Murder-suicide ruled out in deaths of two hikers

EVERETT – Two women killed on a hiking trail near Mount Pilchuck died of gunshot wounds, and investigators have ruled out murder-suicide, the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office said Friday.

The Pinnacle Lake Trail where the women were found and the U.S. Forest Service road leading to it were open on Thursday but closed Friday for further investigation, Deputy Rich Niebusch said at a news conference.

Investigators were trying to determine who was responsible for the killings. Niebusch said a random attack had not been ruled out, and he urged anyone hiking on nearby trails to be extra cautious.

The Snohomish County medical examiner’s office identified the victims as Mary Cooper, 56, and her daughter, Susanna Stodden, 27, both of Seattle. But at the Sheriff’s Office request, the medical examiner’s office released no information about how the women died other than to say they were victims of homicide.

The women were last seen alive around 10 a.m. Tuesday. A passer-by found their bodies a few hours later toward the end of a nearly two-mile trail to Pinnacle Lake, about 50 miles northeast of Seattle and south of Verlot in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, Niebusch said.

On Wednesday, investigators worked at the scene and carried the bodies to the nearest road by foot. The trail was open on Thursday but appeared deserted. The only vehicles parked near the trailhead belonged to TV news crews.

The FBI was aiding the investigation because the killings took place in a national forest, but the Sheriff’s Office remained in charge of the probe, said Robbie Burroughs, a spokeswoman in the bureau’s Seattle office.