By Kristin V. Richardson
For many families and friends of homicide victims whose cases remain unsolved, unanswered questions compound their grief over the death. Who did it? Why did this happen? How did it happen? Is the killer still out there?
Time does little to assuage the frustration, fear and pain that can feel like an open wound, even many years later. There is no closure, no justice for these people. And until the killer is caught, there is no real safety for anyone else.
There is no statute of limitations on murder, however, and scientific advances in the past 10 years have resurrected investigations that had long appeared to be at a dead end. As of January 1, the King County Prosecutor's Office has a unit devoted to helping investigate and prosecute these types of cases so they do not simply fade away, leaving the killer unpunished and the long-ago death still unresolved.
The successful prosecution of Sandra Darlene Bowman's killer, for example, took 36 years.
A pivotal year for America - 1968 - was a significant year for Sandra Bowman as well. She got married. She became pregnant. And while her husband, Thomas, was at his night-shift job, a stranger entered their home and stabbed her 57 times.
Most of the wounds were so deep that any of them, individually, would have been enough to kill her. Thomas found her brutalized body - she had been raped, with her wrists tied behind her back - in the apartment they shared as newlyweds. It was December 17, 1968, and Sandra was 16 years old.
Decades passed and the killing remained unsolved. Rewards were offered. Potential suspects were eliminated. And it haunted her husband. Even in 1968, however, investigators knew to retain and protect physical evidence from homicide cases for as long as possible. Someday, maybe, there would be a way to make use of it.
When Sandra Bowman died, the science of examining biological evidence to identify its source had barely begun. Development of the first DNA profile was 15 years away. Advanced use of DNA comparisons, accurate and specific enough to not only identify the guilty, but to exonerate the innocent, didn't really begin until several years after that.
As the science evolved, it became more precise, finally reaching the point of identifying someone's DNA to the exclusion of as many people as inhabit the Earth - or more. The amount of biological material necessary to obtain a DNA profile dramatically dropped.
Recognizing the potential of these advances, the Seattle Police Department in 2002 formed a unit with two detectives who worked solely on reassessing and working up homicide cases that had grown cold, i.e., those with all leads apparently exhausted. As they methodically reviewed unsolved files with promising physical evidence, the detectives examined Sandra Bowman's case.
Pubic hair samples had been collected at her autopsy and retained in evidence. In 2003, they asked the Washington State Patrol Crime Laboratory to take a look at them. In 2004, some 36 years after Sandra died, the lab results returned: testing of sperm on the hair had resulted in a DNA profile.
The profile was compared to a computerized database of DNA samples obtained from convicted felons. It matched the unique profile of John Dwight Canaday, who had been convicted of murdering two other women after Sandra Bowman. Confronted with the scientific findings, he admitted raping and stabbing Sandra.
He claimed he happened on her apartment randomly and was "angry, really angry" because he had recently gone through a divorce. Sandra's murder, he said, was happenstance, "just like the others."
Tim Bradshaw, a King County senior deputy prosecutor who, with former Senior Deputy Steve Fogg, handled cold cases, filed a charge of first-degree murder in 2004. Canaday pled guilty and will spend the rest of his life in prison.
Although DNA has been the key to many successes in cold case prosecutions, other advances in forensic technology can play an equal role. DNA is not available or even probative in some situations. Sometimes simply time, rather than any scientific discovery, can be the key to solving a case. Over the course of years, potential witnesses may grow up, get married, leave gang life, change alliances or simply decide they want to clear their consciences and tell police what they know.
Prosecutor Norm Maleng's office has worked with police from many agencies on unsolved homicides over the years, well before the term "cold case" entered the vernacular. Indeed, Senior Deputy Jeff Baird helped investigate and then led the prosecution of 48 murders committed in the 1980s and 1990s by Gary Ridgway, the Green River Killer.
That case's unceasing investigation broke open when DNA analysis and other forensic testing became more sophisticated. Several other cases have been resurrected through forensics or just old-fashioned, dogged investigation.
Given the significant recent scientific advances and the head start King County already had compared to many jurisdictions, Maleng envisioned a unit within his office specifically dedicated to examining these types of cases and assisting police in the investigations. The King County Council approved funding as part of its 2006 budget.
At Canaday's sentencing, Thomas Bowman said his life had been profoundly affected as the murder remained unsolved for many years. The memory of finding his wife's ravaged body will never leave him, he said. But there is some closure - finally. "Thank God they didn't give up on this case," he said. "Thank God for DNA testing."
Kristin V. Richardson is chair of the Cold Case Homicide Unit in the King County Prosecutor's Office.
