Man Convicted Of 1973 Killing In Seattle Suspect Was Discovered Last Year Through Automated Fingerprint System

The man accused of killing Gerrit Weynands during a robbery in central Seattle 24 years ago was found guilty Wednesday of first-degree murder.

Anthony Loren Lowe, 45, who already was serving a long prison term for a drug conviction, was found guilty by a King County Superior Court jury after a two-week trial. Lowe could be sentenced to up to 40 years in prison, prosecutors said.

Weynands was 45 when he was shot in the back of the head and his pockets turned inside out.

The crime remained unsolved until last year, when Seattle homicide detectives Rick Ninomiya and Steve Kirkland were able to trace a bloody fingerprint on Weynands’ car to Lowe.

The Automated Fingerprint Identification System catalogs fingerprints of known offenders and allows unidentified prints from crime scenes to be traced to an offender if he or she ever has been fingerprinted in the criminal-justice system.

Weynands was a successful logger who moved from Holland to Skagit County north of Seattle in 1956. He began his own logging business in 1963 and had equipment and five employees when he was killed.

His wallet had been stolen by a prostitute during a business trip in Seattle about three days before his murder in 1973. He told a hotel concierge he needed to “buy back” his wallet because it contained important papers.

Witnesses told police Weynands was last seen alive flashing a large wad of cash near where he was killed.

Weynands’ younger brother, Hank, also lived in Skagit County but died 10 years ago still searching for answers to the killing.

“Hank never gave up hope that the person who murdered his brother would eventually be identified and prosecuted,” Judy Weynands, Hank’s widow, said at the time Lowe was charged.