WA WA - Loren H. Sundholm, 23, Bellevue, 4 December 1965

After more than 50 years, Lee Sundholm has found closure now that the Bellevue Police Department has solved his brother's 1965 murder — the city's first homicide and oldest cold case.

"I could never forget that, to this day," Sundholm, 75, said of the night his father called him to tell him that his brother, Loren, had been found stabbed to death.

Loren H. Sundholm, 23, had been out drinking in Seattle on December 4, 1965 with friend Bill Huff. The pair were driving home to Kirkland through Bellevue when Huff said they were forced off of the road. Huff told police two men exited a Buick with an Oregon license plate and attacked them, knocking him unconscious, according to an Eastside Journal article.

Loren's body was later found in some nearby blackberry bushes, having been stabbed 13 times. His death was the young city's first murder.

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- The victim was found wearing only socks, and his socks were clean. If the victim had been involved in a fight, his socks would have been muddy as the area where the victim was found was extremely wet and muddy, leading Shearer to believe that the victim was probably dumped at the scene.

- According to autopsy reports and photos, there were scratches on the victim’s eyes caused by the blackberries. Working with the King County medical examiner, the detective learned that this could have only occurred if the victim was already deceased when he was placed in the bushes.

- Finally, the detective noticed a pair of shoes that were in the back seat of Huff’s vehicle, leading him to the conclusion that the shoes likely belonged to the victim, and he was probably killed in Huff’s car.

Armed with this new evidence, along with interviews of one of Huff’s ex-wives, the detective took the case, with this new evidence, to the King County Prosecutor, who concluded that they would have tried Huff for the murder if he was still alive.

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