Puzzling Case May Be Solved 1988 Killing Had Baffled Mt. Vernon Authorities

Wed., Oct. 18, 2000

By Mike Roarke mikero@spokesman.com

Stacy E. Hawn was last seen alive in July 1988.

In December of that year, a wood-cutter found her clothing and skeletal remains 10 miles east of Mount Vernon, Wash., hidden under heavy brush. A county coroner’s report said the Alaska-born 23-year-old died of a bullet wound to the head.

Investigators had been unable to identify her killer. And if Robert L. Yates Jr. hadn’t recently claimed responsibility for her slaying, the case would remain unsolved.

“We had no case without Mr. Yates confessing to it,” Skagit County Prosecutor Tom Verge said Tuesday.

Verge agreed to let Hawn’s case be handled in Spokane as part of a deal with authorities here.

Under the terms of a plea bargain, Yates will spare himself from a possible death penalty by confessing to 13 murders - including Hawn’s - plus one attempted killing. In exchange, he will spend the rest of his life in prison.

“If it’s true, this will put a little closure on a situation that has been going on for the last 11 years,” Melvin Hawn, Stacy’s father, said from his Bellevue, Wash., home Tuesday.

Melvin Hawn said Skagit County officials had not told him about Yates’ admission.

Verge said Yates confessed to picking up Hawn in his van near the corner of 150th Street and Aurora Avenue on the outskirts of Seattle in 1988. Hawn was apparently working as a prostitute.

The last reported sighting of Hawn before her death was July 7, by her Seattle attorney, who was representing her on a shoplifting charge. But her 1980 Chevrolet contained newspapers dated as late as July 12.

Skagit County officials did not identify her body until March 1989 - a month after she was reported missing by a friend. Dental records were used to confirm her identity.

Detectives at one point compared notes with King County investigators to see if Hawn had fallen victim to the prolific Green River Killer, who preyed on prostitutes in the Seattle area during the 1980s. But no link was established.

“Yates has never been a Green River suspect,” Sgt. John Urquhart, a King County sheriff’s spokesman, said Tuesday.

Verge said he has known since July that Yates was involved in Hawn’s killing.

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