Police release sketch in Capitol Hill slaying

Seattle police hoping to identify the killer of a woman stabbed on Capitol Hill Monday night are questioning her friends and colleagues.

On Wednesday, the Police Department released a sketch of a bearded man in a stocking cap as someone they want to talk to in connection with the slaying of Shannon Harps, 31, Monday night. Assistant Police Chief Nick Metz declined to call the anonymous man a suspect, but he said neighbors saw the man running from Harps' condominium building as her body was discovered shortly after 7 p.m.

"We're looking at anybody who has had any type of relationship with her," Metz said. "Right now there is nobody we are fixated on, besides the person we have the sketch of."

Metz said, "At this point we haven't ruled anybody out."

On Wednesday night, investigators questioned a man who volunteered at the Sierra Club, where Harps worked as a paid volunteer organizer, Metz said.

Dan Ritzman, the Sierra Club's Northwest region director, said he and other employees weren't aware that a volunteer was being questioned.

Harps was walking home from the grocery store Monday night when she was attacked outside her condominium building, police said. Fellow residents of the 1500 block of East Howell Street called 911 after hearing screaming and yelling, Metz said.

Harps was found lying in the planting strip on the north side of the building with stab wounds to her stomach and chest, according to police. She was pronounced dead that night at Harborview Medical Center.

One or two people saw a man run from Harps' condominium building, Metz said. The man's face was sketched by the police based on witness accounts.

Police are requesting that if people recognize the man in the sketch, they call 911 but not approach the man, Metz said.

Investigators have not yet recovered a weapon, Metz said.

Because police are not sure whether the slaying was random, officers have increased patrols in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. Metz said people who live in the area should be more aware of their surroundings, know who is around them and use "the buddy system" while walking around.

Ronald Harps, Shannon's father, said that his youngest daughter never talked about feeling threatened in the nearly five years she has lived in Seattle.

Ronald Harps, a retired high-school teacher who lives in Fort Myers, Fla., said that Shannon last e-mailed him about two hours before she was killed. He said she wrote that she was on her way to pick up groceries to bring to a New Year's Eve party.

Harps had last called her parents on Christmas Day and was supposed to call them on New Year's Day, as was her tradition.

"We had marathon phone conversations once a month for one, maybe two hours, or until her cellphone battery ran out," Ronald Harps said.

Harps moved into the condominium building about two years ago and has spent much of the time remodeling, her father said. Though a native of Mentor, Ohio, Harps spent much of the past 10 years hoping to move to the Pacific Northwest, he said.

Harps moved to Seattle in 2003 after attending Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and Wellesley College, in Massachusetts, where she obtained a graduate degree in environmental education.

"She really, truly loved and was so passionate about wildlife preservation and conservation of all types," Ronald Harps said. "We always called her our conscience of the family."

Harps would scold her parents for using plastic grocery sacks instead of reusable canvas bags. Because of her influence, her parents even got involved with their local Sierra Club chapter, Ronald Harps said.

"She was very idealistic in her beliefs. She really lived her ideals," he said.

In recent years, Harps had backpacked in Alaska and Montana. For years she had talked about traveling to South America and hiking in Patagonia. Just days ago, she and friend Lori Stutz bought tickets for an upcoming trip, Ronald Harps said.

"She had dreamed to backpack in all of the continents," he said. "She was very confident in her ability to do many things. She was fearless."

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