Category: Blog Posts

I’ll be at Seaport Books, (106 1st St., La Conner, WA) on Thursday, August 16th for an “Author Event”.  The link to their website with the details are here.

If you’re in the area, stop by and say hi.

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I was interviewed last week, by a news station in Springfield, MO. for a blog they run.

The topic was a more than 40-year-old murder of an innocent little girl, still unsolved.

I had some suggestions about how to move the case forward.

I’ll post a link to the podcast when it’s posted.  In the meantime, you can read about the murder here.

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Great blog post in Psychology Today about the difference between serial and spree murders, written by my friend, Katherine Ramsland.  Read it here.

The Café Racer shooting  (detailed in my book) is a good example of what started as a mass shooting when Ian Stawiki shot almost everyone in the café, and then drove downtown, where he shot a woman for no reason and stole her car, thus making him a spree killer.

Stawiki killed himself when confronted by officers in West Seattle later that afternoon.

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On January 5th, 1995, Martin Pang torched his parent’s frozen food warehouse to collect insurance money.  While fighting the fire, four Seattle firefighters died.

Pang was originally charged with First Degree Murder under the Felony Murder Rule. (He committed First Degree Arson, and because firefighters died, it became four counts of Murder 1).  Had he been convicted of the four murders, he would have spent the rest of his life in prison.

He fled to Brazil, and country with which the United States had no extradition treaty.  Brazil, which does not recognize felony murder, would only allow extradition for the Arson.

Pang pled guilty to four counts of Manslaughter.  Because of that, this narcissistic psychopath will be released from prison in September.

I wrote about working this case in my book.

You can see a report from KING-TV in Seattle here. 

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I was interviewed by Amy Clancy of KIRO7 News, along with retired King County Sheriff’s detectives Tom Jensen and Jim Allen, about Familial DNA, and why it’s not allowed or used in Washington State.

Watch the interview here.

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I was interviewed today for part of a documentary about Ted Bundy and murders he may have committed that were never attributed to him.

Check out the Facebook page for “Ted the Documentary” here.  It may be shown at the Sundance Film Festival next year.

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Snohomish County detectives announced an arrest in the 1987 cold case murder of a young Canadian couple.  My office did some work on this case, so I can’t comment, but innovative use of DNA evidence was key.

You can see the story on KIRO-TV here.

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Jeff Baird recently retired from the King County Prosecutor’s Office.  Among the people he prosecuted were serial killers, George Russell, Green River Killer Gary Ridgeway, and Dewayne Lee Harris.

Jeff appears prominently in my book.

Here’s an article in the Seattle Times about him.

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Several states in the US utilize familial DNA.  It’s time for the others, (including Washington) to get on board.

This article in Forensic Magazine shows why this is important.

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There are thousands of families whose loved ones were raped or murdered that are waiting desperately for answers.  Many of those have unknown DNA profiles associated with them.  The suspects who match that profile have probably been convicted of felonies, but for whatever reason, their DNA has never been collected.  This is an issue in Washington State and nationwide.

There was an interesting article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer that shows what can happen if you go back and get those profiles.

That article appears here.

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