Two major announcements on long, unsolved cases involving young children in Western Washington puts the spotlight back on a series of cold cases with either no suspect or trace of the victim.
Tacoma police said on Thursday they've arrested a suspect in the more than 30-year-old murder of Jennifer Bastian of Tacoma. And Grays Harbor deputies say they've finally recovered the remains of Lindsay Baum, who disappeared nearly a decade ago.
They are just two cases which have been short on answers for years.
Fourteen-year-old Misty Copsey vanished from the Puyallup Fair more than 25 years ago. No remains, no suspects. Just like Tacoma's Lenoria Jones in 1995 or toddler Teekah Lewis, who was last seen at the New Frontier Lanes in Tacoma in 1999.
Sofia Juarez of Kennewick triggered the state's first Amber Alert in 2003. Most recently, the curious case of Sky Metalwala is still unsolved. The two-year-old boy vanished in 2011 from the side of a Bellevue road, according to his mother, and has not been seen since.
In addition to those missing children cases, the killer of 10-year-old Tillicum girl Adre'anna Jackson in 2005 has never been found.
No one has said whether any of the cases are connected. The details vary. But for families, friends, and detectives who have long sought answers, perhaps after Thursday, there is a shred of hope for closure.
The suspect in the Bastian case was arrested in Illinois. Every jurisdiction with an unsolved case is likely cross-referencing his travels and DNA to see whether he could also be a suspect in their case.
As for the Sky Metalwala case, Bellevue's police chief continues to call it one of his top priorities. But from the outside, the investigation seems to have stalled. Sky's mother, Julia Biryukova, has declined to talk with police, who have publicly questioned her but not forced her to come in for further questioning.
