Investigation into slain Seattle hikers grows

The Snohomish County Sheriff's Office announced today that the forest road leading to a popular hiking trail where two women were shot to death last week will remain closed for an undetermined period of time.

Investigators from the State Patrol, the King County Sheriff's Office, the U.S. Forest Service, the State Department of Natural Resources and Snohomish County Search and Rescue have joined in the search for evidence, said sheriff's spokesman Dave Hayes. No arrests have been made in the slayings of Mary Cooper and Susanna Stodden.

Hayes said the sheriff's office has thus far received 100 tips from citizens on its tip line.

A week after Mary Cooper, 56, and Susanna Stodden, 27, were found shot to death in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, Snohomish County sheriff's investigators continue to explore the crime scene on a popular hiking trail.

The U.S. Forest Service road leading to the trailhead remained closed Monday.

King County sheriff's Sgt. D.B. Gates, who investigated the Green River killings, said patience is a requirement when it comes to rural crime scenes because the terrain, animals and the elements can make evidence difficult to find.

During the Green River investigation, Gates said, investigators on her task force spent three or four days combing for clues, even collecting bags of leaves, sticks and other forest debris, after each victim's body was found. The victims were left in wooded areas, where remains were often scattered by animals, making evidence gathering more difficult.

"It's not something you rush through," Gates said of investigations in wooded areas. "It's just being methodical and not overlooking the smallest things."

Cooper, an elementary-school librarian, and Stodden, who recently left Seattle Audubon and planned to start teaching in the fall, were on a day hike last Tuesday along the popular Pinnacle Lake trail when they were shot to death. No arrests have been made.

The sheriff's office has released little information about its investigation, fearing any release of details could help the killer or killers elude police.

The office plans to release additional information sometime today, said sheriff's spokesman Dave Hayes.

Though the foot trail leading to Pinnacle Lake was closed after the women's bodies were found, Hayes said, he didn't know why deputies didn't immediately close the road leading to the Pinnacle Lake trailhead at the same time. The road was closed later in the afternoon.

He wouldn't comment on whether investigators believe evidence may have been tainted by other hikers, media or curious onlookers.

As sheriff's investigators continue to scour the forest in search of clues, park rangers at the Olympic National Park just wrapped up an investigation that encountered some similar challenges.

Unfortunately, they couldn't find Gilbert Gilman, deputy director of state Department of Retirement Systems, who went missing after heading out for a hike June 24.

Inside the 900,000-acre park, searchers often pay attention to boot or sandal prints, gum wrappers and other trash littered on trails, spokeswoman Barb Maynes said.

Though searchers are mostly successful, in the past 14 years three hikers have gone missing and never been found, she said. Sometimes the sheer size of the area works against investigators.

"In any search you can't look behind every rock and every tree," Maynes said.

Jim Tarver, manager of the Washington State Patrol's crime laboratory in Seattle, said processing forest crime scenes is difficult because it's often unclear how large the actual crime scene is.

For example, a crime scene inside a house is generally confined by walls, giving investigators a clearly delineated area in which to focus. It's easy to seal off the front and back doors to keep people from traipsing across evidence.

Gates, the King County sheriff's sergeant, said investigators set up grids when examining the Green River killer crime scenes in an attempt to confine the focus on an investigation. She said individual investigators could be assigned to scour grids as small as one square foot for evidence.

"In outdoor crime scenes, it's not just turning over every leaf but it's collecting every leaf and stick," Gates said. "You can pretty much get DNA off a lot of items nowadays."

Jennifer Sullivan: 206-464-8294 or jensullivan@seattletimes.com