BOTHELL, Wash. — The man found guilty of murder in a 1993 cold case last month, more than three decades after a Bothell teenager was killed, was sentenced Wednesday.
Alan Dean was charged with the murder of 15-year-old Melissa Lee after DNA evidence from a discarded cigarette was positively matched to DNA evidence found at the crime scene. The trial lasted eight days before the jury convicted Dean on March 28.
Dean was sentenced to 26.5 years in prison on April 24.
Dean was charged for the murder in 2020. He was ruled incompetent to stand trial in April 2021 by a Snohomish County judge and committed indefinitely to Western State Hospital for psychiatric treatment. First-degree murder charges were dismissed without prejudice.
According to court documents, an assistant state attorney notified prosecuting attorney Craig Matheson that Western State Hospital planned to release Dean on March 8, 2022. Dean was booked into Snohomish County Jail the same day he was released from the psychiatric hospital.
Melissa Lee's mother, Sharon Lee, does not forgive Dean but hopes she can now find some closure.
"He'll die in prison. That's what he deserves," Sharon Lee said.
Dean vehemently proclaimed his innocence in court, saying he "was framed" and "they planted DNA."
As he was led to prison after the hearing, Sharon Lee reminded us that he was able to walk free longer than her daughter was alive.
The 1993 murder of Melissa Lee
Lee went missing from her Bothell home on April 13, 1993.
According to court documents, Lee and Dean, named "Michael" in her diary, met on a chat line service and met up with each other a couple of times.
On the night Lee went missing, Lee's mother was out until 2 a.m. and came home to the front door open and the house in disarray. Lee's mother told investigators her daughter had run away before and that's why she didn't call the police until about 12 hours later.
The documents state sometime between 9:30 p.m. and 2 a.m., Dean entered Lee's home while she was alone and struggled with her before he ultimately used ether to subdue her. The documents allege Dean took Lee to an unknown location where he sexually assaulted her and strangled her to death.
Lee's body was discovered in a ravine on the north side of the Edgewater Creek Bridge in Everett on the evening of April 14, 1993. The Snohomish County chief medical examiner determined the cause of death “was attributed to asphyxia due to manual strangulation.” Her death was ruled a homicide.
No drugs or alcohol were found in Lee's system. However, a toxicology report discovered ethyl ether and heptane chemicals, the sheriff’s office said.
Dean was interviewed three times in 1993 and said he dated Lee twice in March 1993. Detectives confirmed Dean was living on Madison Street in Everett at the time of the murder. His home was almost 4 miles from where the teen's body was found.
Dean was identified as a suspect in Lee’s murder through DNA technology. According to a press release, DNA evidence from the 1993 crime scene was uploaded to a public genetic genealogy website, which found “promising matches” for "multiple" of Dean’s relatives.
Genealogists with Parabon NanoLabs, a DNA technology company in Virginia, deduced Dean’s identity from the matches. Detectives acquired Dean’s DNA from a discarded cigarette butt, and the Washington State Patrol’s crime lab matched his DNA to the DNA profile from the crime scene evidence.