EVERETT, Wash. — Murder charges have been refiled this week in the 1993 killing of a Bothell teenager, according to Snohomish County court documents.
Alan Dean, now 64, previously was charged in 2020 with the murder of 15-year-old Melissa Lee, after DNA evidence from a discarded cigarette butt was positively matched to DNA evidence found at the crime scene.
Dean 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 subsequently were dismissed without prejudice.
According to court documents, an assistant state attorney notified prosecuting attorney Craig Matheson on March 2 that Western State Hospital planned to release Dean on March 8. Dean was booked into Snohomish County Jail the same day he was released from the psychiatric hospital.
Lee went missing from her Bothell home on April 13, 1993.
According to court documents, Lee and Dean, named as "Michael" in her diary, met on a chat line service and had met up with each other a couple of times before.
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 at 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.
According to the documents, Dean tossed Lee's body over the side of the Edgewater Creek Bridge, where she was later found by a passerby the next day.
Dean remains booked in the Snohomish County Jail on a $2 million bail.