The Death Of Walter Sneddon -- `This Kind Of Crime Shouldn't Happen . . . '

RENTON - Police Chief Alan Wallis stood outside the immaculate home that Walter and Frances Sneddon had tended for more than 30 years and tried to piece together King County's sixth murder in a week.

An intruder, apparently trying to burglarize the house at 12:15 yesterday morning, slashed elderly Frances Sneddon's hand when she walked in her kitchen. When she ran for help, the intruder fatally stabbed 70-year-old Walter Sneddon several times and left him to die on the dining room floor.

Amid recounting the details, Wallis shook his head.

``This kind of crime shouldn't happen here, not in this city, let alone this type of neighborhood,'' Wallis said. ``It stuns you. People should be safe in their beds at 12:15 in the morning.''

Walter Sneddon was a retired Boeing Co. employee, an accomplished woodworker and an avid gardner. He and Frances, a retired grade-school teacher, had been married more than 40 years.

Their brown-and-white rambler sits in the middle of a block of well-kept, middle-class homes in the 800 block of Kirkland Avenue Northeast. The home is walled off from the street by massive, bushy cedar trees.

Neighbors stood behind their picture windows staring at the police cars on the street. Detectives canvassed the neighborhood, asking residents whether they saw or heard anything. One man searched his back yard, fearing the intruder was hiding there.

Police believe the burglar passed through a chain-link gate next to the driveway and walked to the back of the house. There, he smashed down the wooden back door, which still lay sideways yesterday as detectives scoured the house.

Wallis said police had not yet gotten a detailed statement from Frances Sneddon. But she did say the couple was awakened and, while dazed, thought the noise might have only been a cat knocking over a vase. Frances entered the kitchen with her husband close behind.

There, they encountered the burglar, Wallis said. A neighbor next door did not hear the altercation but was awakened by Frances Sneddon's frantic pounding on her door.

``She was screaming that Walter had been stabbed,'' the neighbor said. ``She called 911, and a patrol car was here in seconds. There were dogs barking and chaos. It was just awful, horrible.''

A patrol car happened to be within blocks and arrived quickly after 911 dispatch received the call. But when the officer and paramedics entered the house, Walter Sneddon was already dead from several stab wounds, and there was no sign of the suspect.

Police received a report from a neighbor who said he saw a man running down the street at the approximate time of the murder.

Dogs were immediately brought to the house, but efforts to track the man were futile.

Police are unsure whether the attacker was injured but believe much of the victim's blood rubbed upon his clothes. Police had not found the murder weapon and believe the man brought a knife rather than taking one from the kitchen.

The Washington State Patrol Crime Lab will test the blood samples and other physical evidence gleaned from the scene, Wallis said. Police also made moldings of footprints found in the dirt outside the house.

The King County medical examiner's office said Sneddon died from multiple stab wounds to the chest and abdomen.

His death represents King County's sixth homicide in the past week inside King County. The county only had four murders take place in all of January last year.

Sneddon was active in a Seattle Methodist church and, along with his wife, frequently traveled. They have two children and four grandchildren.

Neighbors, like the woman to whom Frances Sneddon ran for help, called the couple quiet but kind.

``They would take me to the hospital when my husband was ill,'' said the woman, who asked not to be identified. ``They're very good people. They certainly never asked for trouble.''

Another neighbor, Ronald Nelson, said he was going to call his congressional representative tomorrow and demand either more police officers or stiffer penalties.

``Crime is running rampant,'' Nelson said. ``If an old guy like Sneddon can't retire and live in his own house in peace without some son-of-a-beak breaking in and killing him, then something is terribly wrong.

``Can you imagine how terrifying that must have been?''