Cooperation Key To Stopping Killer Task Force Discusses Case With West Side Officials

Law enforcement officials in Western Washington are bracing for the possibility that Spokane’s serial killer is shifting his focus to their side of the Cascades.

Representatives from 20 police and sheriff’s departments met behind closed doors Tuesday with members of Spokane’s serial killer task force in suburban Seattle.

They talked about the murderer and how they need to cooperate if they are going to stop him, said police Capt. Steve Braun, task force co-commander.

“There’s a belief that it could spread,” Braun said at a Wednesday press conference in Spokane.

King County sheriff’s spokesman John Urquhart agreed.

“We are concerned that he might, in the future, move over here,” said Urquhart, who attended the day-long meeting.

The briefing came just days after Spokane and Pierce County detectives had difficulty connecting with each other to discuss a recent Tacoma-area murder that has striking similarities with the serial killings.

Investigators from the two departments have since talked on the telephone about the killing.

The agencies which met Tuesday including the Tacoma Police Department and the King and Pierce county sheriff’s offices held a similar meeting in March after an other Tacoma killing was linked to the serial killer.

The killer is being blamed for the deaths of nine women since last November. All of the victims lived on the fringes of society - working as prostitutes, using illegal drugs, or both.

The bodies of seven of the victims were found in or around Spokane. An eighth was discovered near Tacoma. A ninth woman is presumed a victim of the killer even though her body has not been found.

The confirmed victims all had been shot in the head.

West Side authorities initially became interested in the Spokane investigation last December when a transient discovered the body of 24-year-old Melinda L. Mercer in a south Tacoma field.

Detectives later linked Mercer’s death to Spokane’s serial killer.

Their interest was renewed last month when the remains of another woman were discovered in Parkland, south of Tacoma.

Connie LaFontaine’s body was found in a ditch on Oct. 13. The 35-year-old LaFontaine, who supported a heroin habit through prostitution, had been shot in the head.

While there are obvious similarities between the other victims and LaFontaine, detectives have not yet linked her to the Spokane cases.

Braun said task force detectives are working with Pierce County investigators to determine if LaFontaine should be considered victim No. 10.

“I don’t think we’re there yet,” he said.

Still, her killing was a reminder that Spokane’s killer could find fertile hunting grounds in Western Washington, Urquhart said.

“I don’t think we need a new urgency. We have had great experience with serial killers already,” said Urquhart, whose agency chased both Ted Bundy and the Green River killer. “We don’t need to be urged.”