Serial Killer Case Reaches Alabama

Thu., May 13, 1999

By Adam Lynn adaml@spokesman.com

The search for Spokane’s serial killer reached into the deep South on Wednesday when Alabama inves tigators questioned a “person of interest” in the case, authorities said.

The man was released after being interrogated, and there are no plans to arrest him, said Deputy Dave Reagan of the Spokane County Sheriff’s Department. The man is not considered a suspect at this time.

“There was no basis for arrest, at least on our end,” Reagan said. “This is one of the thousands of tips we’ve received. Like the others, it needed to be followed up.”

The Spokane task force investigating the serial killings contacted detectives in Dothan, Ala., recently after receiving a tip that a man living there may have been involved in the deaths, Reagan said.

The man had formerly lived in Washington.

“We called them and said, `Hey, if you run into this guy, ask him these questions,”’ Reagan said. “They apparently picked him up overnight and questioned him.”

Task force detectives are now talking to their counterparts in Dothan to determine what the man said, Reagan said.

Initial reports from Dothan police indicate the man refused to answer the questions. “We have nothing at all,” said Lt. Tommy Martin of the Dothan Police Department.

Spokane detectives have no plans to travel south to interview him themselves, although they plan to keep the man’s name in their files, Reagan said.

Neither Spokane detectives nor their counterparts in Dothan released the man’s name.

Dothan is a city of about 55,000 people near the Fort Rucker Army base in southeastern Alabama.

The Spokane task force was formed in late December 1997 to hunt down a killer suspected of slaying at least eight women in Spokane and two in Tacoma since November 1997.

All the victims lived high-risk lifestyles: working as prostitutes, using illegal drugs or both. The latest victim tied to the case was found shot to death near Tacoma last October.

Anyone with information on the case is asked to call Crime Check at 456-2233 or Secret Witness at 327-5111. A reward is offered for information that solves the killings.

This sidebar appeared with the story: NUMBERS The public has called in close to 2,000 tips. There have been no arrests.

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