WA WA - Erin MacGregor, 18, Redmond, 19 Sept 1990

[dotr]

...aaaaand it's almost fall once more, and I remembered Erin again. Just did a quick search and came across an article I can't recall having read before (though it's quite old):

http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19900927&slug=1095306

It says the boyfriend "could not provide a good description of the man" who had attacked him at the Redmond gas station. Fishy fishy fishy. I really wish I knew whether this guy had been investigated!

Maybe someone will remember seeing the car somewhere?

Thanks for the updated article, from the link, rbbm...

"Erin MacGregor is described as 5 feet, 7 inches tall, weighing about 125 pounds, with long blond hair and green eyes. Her car, a 1985 blue and silver Honda CRX with license number 348 BKL, also is missing."

 

[JRF1964]

Yeah, the boyfriend's story definitely pegged the needle on the BS meter. I am interested to know if he reported it to the police at the time it happened. If someone threatened me or my girlfriend like that, I would certainly report it. Why couldn't he describe the guy at the gas station? Was the guy wearing a mask? He may be completely innocent in the whole thing, but his story raises questions. Unfortunately as I read a lot of these cases, it seems the police leave gaps in the info that make it difficult for the general public to help. I understand they want to withhold some info to keep from getting bombarded by people who just want attention, but sometimes the investigations don't seem thorough. Hopefully, someday she receives justice.

 

[mindcrime]

I would like to add some thoughts about this case. Erin lived in my neighborhood and we went to school together. She was a year behind me. My sister knows Erin's sister Aimee. This case bothered both my sister and I for years as well as our community. The fragment that was linked to her mother brings some hope. This disappearance has a circular pattern. Her car was supposedly looked into for evidence but no information was given by police about that. A gas receipt or credit card records might show how far her car was driven and if it were used in the crime. Someone who knows the area would also know that you can cut through Snoqualmie from I 90 to highway 202 where credit cards and key-ring where found belonging to her. The car was later found in south Seattle a place she did not frequent. This would equate to approx. 100 mile round trip from her home to Juanita (where she was last seen)? inconsistencies in that story as other articles say she was last seen at home in Sahalee where HWY 202 connects to on 228th Ave to the north. Another story states that her purse was stolen days before she went missing but no report filed? I would be looking into that circular route from I-90 to HWY 202 through 228th Ave or Redmond. The area is more built up now and nothing else found yet. All speculation but seems plausible. Her car may have been used to dump her in places but no blood or other evidence found. A skull fragment or partial skull tells me she was either bludgeoned or shot at the scene and left for dead. This whole story needs to be straightened out. Still think about this case daily.

 

[mindcrime]

Thoughts that have plagued me over the past twenty five years are: 1) more than one person involved and more than one vehicle, 2) Erin was killed near or where her partial skull was located because no other evidence was found in her car supposedly, 3) she did not know what was coming and was killed either with a gun shot or bludgeoning, 4) She was abducted and made to drive to where she was killed AND her killing may not have been intentional and someone knows this but is afraid to come forward.

 

[mindcrime]

Another clue that struck me was the "For Sale" sign in Erin's car. In 1990 people didn't have cell phones and those who did had them installed in their vehicles. Her mom may have had one in her car as she was a realtor but not in a 85 Honda. Maybe Erin went to meet someone who was interested in her car and they went on a test drive. I don't think this is something a girl would do alone even with no way to contact someone for help unless she knew the person. Mile post 39 is not listed on the WASDOT map but mp 38 an 40 are. MP 39 would be very close to where that bridge is over the Snoqualmie river near Ollalie State Park. The person may have driven her up to that point alive, pulled over on the bridge to switch places and while she got out on the passenger side the killer had her trapped with the passenger door open. He may have grabbed her and pushed her over into the river possibly alive. I hate to think of this but back then traffic on I 90 was sparse with long gaps in traffic especially at night giving someone enough time to get away with this. I also remember a boyfriend or someone with her at her place of work one night sitting on a stool behind the counter. My sister might have also seen this person. Blond hair thin features tank top turquoise maybe. Erin had a large handbag with her. Not sure of the month or day. I'm really trying to put together what I remember of her; her personality, friends, etc. We knew this girl and we are not forgetting.

 

[mindcrime]

This boggles my mind because there are two separate reports about whether Erin was last seen sleeping at her home by her mother (what day/time) or leaving her boyfriends house but could that have been the previous day because she was reported missing on the 19th? Erin was to be at three separate interviews that day on the 19th and didn't show for any of them. Time frames are important here because job interviews are usually conducted in the mornings. Erin was possibly missing the previous night on the 18th. Something just isn't adding up here.

 

[mindcrime]

OK. So thinking about this for years and here is what I think could have happened. Erin's boyfriend was with her at work and let her go home that previous night. Erin's mother saw her sleeping in her room the next morning. Erin and her boyfriend changed plans and she went to see him and therefore didn't go to her interviews. Instead, they went for a drive to the mountains perhaps to talk or maybe there was another motive involved. She disappeared on a Wednesday and back in 1990 that area was desolate and very few people, if any, would be around that area in the middle of the week. Look at her car. There is light mud on the bottom of the left driver's door. Where she lived was all paved and there would be cedar needles in the wheel wells and underside that time of year. I know because I lived there and experienced this with my own car. The parks then were all dirt trails this is why I think her car was used to go there. Someone wanted to keep her quiet. But I remember that striped towel in the back of her car from the tanning salon which was behind the counter in a large carrying bag which was next to the stool this guy was sitting on. I might have a talk with the local sheriff soon. I need my sister to verify if she remembers.

 

[mindcrime]

I am not forgetting. I will help. Need to find the best course of action to make sure my memory serves me right. I hope what I have to add to this case helps. Now I need the time to do it.

 

[mindcrime]

Trying to piece things together. What would make an 18 year old girl change plans on a day three interviews were set up? A boyfriend? Pregnancy... as she put off college at BCC by missing the deadline? Somehow plans changed that day. She didn't hang around shady places. She was sleeping in her room according to her mother the day she went missing. A daytime abduction is unlikely. I think she was very much alive and went to this park or trail and was not expecting to be killed by someone she trusted. I remember that towel being inside her place of work. It's almost like she wants me remember something.

 

[Sally Steeltoe]

I had no idea there were new replies to this thread; apparently I'm no longer getting notifications.

Mindcrime, have you had any more thoughts? What was Erin like, anyway? I've never seen any of her former friends chime in on this thread or anywhere else. It's kind of sad. If my friend went missing at that age it seems like something that would stick with me forever.

 

[dotr]

http://q13fox.com/2013/08/07/redmond-teen-who-had-been-missing-24-years-finally-identified/

SEATTLE — DNA taken from a partial skull found in 2001 near milepost 39 on Interstate 90 has been positively identified as the remains of Erin MacGregor, an 18-year-old who disappeared after leaving her Redmond home on Sept. 19, 1990.

“Somebody’s got to know something and whether it’s a friend who runs in the same circle or whether its somebody who saw something on the night in Sept. 19, 1990, somebody has to know something. We’re really reaching out and asking people to give us a hand,” Stanley said.

If you have any information about Erin MacGregor, call the King County Sheriff’s Major Crimes Unit at 206-263-2090 or you can make an anonymous call to Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.

 

[Sally Steeltoe]

I thought the discovery of the skull would be the thing that got this case moving forward again, but years later we’ve learned nothing new. Where are her friends and remaining family? Where is the mysterious boyfriend? Does anyone care whether this woman’s killer is ever caught?

 

[Kodiak]

I thought the discovery of the skull would be the thing that got this case moving forward again, but years later we’ve learned nothing new. Where are her friends and remaining family? Where is the mysterious boyfriend? Does anyone care whether this woman’s killer is ever caught?

Interesting you posted this as I was thinking about the case two days ago and was thinking the same thing.

 

[Sally Steeltoe]

It just seems like there's this weird cloak of silence over this whole case. Usually these days you get updates on cases pretty easily and quickly, or else you can dig around and find out enough to do some sleuthing on your own. To be frank, I find it frustrating that I can't figure out who the boyfriend was. Nobody has outed him despite how sketchy his behavior was around the time of her disappearance. I suppose this is how "innocent until proven guilty" is supposed to work but there's been nothing but crickets since 2013.

 

[Sally Steeltoe]

I'll add also that I think there's been particularly sloppy investigating and/or reporting ever since she went missing. There--I've been thinking it for years and I finally said it.

 

[Sally Steeltoe]

I’ve been watching episodes of “Breaking Homicide” and keep thinking of Erin’s story and how it’s a perfect case for a show like this. Seriously considering writing to the producer of this show or one of the several other “cold case” shows to suggest they take a look. What if all this case needs is a bigger budget (and the increased pressure to produce results so the ratings won’t go down)?

 

[Sally Steeltoe]

Here we are 30 years later, and we’re no closer to finding out who took this girl.

 

[Savemecastiel]

Bumping