Serial Killer Probe Stalled Task Force In Dark About Tacoma Case

FOR THE RECORD: 10-31-98 Story wrong: Tacoma homicide victim Connie LaFontaine became a licensed cosmetologist on March 3, 1987, and had a license for two years, Department of Licensing records show. The date she obtained the license was incorrect in a story in Friday’s paper.

The similarities are startling.

Connie Lynn LaFontaine was 35 years old, scarred by personal tragedy and a hard life on the streets.

Hooked on heroin, she supported her habit through prostitution. She lived in Tacoma but had strong ties to Spokane. And she wound up being shot to death, her body dumped off a paved road in an isolated area.

In every way, she fits the profile authorities have released of the targets of Spokane’s serial killer.

But the task force investigating the connected murders of eight women and the disappearance of another has not officially linked LaFontaine’s recent death to the serial killer case.

Task force officials said they have been unable to discuss the case with Pierce County detectives since Wednesday evening, when LaFontaine’s identity was determined using fingerprints.

It may be next week before Spokane investigators know whether they have a 10th victim to add to the serial killer’s tally, sheriff’s Capt. Doug Silver said Thursday.

“We are still working with authorities in Pierce County,” said Silver, co-commander of the task force. “Their investigators are very busy. The lead investigator on the case has a lot of other things going on. It has been hard for us to get in touch with them.”

That’s true, said deputy Ed Troyer, spokesman for the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department.

Pierce County detectives are chasing a serial rapist who has attacked 14 women during daylight hours. They’re also investigating several other homicides, Troyer said.

LaFontaine’s murder has been assigned to a detective, but it will be up to Spokane authorities to investigate it as a serial killer case, he said. “We’re not going to join the task force,” Troyer said. “We’ll work with Spokane. We’re sharing everything we have with Spokane. But they have all the information on (the serial killer) at this point, understandably.

“They’ve been working on it since the beginning. Basically, they’re the lead on this thing. Obviously, if it gets to be a bigger deal for us here, we may do something differently.” Even the preliminary investigation into LaFontaine’s death has been slow, Troyer said.

Because her corpse was so badly decomposed, it was more than two weeks before medical examiners identified her. “It’s like we’re starting from scratch, like we just found the body today,” Troyer said.

Pierce County authorities plan to release LaFontaine’s photograph to the Puget Sound media in hopes that somebody saw her get into a car or walk away with someone shortly before she disappeared, he said.

But detectives aren’t sure when that was.

“Nobody even reported her missing,” Troyer said. She was last seen about a month before her body was found.

If the LaFontaine case does turn out to be connected to the serial killings, the investigation may bog down even more, according to a renowned homicide expert. One of the serial killer victims already has been found shot to death in south Tacoma.

“It’s really going to complicate the investigations,” said Vernon Geberth, a retired New York City police commander and author of “Practical Homicide Investigations.”

“He’s opening up another area. It means that he has a geographical connection to each location: family, work, friends. It’s really unusual that a killer would move from one side of the state to another.”

It also means that the investigation would have to be carried out on two fronts nearly 300 miles apart.

Silver said Thursday that task force detectives “found nothing here in Spokane that would connect her to drugs and prostitution locally.”

LaFontaine had an extensive history of both in Pierce County, according to court records and friends.

She was a junkie so desperate for money she sold sex to strangers and burglarized houses to get cash for her next fix, court records state. She was a regular on Tacoma Way South, a stretch of road near McChord Air Force Base and the Fort Lewis Army Base lined with adult bookstores, strip clubs and cheap motels.

The prostitutes and drug dealers along the strip at night called her “Indian Connie,” a reference to her Native American heritage.

“She was really nice. I used to see her all the time,” said Wendy, a 29-year-old prostitute who works Tacoma Way. “That’s a real shame.”

LaFontaine had been arrested on drug and indecent conduct charges in Tacoma last April, according to Municipal Court records. She also had a 1992 arrest for prostitution in Tacoma.

Also in 1992, she pleaded guilty to breaking into a Tacoma home with her then-husband and stealing a combination television-VCR and five guns, which they later pawned for drug money.

Her 8-month jail sentence was cut short when she agreed to enter a drug treatment program. But LaFontaine, whose married name was Ellis, dropped out after a couple of days.

“Ms. Ellis is a serious heroin addict who supports her habit through prostitution and small drug sales,” Christina Maleney, a community corrections officer, wrote in an affidavit requesting an arrest warrant for LaFontaine in 1993.

More than drugs took their toll on LaFontaine. She left her family in North Dakota 15 years ago to try city life. The mother of three lost two sons to sudden infant death syndrome and a cardiac condition. In recent years, her marriage fell apart. Her mother died.

While living in Spokane in the late 1980s, LaFontaine attended beauty school. She became a licensed cosmetologist on March 3, 1997, Department of Licensing records show.

The way LaFontaine was murdered matches the Spokane serial killer victims.

Like Darla Sue Scott, Laurie Ann Wason, Shawn McClenahan, Shawn Johnson, Sunny Oster, Linda Maybin, Melinda Mercer and Michelyn Derning, LaFontaine was shot and her body dumped in an overgrown area near a paved road.

Pierce County deputies searching for a missing elderly man stumbled across LaFontaine’s body off 108th Street South on Oct. 13. Medical examiners determined she had been shot in the head.

The dump site - a wooded lot near a power substation - abuts state Highway 512, a major thoroughfare that connects south Tacoma to Interstate 5 and cities to the east.

Whoever abandoned LaFontaine’s body could have been miles from the area in no time, Troyer said.

“One stop sign, one yield sign, and then he’d never have to stop at an intersection again until he was in Spokane or beyond,” he said.

BUS PLEA Starting today, the faces of Spokane’s serial killer victims will flank city buses running the Sprague Avenue route. The photographs will be accompanied by information on a $10,000 reward for solving the case and telephone numbers for tipsters to call. “We know there’s a need to raise community awareness about these killings that have really been dragging on our community for a while,” said Spokane Transit Authority Executive Director Allen Schweim. “Offering this space is just one thing we can do.” STA worked with the serial killer task force and local businesses to design the public service ads. The Sprague route is being targeted because many of the victims worked as prostitutes in the area. Anyone with information about the killer or the victims should call Secret Witness at 327-5111; Crime Check, 456-2233; or the toll-free task force hot line, (888) 211-4980.

Staff writers Craig Welch and Bill Morlin contributed to this report.