Cops Display Model Behavior Serial Killer Task Force Members Take To The Runway At Fund-Raiser For Downtown Women’S Shelter

It wasn’t quite the Full Monty, but it was a bunch of working men trying to raise money by parading around in front of a room packed full of women.

Seven cops - all members of Spokane’s serial killer task force - were transformed into runway models Monday.

It was a fund-raiser for the Downtown Women’s Shelter, a charity born in the wake of more than a dozen murders of street women in Spokane.

“It’s kind of nice to shift gears from the criminal work,” said Sheriff’s Sgt. Cal Walker. “It’s a good cause.”

More accustomed to Kevlar vests than tuxedo vests, the guys were pretty rigid in the back hallway at the Doubletree Hotel, while they waited to take the stage.

“They’ll loosen up when they get a girl on their arm,” said Maggie Marvel, a Bon Marche manager who coordinated the show. “It’s way amateur, that’s for sure. But they’re kinda cute.”

The task force comprises detectives from the city and county. In April, they arrested Robert Lee Yates Jr., who recently pleaded guilty to 13 killings.

The investigators figure they have at least another year of work, which includes handling inquiries from more than 50 other agencies about unsolved homicides.

Monday was a welcome break from gritty day-to-day work, said Spokane police Detective Ben Estes - who, the emcee pointed out, is single and employed.

“And very tidy,” the announcer said to a round of applause.

It was the second year for the fashion show, which features several local television reporters. But it was the first year for the police presence at the fund-raiser.

Lynn Everson, president of the shelter’s board of directors, came up with the idea. Everson, a social worker who works among prostitutes and drug addicts, got to know many of the task force members while they were looking for the Spokane killer.

“At first I thought she was kidding,” Walker said. “When she said she wasn’t, I decided I better ask the boss first.”

Not only did Sheriff Mark Sterk agree, but he also volunteered to be in the show.

Although they were more than a little nervous, the detectives immediately endeared themselves to the 350 ticket holders, most of them women. While the other models struck poses, the cops just smiled and blushed.

More subdued than a bachelor’s auction, rowdier than your standard runway fund-raiser, the show cleared more than $10,000 for the women’s shelter.

“I think we have the makings of a yearly tradition,” said Mike Yates, a police sergeant and vice president of the shelter’s board. “These guys cleaned up real nice.”