Mysterious disappearances to cold-blooded killings. Tacoma’s 5 oldest unsolved cases
A man found beaten to death with his own revolver. An 8-year-old girl who disappeared in the middle of the night. A sailboat that left port never to return.
They are some of Tacoma’s oldest cold cases that have left people with more questions than answers.
The News Tribune spoke to detective James Buchanan, an investigator in Tacoma Police Department’s cold case unit. Buchanan provided a list of some of the oldest cold cases, starting in 1936.
1. The kidnapping, killing of Charles Mattson
Charles Mattson was 10 years old when he was taken from his home near Point Defiance on Dec. 27, 1936. His kidnapper sought a $28,000 ransom. William Whitlock Mattson, a well-known physician and surgeon in Tacoma, and his wife were at an event that evening. Their three children, including the boy, stayed home, The News Tribune previously reported.
Charles Mattson’s body was found beaten and stabbed 19 days later in a frozen field south of Everett. His death sparked public outcry with former president Franklin D. Roosevelt releasing a statement about the killing.
“The murder of the little Mattson boy has shocked the Nation. Every means at our command must be enlisted to capture and punish the perpetrator of this ghastly crime,” the statement read.
It has been over 88 years since Mattson’s death, and his case remains the oldest unsolved murder that took place in Tacoma.
2. The disappearance of Ann Marie Burr
Ann Marie Burr, 8, has been missing since 1961 after she disappeared in the middle of the night from her North End home. There were no signs of forced entry into the residence, Buchanan said.
Some theorized that infamous serial killer Ted Bundy had kidnapped Burr. Bundy, 14 years old at the time Burr disappeared, was the paper boy in the neighborhood.
Buchanan said there was also a 15-year-old boy who lived down the street who was a bit infatuated with Burr. He took a polygraph test and failed at the first but passed on the second try. That boy was ruled out as a person of interest, and, to date, there have been no viable suspects in Burr’s disappearance
3. Unsolved murder of Raymond Smith
In 1967, Raymond Smith was working as a security guard at several Tacoma businesses, including Titus-Will at 600 Broadway, Buchanan said.
“And (Smith) usually got to the business around 11:30 at night and would check the main office where the safe was located, but it appeared he interrupted a burglary,” the detective said.
Smith was found beaten to death with his own .38-caliber revolver.
Buchanan said there was an entry point that appeared to be a window on the roof of the business. There were two sets of footprints found by investigators, which suggests there was more than one burglar. The safe also had extensive damage from someone trying to access the contents.
There were a couple of people of interest in Smith’s death, but they’re now dead, Buchanan said.
4. 7 people who went out to sea and never returned
Brian Williams, 23, was attending the Convention of the Intercollegiate Knights in Seattle in April 1971 when he and six friends decided to take out his family’s 22-foot sailboat, Buchanan said.
Williams called his mother, and she agreed to let him take the boat out. He and his friends went to his north Tacoma residence for the boat’s keys. Williams told his brother they’d be out for an hour to an hour and a half.
The boat went left the Point Defiance area and never returned.
The Coast Guard conducted an extensive search but did not find the vessel or its passengers, Buchanan said.
To this day, the sailboat, Williams and his six friends have never been found. The other missing people were identified as Gary Oman, 19, of Pullman; James Dickinson, 19, of Albion, Washington; Brian Wilson, 20, of Loon Lake, Washington; Robert Sherwood, 20, of Toppenish, Washington; Dennis Newton, 19, of Potlatch, Idaho; and Barbara Komorek, 22, of Seattle, according to a Daily Evergreen story from Washington State University’s Libraries Digital Collections.
Five of the people on board were students at WSU.
5. The killing of Charles ‘Bo’ White
In 1973, Charles “Bo” White was shot and killed outside the Office Tavern in the 1100 block of South 23rd Street. There were no witnesses to the shooting, Buchanan said.
White had been suspected of doing drugs a couple days earlier. He was also threatened by a woman with a gun for selling fake heroin, the detective said.
Police spoke to the woman, but there is no evidence pointing to the killer.
Other unsolved cases
While those are the oldest unsolved cases in Tacoma, Buchanan spoke of other cases that have not come to a conclusion.
In 1986, Alexander Welcher, owner of a gun shop called “Welcher’s” on Pacific Avenue, just disappeared, Buchanan said.
None of Welcher’s three vehicles was missing from the shop, and he could not have walked far because of his arthritis in his leg, according to a News Tribune story from 1987.
No guns or rifles were missing from the shop, and Welcher had made a bank deposit at 4 p.m. the day before his disappearance. Welcher has never been found.
It has been over 20 years since 3-year-old Lenoria Jones went missing in July 1995. The girl went to Target in Tacoma with her great-aunt, Buchanan said. The woman called 911 to report Jones missing, but surveillance video showed the girl never entered the store.
The great-aunt then said two men kidnapped Jones when they went to a 7-Eleven. Eventually, the woman returned to her original story and said that Jones disappeared between the parking lot and the store’s front door. She eventually stopped talking to investigators, according to a News Tribune report.
Buchanan said the great-aunt now lives in Spokane, and he tried to pay her a visit last year. She told Buchanan “that she’d made good with God.”
Jones’ body has never been found, and no one has been arrested in connection with her disappearance.
Anyone with information on any of these case can leave a tip at Crime Stoppers or the nonemergency line through South Sound 911 at (253) 287-4455.