Witness details discovery of hiking pair

SEATTLE – Mary Cooper and Susanna Stodden, the mother and daughter who were found dead after a hike in July, apparently decided late to walk to Pinnacle Lake rather than climb Mt. Pilchuck. Two days after the killings, a man who identified himself only as “Witness” wrote an intriguing post on nwhikers.net. Though investigators would not comment, the posting has been generally accepted by friends and family as authentic.

“My wife and I were the last normal people to see Mary and Susanna alive,” Witness wrote. “They and we arrived at the trailhead at the same time (about 10 a.m.) and we had a pleasant conversation with them before we headed up the trail.”

Witness and his wife then hiked beyond Pinnacle Lake and stopped to eat lunch before heading back to the trailhead. “On our way down, we came upon the scene” – the bodies of Mary and Susanna – which he said he was not at liberty to describe.

“We have never spent a more terrifying half-hour than our hike back to the trailhead,” he wrote. “We had one ice ax between us which I held at the ready the entire time, not knowing if we would be attacked by a killer still lurking in the area.”

Witness did not know at the time that another couple had discovered the bodies earlier and reported it to authorities about 2:20 p.m.

According to one news account, this other couple didn’t know at first what they were seeing. They thought maybe they had come upon two people squatting or hunched over along the trail. As they got closer, they realized the two were dead.