Unsolved for nearly 40 years: Young mother, her 4-year-old daughter strangled inside their Bremerton home
Bremerton police detectives say they are one tip away from solving the case.
A young mother and her 4-year-old daughter were killed in their Bremerton home in 1986. Police say they are one tip away from solving the case.
Helene "Nikki" Anderson, 27, and her daughter Adrienne Hale, 4, were strangled to death. Police are still working to find the suspect, or suspects, responsible.
"They both had smiles that were priceless and that made your heart melt," said Adrienne's father, Kenny Hale.
Jan. 29, 1986, started as a normal day on Magnolia Drive in east Bremerton. Nikki was newly engaged and was preparing to move to San Diego with her fiancé and her new baby, Marcus. Kenny and Nikki were co-parenting Adrienne, so he stopped by to see his daughter.
"Everything was typical, a typical visitation day. The night before the night that it happened, Nikki had went to her window a few times to look out, look out the window. So, it kind of gave me the impression that she was expecting somebody," Kenny Hale said.
Kenny Hale left but promised to return to see his daughter the next day after his basketball game.
"That particular night, that's probably one of my only regrets. Through everything that I didn't take her home with me that night, in general. And that's something that I have to live with, you know, the rest of my life," Kenny said. “The thing that I remember more than anything was the fact of her looking out that window and waving at me goodbye. And I never would have thought that that would have been 'Bye' forever.”
It is suspected that Nikki and Adrienne were killed just hours after he left.
Bodies of Nikki and Adrienne discovered The mother and daughter were found in their Bremerton home in January of 1986. They were both strangled.
Kenny Hale returned to his daughter's home the next day at around 10 p.m. When he knocked on the door, he didn't hear anything and no one answered.
As he started to turn to walk away from the front door, he heard a noise coming from inside. When he turned back and touched the doorknob, he discovered it was unlocked.
"And so when I push, all of a sudden I'm pushed against resistance," Kenny Hale said.
It was dark and before he could find the light switch, he stumbled over something. It was his 4-year-old daughter's leg.
"When I reached down and grabbed it, it was like, solid," Kenny Hale said, holding back tears.
Moments later, Kenny Hale discovered the killer spared the life of the baby who was also in the home at the time. According to police, 7-month-old Marcus had been in a playpen during the crime and stayed there until his mother's and sister's bodies were discovered by Kenny Hale nearly 24 hours later.
Kenny Hale then grabbed Marcus and ran to a neighbor's house for help.
"I said, 'Hey, you need to call 911, something happened over here.' So he came over with me, he flipped on the [light] switch. All of a sudden, I see my daughter lying there. I started giving her CPR and I'm hoping it's just a dream, but it was a nightmare," Kenny Hale said.
Kenny Hale continued to give his daughter CPR until police arrived.
"It seemed like it took the police department forever to get there. And eventually, I started hearing sirens coming," Kenny Hale recalled.
Bremerton Police Department Detective Martin Garland considers this case close to his heart. He's worked on it over the last six years.
"Someone came in and killed them in their own living room. He or she came in while they were likely sleeping and the means of death was manual strangulation. They used their hands at the neck of each individual until they were no longer alive," Garland said.
Nikki was engaged to Marcus’ father and he already moved to San Diego. She had planned on leaving eight days after the day she was killed.
There could be multiple suspects Police believe whoever committed this crime was close to the family and more than one person is believed to be involved.
"I think it’s likely there was more than one person involved and at the very least, that there’s more than one person who was there," Garland said.
"We are confident that it’s someone who knew the family – they were likely let into the house by Nikki because she knew them," Garland said.
Kenny Hale agrees with the detective's theory.
"If she considered you as a friend, and somebody she trusted, she would open up the door and let you in," Kenny Hale said. "So with the way that that happened, is the fact that was somebody that she trusted, somebody that she knew."
Garland thinks another key factor at the scene supports the theory that there were multiple suspects. He thinks someone placed Marcus in the playpen immediately before or after the killings.
"It’s likely that Marcus was put there by the people that were at the scene at the time of the killings just because the crib that he was put in didn’t look like it had been used. It was being used for storing other things and so, for him to be in there is not something that a mom would typically do," Garland said. "Talking to Nikki’s friends, they said that wasn’t something she would have done."
Brand new information Bremerton police detectives recently learned there could have been another person in the house when the killings happened.
Garland said the department received an anonymous tip from someone "intimately involved" with the people in the case. They came forward within the last month and detectives are currently working on following up on the information.
"This person wasn’t there when the murders happened and wasn’t involved but knows enough about that time period and the people that were involved and they gave information that’s helping to put the pieces together," Garland said.
Just within the last few days, Garland and his team have uncovered new information.
"We have evidence indicating that a woman was at the scene during the murders and she may have been injured during the attacks. We are interested in speaking with anyone who has information regarding the person or persons that were involved. You may remain anonymous if you wish," Garland told the Unsolved Northwest team.
Unsolved Northwest: Nikki Anderson and Adrienne Hale
"It's hard to say sitting in my seat, in my heart, my head to say that anything is any closer. Because I don't see anything other than the facts that I see. What I do see is the fact that Adrienne and Nikki's stories are being told that's all that's what I care about," Kenny Hale said.
Kenny Hale now has two daughters and one granddaughter, who is the same age as Adrienne was when she was killed.
"I look back on my life, and say that I miss my daughter more than life itself," Kenny Hale said. "One day, according to my Bible, I plan on seeing them again."
Kenny Hale says the thought of that moment brings him comfort.
"I can't change evil. I can't change what happened. And I can't keep living in the past, to allow it to stop me from being me," he said. "Because then I'm no good to my daughter and I'm no good to my granddaughter, no good to my grandboys or my oldest daughter, or the people that I have involved in my life now."
Anyone with information about this case is asked to call the Bremerton Police Department at 360-473-5220.
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