Tara Tuchscherer
Published: Lewiston Tribune
1997-08-24
Page: 1A
Sitting on shelves in area law enforcement offices are binders titled "
Kristen David," "
Christina White," "
Toni Ann Tedder" and "
Joyce LePage."
The pages inside have yellowed. The signatures at the bottom of the reports are of men who have since retired or died.
But the binders of unsolved mysteries -- some murder, some disappearances -- are pulled off the shelves every now and then, dusted off and reviewed.
In the case of Kristen David, the young University of Idaho student who was found dismembered in the Snake River near Clarkston in 1981, a detective at the Latah County Sheriff's Office has begun to re-read the volumes of reports and interviews.
New information on an old suspect who has since died in prison surfaced recently, Sgt. Earl Aston said. Although he declined to say what the information is, or which suspect he's interested in, he did say he would renew the now 16-year-old investigation.
David's grisly murder remains one of the area's most frustrating cases, partly because of the horrendous nature of the crime and partly because closure has eluded a cadre of relentless investigators intent on finding her killer.
She disappeared June 26, 1981, while riding her bicycle between Lewiston and Moscow. Several motorists reported seeing her on U.S. Highway 95 near Genesee, but she never arrived in Lewiston.
Eight days later, a headless torso and a leg wrapped in plastic bags were found by a boater on the north shore of the Snake River near Red Wolf Crossing in Clarkston.
The next day, a dismembered head, arms and part of a leg were found downstream from the bridge.
The intense investigation that followed took investigators on a search for the killer as far away as Florida.
Still, no arrest has been made.
Aston hopes his new information will change that, but he doesn't have much time on hands. He is the lead detective in the Hazel Martin murder case of last year -- an investigation he says is well on its way toward solution.
Martin, 73, was last seen alive May 17, 1996, at a card party at the Princeton Grange. After she was reported missing, her home in Princeton was searched and no sign of struggle was found. Days later, bedding eventually identified as Martin's was discovered along the Palouse River.
Some five miles from where the bedding was found, a skull and lower jaw bone were discovered this spring in the White Pine Drive area by mushroom hunters. Since then, Aston said, a femur has been found.
Initial indications were the skull showed signs of trauma from blunt force, he said, but forensic tests that could determine exactly how she died have not yet been completed.
Aston said the Martin case is one that won't be added to the binders on the shelf.
"We're very optimistic about solving this case. ... We're not going to stop until we solve it."
Aston and Latah County Sheriff Jeff Crouch say they have suspects and know why Martin was killed.
A homicide last year in Pullman also has been added to the area's list of unsolved mysteries. But, like the Hazel Martin murder, the Dorothy Martin murder is being worked on night and day by optimistic investigators.
"It's a very active case," said Sgt. Sam Sorem of the Pullman Police Department.
Martin, an 89-year-old resident of the Statesman Condominium on Military Hill, was found murdered by asphyxiation in her bed in July 1996.
Investigators in both the Hazel and Dorothy Martin cases say a connection between the two murders is not likely, despite the similarities in age, last name and time frame. But a link has not been ruled out completely.
"In murder investigations, you don't rule anything out until you have solid evidence that would tell you otherwise," Sorem said.
"New information still comes in all the time, and Baker (Fred Baker, the lead investigator on the case) checks up on all of them," he said.
Investigators have a lot to work with now, he added.
In addition to having "persons of interest," there are a set of missing keys to Martin's apartment and missing items that should have been found inside.
"The only person that knows they're gone is the person that committed the crime," Sorem said.
Baker will be presenting information about the Dorothy Martin case at a meeting of Washington investigators involved in Homicide Information Tracking System (HITS) this week in Kennewick. The hope is after investigators present the evidence in their unsolved murder cases, similarities with other murders will arise.
Det. Joel Hastings of the Clarkston Police Department also will attend the meeting.
Hastings has the Toni Ann Tedder murder on his shelf.
"To solve this, we would need some additional information and we're just not there yet," he said.
Tedder, 18, was stabbed while she was sleeping on a couch in her family's living room in Clarkston in 1990. Another family member was sleeping on the floor near Tedder during the attack and came face to face with the murderer, Hastings said.
The fisherman-type knife used to stab Tedder was found near her.
Over the years, Hastings said, one suspect in a field of many has not been eliminated.
A Tedder family member said she believes Toni was killed by mistake -- that the murderer intended to kill someone else in another house.
Another case in southeastern Washington that has plagued investigators for years is the disappearance and probable homicide of 12-year-old Christina White of Asotin in 1979.
The White disappearance is unlike most unsolved mysteries in that investigators are certain they know the culprit.
"We do have a primary suspect who has been our primary suspect for years," said Sgt. Tom White of the Asotin County Sheriff's Office.
In fact, he said, White was last seen standing with her bike outside an Asotin home often frequented by the suspect.
White had called her mother from the home to tell her she felt ill from the heat. Her mother told her to put a towel over her head and come to the Asotin County Fair when she felt better.
She has never been found.
The suspect in her disappearance is believed to have killed again.
Investigators in the White case and in the Lewiston Civic Theatre case announced in 1989 they shared the same suspect.
In the Civic Theatre case, police believe the suspect, who was working at the theater that night, was presented with an opportunity to kill Kristina Nelson, 21, and her stepsister Jacqueline (Brandy) Miller when the two women walked by -- and perhaps inside -- the theater Sept. 12, 1982.
Nelson had left a note in her Normal Hill apartment telling her boyfriend she and Miller were walking to a downtown Lewiston grocery store.
Steven R. Pearsall, a janitor at the theater, was dropped there later that night by friends. He told his friends he intended to do some work, wash some laundry and practice his clarinet.
Police believe the suspect killed all three of them that night.
In 1984, the decomposed bodies of Nelson and Miller were found by a Kendrick youth at the bottom of a steep embankment along State Highway 3, about 2 1/2 miles north of Kendrick.
Pearsall has never been found.
Former Lewiston police Capt. Duane Ailor, who died this summer, was the primary investigator in the Civic Theatre murders.
According to LPD Capt. Paul Ayers, nothing has changed in regard to Ailor's suspect.
"There are four victims involved (including Christina White) and one suspect. We're 99 percent certain who the culprit is," Ailor told the Tribune in a 1995 interview.
The suspect was interviewed numerous times by police and then refused to cooperate, telling investigators to talk instead with his attorney.
He still lives and works in the community.
Although Pearsall could not be ruled out completely because he's never been found, Ailor believed Pearsall was a victim.
Sometimes in an unsolved mystery, a fresh approach may be what it takes to close the case.
In the 26-year-old murder of Joyce LePage, a Washington State University student found in skeletal form in a ravine about 10 miles south of the university, a sergeant from WSU's police department recently has reactivated the case.
"I'm taking an active second look," Sgt. Don Maupin said.
LePage, 22, was last seen by friends who dropped her off at her apartment July 21, 1971. LePage often would stay at Stevens Hall on campus even though the building was being remodeled that summer and was supposed to empty.
It is there, Maupin said, that LePage was killed.
Her skeletal remains -- which bore signs of a stabbing -- were found almost a year later by a boy hunting for opals in a steep ravine off Wawawai Road.
Maupin said he has suspects and a motive, but declined to elaborate on either.
Other unsolved murders and disappearances continue to haunt law enforcement officials and family members in this area:
After working an evening shift alone, waitress Janice Foiles, 18, was killed in 1969 by two blows to the head at a Moscow cafe. There was no sexual assault, police said, and nothing was taken from the restaurant. Police found no weapon and no motive.
In June 1979, Gayla Schaper, 27, was last seen feeding her horses on Lenville Road. Nearby meadows were excavated and pieces of clothing were found, but investigators declined to comment on the results of forensic tests on the clothing.
Patty Otto, a 24-year-old Lewiston woman, hasn't been seen since September 1976. Her husband was a prime suspect in her disappearance, but he died in prison, where he was serving 25 years for hiring killers to murder Duane Ailor, who at that time was a Lewiston detective.
A young man who has never been identified floated down the Snake River near Hellar Bar in June 1982. When sheriff's deputies recovered his body, they discovered he had been shot. His age was determined to be 18- to 22-years old, he was 5 feet, 11 inches tall and weighed about 150 pounds.
Daniel Walker, 31, a WSU student, was found shot to death in his pickup truck on the shoulder of Lewiston's Old Spiral Highway in April 1982. Police believe the shooting was drug-related and have issued a warrant in connection with the shooting for Edward L. Hart, who, after an extensive search in Alaska and Mexico, has never been found.
C. Bruce and Lynn Peeples were found strangled in their burned Grangeville apartment in April 1994. Their killer has never been found.
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