unconscious, and strangled to death with her own pajama bottoms. Her wallet, a change jar, and items of lingerie were missing from the scene. DNA profiling matched Samuel Evans to the crime scene, though he died in prison for a separate murder.

Alisa ‘Lisa’ Francine Watson (January 1, 1972, Tacoma): Alisa had left the family home and may have been living at an apartment in the Seattle area. No contact with family since 1972.

Pamela Burrows (January 1, 1972, Seattle): Pamela and her boyfriend were going to visit her sister in Minnesota, but they never arrived and she was never heard from again; he later told her sister that she had been killed, but it was never confirmed and her body has not been found.

Barbara Ann Derry (disappeared on February 11, 1972, Vancouver): was an 18-year-old homicide victim from Washington State who is believed to be one of the earliest victims of Southwest Washington serial killer Warren Leslie Forrest. Derry was last seen on February 11, 1972, hitchhiking along State Highway 14. She was traveling from Vancouver toward her hometown of Goldendale, Washington. On March 29, 1972, her body was discovered by a woman hunting.

Althea Dayle Blankinship (March 27, 1973, Port Townsend): Althea Blankinship and her son Jeffrey, were last seen in the City of Port Townsend, WA, where they were residing at the time. They were last reported to have been dropped off at SeaTac International Airport. Althea had made plans to travel to Greece with Jeffrey to meet her parents who were already there on vacation. Family members became concerned when it was evident that Althea and Jeffrey never arrived in Greece. They have not been heard from or seen since. Foul play is suspected.

Salie Belle Maxi Signani (June 1, 1973, Renton): she was recently divorced and left home to live with another man. She failed to show up for work on a Monday in early June 1973. Investigation done at that time was apparently lost. A new case originated in 2003.

Jody Loomis (August 23, 1972, Bothell): was a 20-year-old woman from Bothell, Washington, who was sexually assaulted and murdered on August 23, 1972. Her case went unsolved for nearly five decades until it was cracked using groundbreaking forensic genetic genealogy. On the afternoon of August 23, 1972, Jody left her home on her bicycle to visit her horse, Saudi, at a local stable. She never arrived. Roughly 30 minutes after she was last seen, two people discovered her disrobed and suffering from a gunshot wound to the head in a heavily wooded area of Snohomish County (in what is now Mill Creek Road). She was still barely breathing when found but was pronounced dead on the way to the hospital.

Teresa Kay Davis (November 1, 1973, Tacoma): Teresa was staying with her sister in Tacoma, Washington. On November 1, 1973, Teresa’s sister came home and found that Teresa was not there. The front door was left open and all of Teresa’s belongings remained in the home. Later, her sister reportedly received a letter from Teresa sent from Anchorage, Alaska, but there was no further contact.

Katherine Merry Devine (November 25, 1973, Olympia): fourteen-year-old Kathy was murdered after running away from her Seattle home and hitchhiking on November 25, 1973. Her remains were discovered on December 6, 1973, by caretakers at Camp Margaret McKenny in the Capitol State Forest near Olympia, Washington. An autopsy revealed she had been sexually assaulted and killed by a knife wound to the neck. The mystery was finally solved in 2001 when the Washington State Patrol Crime Lab utilized modern DNA technology to test physical evidence preserved from the crime scene. The DNA perfectly matched William Earl Cosden Jr., a convicted rapist who had already been serving a prison sentence since 1976.

Kerry Hardy-May (June 13, 1972, Seattle): in June 1972, Kerry was in a period of transition, having recently separated from her husband. After she failed to show up at her family home to help them pack for a trip, her mother reported her missing to the Seattle Police Department. Her whereabouts remained a complete mystery for nearly 40 years. On September 6, 2010, a backhoe operator digging a waterline trench near a golf course at the Suncadia Resort in Roslyn, Washington, uncovered human remains in a shallow grave. Along with the bones, investigators found a gold wedding band and remnants of blue material. In June 2011, the Kittitas County Sheriff’s Office officially identified the remains as Kerry May-Hardy. The breakthrough came after her family noticed a striking resemblance between a forensic composite sketch circulated by authorities and Kerry. The identity was conclusively confirmed via DNA testing by the University of North Texas Center for Human Remains, using a profile her mother had proactively submitted in 2004.

Lynda Ann Healy (January 31, 1974, Seattle): a 21-year-old American college student who became the first widely confirmed murder victim of the notorious serial killer Ted Bundy. She was known by her peers and family as a talented musician who was full of life, self-assurance, and compassion. She attended Newport High School before enrolling at the University of Washington (UW).At the time of her disappearance, she was a senior majoring in psychology and was scheduled to graduate that year. Deeply invested in helping others, she regularly worked with mentally handicapped children. Alongside her studies, she worked part-time for Western Ski Promotions, broadcasting morning weather and ski condition reports to 20 local radio stations across Washington and Oregon.Disappearance and MurderIn early 1974, Healy lived in a pale green off-campus house on 12th Avenue Northeast in Seattle’s University District with four female roommates.On the evening of January 31, 1974, Healy went out to a local establishment with friends, returned home, spoke to her boyfriend on the phone, and went to sleep. During the early morning hours of February 1, 1974, Ted Bundy broke into her basement bedroom. He knocked her unconscious, dressed her in blue jeans and a blouse, and carried her out to his vehicle while her roommates slept undisturbed upstairs.The next morning, her roommates noticed she was missing after her radio alarm clock kept buzzing continuously and she failed to show up for her scheduled morning broadcast. When police examined her room, they found her bed neatly made, but discovered her nightgown hanging in the closet with blood stains on the collar, along with blood on her mattress and pillowcase.

Heidi Birgit Peterson (February 21, 1974, Seattle): a four-year-old girl who was tragically abducted from the front yard of her Capitol Hill home in Seattle on February 21, 1974. Heidi was playing outside with her 2.5-year-old brother when she vanished. Her disappearance sparked one of the largest and most extensive law enforcement searches in the history of the Pacific Northwest at the time. Nearly a year later, on January 24, 1975, her remains were discovered in a park just a block away from her home. Investigators believed her remains had been moved there later, as the park had been thoroughly searched initially; o this day, her killer has never been identified.

Donna Gail Manson (March 12, 1974, Olympia): Manson was last seen at 7:00 PM on campus at Evergreen State College in Olympia by a college roommate whom she told she was going to attend a jazz concert being held on the campus; she was reportedly last seen between the dorms and library on the way to the concert. Ted Bundy confessed on death row to abducting Manson from the Olympia campus but never specifically said where he left her remains. As of July 2026 they have never been recovered.

Susan Elaine ‘Sue’ Rancourt (April 17, 1974, Ellensburg): an eighteen-year-old college student who became the third known murder victim of Ted Bundy. On the evening of April 17, 1974, Sue attended a meeting for future residence hall leaders at Munson Hall. After the meeting concluded around 10:00 PM, she began walking back to her dormitory. Witnesses on campus later recalled seeing a man with his arm in a sling wandering near the parking lots (which is a common ruse Bundy liked to use).

Brenda Joy Baker (May 25, 1974, Maple Valley): the fourteen-year-old was brutally murdered in Washington state in May 1974. She has long been suspected of being an unconfirmed victim of the notorious serial killer Ted Bundy. The details surrounding her disappearance and the subsequent investigation include: Brenda lived with her family in Maple Valley, Washington, and had a history of running away from home. On May 25, 1974, she spent two days staying with friends in Sumner, Washington, who tried to convince her to go home. She refused, stating she was trying to hitchhike south toward Portland, Oregon. She was last seen alive getting into a pickup truck with two men at an on-ramp near Puyallup, Washington. Because her family immediately noticed her absence, they filed a missing person’s report the same day she vanished. On June 17, 1974, approximately three weeks after she went missing, her highly decomposed remains were discovered by chance in an isolated section of Millersylvania State Park in Thurston Count

Diane Sue Gilchrist (May 29, 1974, Vancouver): a teenager from Vancouver, Washington, who went missing on May 29, 1974, at the age of 14. Decades after her disappearance, she is heavily suspected by law enforcement to be a victim of convicted Washington serial killer Warren Leslie Forrest. She was last seen on May 27 or May 29, 1974, leaving her family’s home in the 1800 block of Franklin Street in downtown Vancouver, Washington.

Gloria Nadine Knudson (May 31, 1974, Vancouver): Gloria Nadine Knudson (which I’ve also seen spelled Knutson) was a nineteen-year-old woman that went missing on May 31, 1974 and is a suspected victim of serial killer Warren Leslie Forrest. At the time of her murder she was almost finished with her senior year at Hudson Bay High School and was last seen after visiting a friend’s house on Grant Street, where she reported that an unknown man had chased and stalked her. She left to walk home and never arrived. Her remains were later discovered in 1978 near Lacamas Lake.

Brenda Carol Ball (June 1, 1974, Burien): twenty-two-year-old Ball is the fifth official murder victim of the American serial killer Ted Bundy.( grew up in Washington and graduated from Mount Rainier High School in Des Moines, Washington. Described by friends and family as a petite, “free and fun-loving spirit,” she stood 5 feet 3 inches tall, weighed 112 pounds, and had long brown hair and brown eyes. She had taken classes at Highline Community College but decided to drop out a couple of weeks before her disappearance. At the time, she was living with roommates in an apartment in Burien, Washington. On the evening of May 31, 1974, during Memorial Day weekend, Brenda went out alone to the Flame Tavern, a neighborhood bar in Burien. She had mentioned to her roommates and friends earlier that day that she hoped to find a ride out to Sun Lakes in eastern Washington to join them at a campground later that weekend

Krista Kay Blake (disappeared on July 11, 1974, Vancouver): twenty-year-old Blake was kidnapped and murdered in Washington in July 1974 by Warren Forrest; she was last seen climbing into his light blue Ford Econoline cargo van near downtown Vancouver.

Georgann ‘George’ Hawkins (June 11, 1974, University of Washington, Seattle): Hawkins disappeared from the University of Washington campus after 1am on June 11, 1974. She was last seen in the alley outside of Beta Theta Pi fraternity. She had been to a fraternity party earlier in the evening, and visited her boyfriend, Marvin Gellatly, on the way back to her sorority house. As she left Beta Theta Pi, Georgeann spoke with another friend, Duane Covey, who spoke with her from his second-story window that faced the alley. After saying goodbye to her friend, she headed down the alley toward her sorority house, Kappa Alpha Theta. She never arrived. Ms. Hawkins is the victim of serial killer, Ted Bundy, who confessed to kidnapping and murdering her before his execution in 1989. He confessed to killing her in a remote area “across Mercer Island, east past Issaquah, up the hill, down the road, and up to the grassy area.” Bundy claimed that Georgeann’s remains were found with two of his other victims, Janice Ott and Denise Naslund, in Lake Sammamish State Park; investigators had found an extra leg bone and extra vertebrae at the site, but had been unidentified at the time and – so far – were never positively identified as Georgeann’s.

Janice Ott & Denise Naslund (July 14, 1974, Issaquah): Bundy abducted twenty-three-year-old Janice Ott and nineteen-three-year-old Denise Marie Naslund were abducted four hours apart from Lake Sammamish State Park in Issaquah; it quickly became one of the most notorious moments during the hunt for ‘Ted,’ marking the first time investigators realized the killer went by the name and approached multiple women in broad daylight on the same day That Sunday Lake Sammamish State Park was incredibly crowded, and had around 40,000 visitors, many attending an annual picnic held by Rainier Beer.

Joyce Tyer Jones (November 17, 1974, Bellingham): little is known about the final days of Joyce; she went for a walk and never returned home.

Vonnie Joyce VanDriel-Stuth (disappeared on November 27, 1974. Burien): was initially suspected to be another victim of Bundy, Vonnie was abducted and murdered by serial killer Gary Addison Taylor; the nineteen-year-old newlywed disappeared from her apartment in Burien, Washington. When her husband, Todd Stuth, returned home from work after midnight, he found the lights and television on, an unfinished Thanksgiving meal on the table, and his wife gone. Her only previous hint to family had been a mention of a neighborhood man coming to the door to offer her a dog.

Laurie Lynn Partridge (December 4, 1974, Spokane): on the day she disappeared Partridge left Ferris High School early, complaining about not feeling well walking at 37th & Havana Streets on Spokane’s South Hill. Unable to get a ride, she decided to walk the two-plus miles to the home where she lived with her parents and five younger siblings, saying the air might help her feel better. The family reported her missing after she failed to show up for work that evening at Lincoln Heights Theater. Initially, sheriff’s deputies thought she might have run away from home, given her displeasure when the family moved to Spokane from California, but by the time she vanished she had started to establish roots (she was also engaged to a twenty-year-old man). The couple planned to pick out engagement rings the day Partridge disappeared, and her fiancé was questioned extensively several times but never ruled a suspect.

Lorelee Sue Lhotka (January 1, 1975, Seattle): Lhotka was last seen on some unspecified date in 1975, when she left home to go to a doctor’s appointment; she was supposed to take the bus, but she may have hitchhiked instead, and she never arrived at the doctor’s office. She has never been seen or heard from again. In 1978, Lhotka’s wallet was found at Blewitt Pass in the Wenatchee National Forest.

Diana ‘Dinah’ Peterson (February 14, 1975, Shoreline): sixteen-year-old Dinah snuck out of her family’s home in the Innis Arden/Richmond Beach neighborhood to visit her older boyfriend (whom her parents disapproved of). Later that night, her dad discovered her body in their backyard; she had been stabbed. For decades, investigators primarily focused their attention on Peterson’s then-19-year-old boyfriend, Timothy Diener, who had been arrested shortly after the murder but was never formally convicted (investigators struggled with a lack of concrete evidence). In December 2007, King County Sheriff’s cold-case detectives arrested and charged James Eric Groth, who was also sixteen at the time of the crime and lived two houses away from the Petersons; authorities determined that Groth had been infatuated with Peterson and grew violently jealous of her dating an older guy.

Hallie Ann Seaman (April 29, 1975, Seattle): Seaman was an honor student just two terms away from finishing her master’s degree in architecture and was last seen working late at her drafting table inside the University of Washington’s architecture building. The following afternoon, a passerby discovered her body hidden in the bushes near a parking lot on Eastlake Avenue East; she had been sexually assaulted and repeatedly stabbed. Her case remained an unsolved mystery until advanced DNA testing identified her killer as Charles Rodman Campbell.

Jo Carrol Sanders (July 6, 1975, Camas): the fourteen-year-old was last seen alive near her residence, which was described as being ‘a tight-knit neighborhood where she lived with her father’ and investigators confirmed she was abducted in broad daylight by someone driving either a yellow or green van. Her body was discovered three days later in a gravel pit roughly ten miles east of Camas in Skamania County.

Karen Louise Wiles.

Karen Louise Wiles was born on January 21, 1950 to Richard and Phyllis Wiles in Tacoma, WA. Richard Frederick Wiles was born on September 7, 1923 in Burlington, WA and Phyllis Irene Hurn was born on November 10, 1927 in Sunnyside, Washington. After ‘Dick’ served in both WWII and the Korean War, he returned home and the couple were married on April 10, 1946; at first the family resided in Sedro-Woolley before they relocated to Burlington in 1958, where they laid down roots. They had five children together: Dianne (b. 1952), Karen, Brenda (b. 1963), Stephen, and Randall (b. 1956).

Details about Karen’s life are basically non-existent: the only real ‘fact’ I was able to find about her is that she had some sort of diminished mental capacity and during her adolescence attended/lived at the Fircrest School in Shoreline, WA. Fircrest was a major Residential Habilitation Center for those that suffered from intellectual disabilities and was designed to provide residential care, nursing, and habilitative services for those with ‘unique medical needs;’ it operated under the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services. Sadly, I was only able to find one black and white picture of Karen in an article that was published after her murder, most likely due to the fact that she never attended any sort of formal schooling (for example, Fircrest isn’t on classmates.com). Around three weeks prior to her death, Karen was voluntarily committed to Western State Hospital on February 4, 1975 after she was confined ‘in a series of Seattle mental-health facilities.’ Detectives said she had briefly resided there in October of 1974 but left after only two weeks; she was found by police the following month and was ‘returned to care in Seattle.’

Around noon on February 21, 1975 the semi-nude remains of Karen Wiles were found around eight miles from Western State Hospital in a blackberry patch by a Port of Tacoma employee that had been inspecting a tidal gate at a dead end of Lincoln Avenue (one source said it was Taylor Avenue). It was an area known as the ‘tideflats,’ and during the daytime it was a semi-busy area close to Seattle… but at night, it transformed into a dark, deserted place that was known for attracting unsavory individuals that were typically partaking in some sort of illegal activity (aka: it was the perfect place to dump a body). It was strongly believed by investigators that she’d been murdered somewhere else and dumped at the tideflats.

At the time she had been found, Wiles was only wearing stockings and a dress that had been pulled up to her hips, and she was naked from the waist down; her shoes, jacket, and underclothing were found nearby.  According to the Pierce County Coroner Jack Davelaae, her cause of death was strangulation, and detectives said twine had been found wrapped around her neck; she also had noticeable impressions on her wrists, which were an indication that she’d been bound when she was alive. Close to where her remains were found, investigators found a three-foot-long black plastic hose, which is interesting because Warren Leslie Forrest’s first victim said that at one point during her attack her assailant had penetrated with a hose which had been seized as evidence from Warren’s van: it was described as being approximately two inches in diameter and a couple of feet long and was very similar to the one found near Karen’s body (which unfortunately had gotten lost at some point after being brought into evidence).

Just a few weeks prior to her admission to the facility, suspected serial killer Warren Leslie Forrest had been committed after it was determined he had been ‘not guilty by reason of insanity’ after he got caught attacking his Lacamas Lake victim, and on January 31, 1975 he was committed to the Western State Mental Hospital in Steilacoom, WA.

Authorities had no other choice than to turn to the public for help in identifying the young victim and turned to the local news: after the story aired some nurses at WSH came through forward and made the positive identification. According to Detective Lieutenant Grenville Legge, the twenty-five-year-old Wiles was last seen at the Western State Penitentiary around 6 PM on Tuesday, February 21. 1975: she had been wearing a blueprint blouse, red and white checkered double-knit slacks, white stockings, blue tennis shoes, and a blue ski jacket. She was 5’8,” weighed around 175 pounds and had long brown hair and blue-grey eyes.

A spokesman for Western State Hospital said that because Wiles had voluntarily entered the facility and was not a minor, they were under no obligation to notify her parents when she left their care. Detective Legge said that in the days that immediately followed her disappearance investigators interviewed hospital employees along with their residents about the activities of Karen on the morning she was last seen; he also said they had ‘briefly’ chased a lead regarding a report of a vehicle with its headlights out that had been seen leaving the area on the evening she was last seen alive (nothing ever came of it).

According to investigators, statements made by Wiles family and other patients at Western State Hospital were ‘conflicting:’ one fellow patient said that in the morning on the day she vanished Karen had told her about her intentions of hitchhiking to Seattle, but this was only if she was able to leave the hospitals grounds; also, according to the same patient, she had returned to her room in the ‘early afternoon’ and changed her clothes. Additionally, a resident of Lakewood, WA came forward and told Pierce County Sheriff’s that they saw a woman that matched Wiles description hitchhiking ‘towards Tacoma’ on Steilacoom Boulevard around 2:30 PM on February 21. 1975… however, they also said that they received several additional reports that she was at a few other locations across Washington at the time as well.

These reports that Karen was seen hitchhiking in the middle of the afternoon are in direct conflict with a finding from the pathologist’s report from her autopsy: the food that had been found in her stomach matched the meal that had been served at Western State Hospital that evening, which took place between 4 PM and 6 PM; they also said that the ‘digestion was not far advanced.’ Which means is her last meal had been at the hospital, then she may have been killed sometime between dinner and 8 PM. Investigators were also looking into several vehicles that were seen near the facility on the day of and after she was last seen alive. The RN’s at the hospital that identified Karen’s remains told detectives that she ‘would do anything to get a drink,’ and had gotten caught with alcohol at the facility before she disappeared. They also said she had ‘self-destruction’ tendencies and had recently ‘superficially’ cut herself. Police passed her picture around in the lower Pacific Avenue bars as well as at the hospital and around the tideflats area where her remains were recovered, but they came up empty handed.

These reports that Karen was seen hitchhiking in the middle of the afternoon are in direct conflict with a finding from the pathologist’s report from her autopsy: the food that had been found in her stomach matched the meal that had been served at Western State Hospital that evening, which took place between 4 PM and 6 PM; they also said that the ‘digestion was not far advanced.’ Which means is her last meal had been at the hospital, then she may have been killed sometime between dinner and 8 PM. Investigators were also looking into several vehicles that were seen near the facility on the day of and after she was last seen alive. The RN’s at the hospital that identified Karen’s remains told detectives that she ‘would do anything to get a drink,’ and had gotten caught with alcohol at the facility before she disappeared. They also said she had ‘self-destruction’ tendencies and had recently ‘superficially’ cut herself. Police passed her picture around in the lower Pacific Avenue bars as well as at the hospital and around the tideflats area where her remains were recovered, but they came up empty handed.

According to ‘Stolen Voices of Dole Valley,’ the murder of Karen Wiles has recently been reopened, and for the first time since her death detectives in Tacoma questioned Warren Leslie Forrest about her death (however all their attempts were unsuccessful, as he refused to answer their questions). The use of a ligature to strangle the victim along with the sexual assault was consistent with Forrest’s MO, and it’s been reported that he worked with Karen in the hospitals kitchen; despite some restrictions (he wasn’t supposed to leave the facilities grounds the first few weeks he was there), he was still somehow able to leave the hospital and he did have access to his vehicle (I also saw he had access to the facilities van).Also, interestingly enough, Warren Forrest’s then wife Sharon claimed he was having an extramarital affair with one of the members of the staff at Western State Hospital, a fact that one of his ‘good friends’ verified when they were interviewed by detectives (he said that her name was Nancy). This is interesting to me, because in 1984 he married one of the nurses at the prison he was incarcerated in (Walla Walla State Penitentiary).

Because of not wanting to write about the same things repeatedly, I’m not going to go over the more commonly discussed victims of Warren Leslie Forrest, only because I have written about them all in the last two articles about him. The use of a ligature to strangle the victim along with the sexual assault was consistent with Forrest’s MO, which targeted young girls and women in the Clark County area of Washington state in the early to middle 1970’s (often those who were hitchhiking or walking alone). He frequently used a blue 1973 Ford Econoline van in his attacks, and in one of his cases where the victim survived, she said that he used a knife to threaten her then he forced her into the back of his vehicle. During abductions, he questioned victims about their age, relationships, and sexual history to assess them according to his own notions of morality. WLF’s preferred torture tool (which was a unique signature in relation to his MO) was an air-powered dart pistol, and he shot his victims with darts as a form of torture before eventually abandoning and/or killing them. He often left the women in remote, heavily wooded areas such as Dole ValleyLacamas Lake, or Tukes Mountain in a state park (which makes sense, as he worked for the parks department) and they were typically bound with rope or baling twine, and were frequently tied between trees. Forrest’s primary methods of murder were strangulation and stabbing, with wounds that were typically consistent with the use of an ice pick or darts. 

Investigators involved in Karen’s case said that in relation to Warren Leslie Forrest, although circumstantial evidence aligns in the case, it lacks physical proof: Tacoma Detective Sergeant Julie Deer said: ‘there are similarities that one can’t ignore… but we have to have evidence.’ According to current members of the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department, the staff at the Western State Hospital didn’t cooperate with the original detectives from the Tacoma Police Department back in 1975, which was detrimental when it came to the investigation. During his interview with Carolyn Osorio, retired Pierce County Police Chief WW Parrott made it clear that investigators were extremely suspicious about the goings on at Western State Hospital in the 1970’s, and the murder investigation hit a wall in 1978 partially due to ‘uncooperative staff, and: ‘investigators were extremely suspicious’ and had been ‘stymied by the staff at Western at every turn.’ Because Wiles was ‘a marginalized woman’ without close family advocates, investigators said her murder sadly became an afterthought, and her case quickly fell to the wayside.

According to the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department, some of the evidence related to Wiles case was either ‘mishandled or lost,’ and crucial biological evidence that could have belonged to the suspect (such as swabs and pantyhose) was lost. Before Tacoma PD Detective Lindsey Wade retired in 2018, she submitted some of Weil’s clothing to a lab in Washington state for DNA testing, along with the twine that had been recovered from around her neck; the results came back as ‘inconclusive,’ meaning no DNA from the suspect had been identified

According to Chief Parrott, ‘the majority of my investigation into this homicide was conducted in and about the grounds of Western State Hospital. And I don’t feel I have to capitalize on you the difficulty that one is confronted with when attempting to conduct major investigations at this institution. It’s been my feeling from the mere outset of my investigation into this homicide that the suspects responsible for the demise of Karen Wiles were somehow connected to the hospital in one capacity or another. However, I have yet to be successful in attaching suspicions to any one person.’

Richard Frederick Wiles died at the age of eighty on December 5, 2003 in Burlington, Washington. Karen’s mother Phyllis Irene Wiles passed away at the age of eighty-six on August 18, 2014 at home with her family by her bedside; the mother of five enjoyed crocheting ‘beautiful doilies,’ and loved to bake apple pie (her family’s favorite dessert) for every occasion; cinnamon rolls and pineapple upside down cake were also a specialty of hers. According to her obituary, Phyllis loved animals, country music, movies, and the beautiful flowers that her son was always bringing to her, and she never left home without her earrings on and always wore a heartfelt smile.

Karen’s sister Dianne died at the age of seventy-three on November 29, 2025 at Riverside Village, and according to her obituary, after high school she relocated to Oregon and was a co-owner of ‘His and Her’s Locksmith’ in South Bend for twenty years. Upon retiring Dianne returned to Washington to take care of her mother, and she adored being a mom and grandmother; she also loved to cook and was an avid reader, and had an extensive library of books (she especially was fond of cookbooks).

Both of Karen’s brothers are still alive: after college Stephen relocated to Collierville, Tennessee, and Randy Wiles stayed in Burlington, WA. Her sister Brenda Wiles-Harley is currently residing in Mount Vernon, WA.

Works Cited:
Carolyn Osorio. (September 9, 2025). Stolen Voices of Dole Valley, Episode 5: The Good-Looking Stranger. Taken February 12, 2026 from https://pod.wave.co/

Karen Wiles.
The Wile’s family from the 1950 US census.
A newspaper clipping about the identification of Karen Wiles that was published on The Seattle Times Page on February 24, 1975.
The Obituary for Karen Wiles published in The Bellingham Herald on February 24, 1975.
An article about the murder of Karen Wiles published in The News Tribune on February 24, 1975.
An article about the murder of Karen Wiles published in The News Tribune on February 25, 1975.
An article about the murder of Karen Wiles published in The Seattle Times on February 27, 1975.
An article about the murder of Karen Wiles published in The News Tribune on March 1, 1975.
The death certificate of Karen Louise Wiles.
Karen Wile’s grave site.
Some residential buildings in the Hollywood on the tideflats community from 1938. Photo by Richards Studio, courtesy of the Tacoma Public Library.
In the spring of 1942, under the direction of the Coast Guard the Tacoma Fire Department burned most of the houses in the tideflats. Photo taken by Richards Studio on May 20, 1942, courtesy of the Tacoma Public Library.
An article about an illness Richard Wiles suffered from as a young child that was published in The Bellingham Herald on November 24, 1928.
Richard and Phyllis’s High School graduation pictures photoshopped together: Phyllis Hurn graduated from Sedro Woolley High School and Richard graduated from Burlington High School.
Mr. Wile’s WWII draft card.
Richard Wile’s draft card from the Korean War.
The affidavit for a marriage license for Richard Wiles and Phyllis Hurn dated April 6, 1946.
Richard and Phyllis Wile’s marriage certificate dated April 10, 1946.
Richard Wiles and Phyllis Hurn listed in the Marriage Register from Skagit county in 1946.
Steve Wiles from the Burlington-Edison High School yearbook.
Dianne Wiles from the 1967 Burlington-Edison High School yearbook.
Another article mentioning Karen’s brother Stephen serving in the US Navy that was published in The Bellingham Herald on February 4, 1970.
An article mentioning Karen’s brother Steve serving in the US Navy that was published in The Bellingham Herald on August 10, 1970.
Randall Wiles senior picture from the 1974 Burlington-Edison High School yearbook.
An article mentioning Karen’s sister Dianne’s in relation to her husband serving in the US Navy that was published in The Bellingham Herald on February 19, 1980.
Brenda Wiles from the 1981 Burlington-Edison High School yearbook.
Phyllis Wiles.
Karen’s parents.
Richard and Phyllis Wiles.
Phyllis Wiles Grave site.
Karen’s sister, Dianne.
A word of condolence I found on Karen’s mother’s obituary page.