Serial Killer Task Force’S E Turn West Officers Look For Ties To Crimes In Pierce County And Seek To Build A Firm Relationship With Local Law Authorities
Detectives hunting Spokane’s serial killer were in Western Washington this week to do more than examine possible ties to a slaying in Parkland.
They spent two days working to “cement relationships” with their counterparts in Pierce County, said Sheriff’s Capt. Doug Silver, task force co-commander.
That relationship is critical, Silver said, because connections to Pierce County keep showing up in task force investigations.
The body of the serial killer’s last known victim, Michelyn Derning, was discovered in Spokane’s East Central neighborhood in mid-July.
Since then, the hottest trails have led detectives to the West Side.
“There’s a possibility that our serial killer is moving directions,” Silver said, refusing to elaborate.
This week, task force detectives visited Parkland, 15 miles southwest of Tacoma, to examine another grisly dump site. There, on Oct. 13, authorities discovered what they believe is a woman’s badly decomposed body.
The Spokane investigators also re-examined evidence in the death of a known serial killer victim, 24-year-old Melinda Mercer. Her body was discovered in south Tacoma last December.
The latest victim’s body was found along a road less than five miles from where Mercer’s body had been dumped. Both had been shot.
Task force members are not connecting the Parkland death to the serial killer at this point. Using dental records, authorities expect to identify the victim next week.
Until then, “we have no idea if the victim is related to prostitution or drugs,” Silver said.
But there are similarities between that killing and the slayings of at least eight other women in Spokane and Tacoma, Silver said.
All of the victims led “high-risk” lifestyles with involvement in drugs or prostitution, or both.
Task force detectives are confident the Parkland victim is not Melody Murfin because dental records don’t appear to match, Silver said.
Missing since May, Murfin, 43, has been classified as the killer’s ninth victim, although her body has never been found.
As the task force’s investigation into the unsolved slayings of 20 women since 1984 continues, detectives are paying close attention to any homicide in the Pacific Northwest involving a woman who has been shot and dumped in a remote place.
“Each body is a new opportunity to learn,” Silver said. “We work extensively with forensic information.”
But they have returned to Pierce County and vicinity several times since Mercer was labeled a serial killer victim.
Other West Side links:
Serial killer victim Sunny Oster’s last known address was a motel near Tacoma. Although she had no Spokane County criminal record, Oster had several convictions for prostitution in and around Tacoma. Her body was found in February west of Spokane.
The body of a 21-year-old woman who had been shot to death was found near Tacoma in August, raising suspicions that the serial killer had struck again. Task force detectives ruled out a connection.
A blond man recently branded a person of interest in the serial killer investigation was last seen with a Seattle woman, whose body was found just north of the Pierce/Kitsap county line in 1995. Her death has not been linked to the serial killer.
More than 400 tips have come in about the person of interest since a police sketch was released in September.
Investigators will likely return to Pierce County if the latest victim is determined to be a womanand connected to drugs or prostitution, Silver said.
This sidebar appeared with the story: $10,000 REWARD Secret Witness is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the serial killer. Anyone with information about the killer or the victims should call Secret Witness, 327-5111; Crime Check, 456-2233; or the task force hot line, (888) 211-4980.