Murder Remains Unsolved

Police have been investigating the stabbing death of 70-year-old Walter Sneddon for nearly six months, but clues to the slaying have been few and every lead has led nowhere.

Even a videotaped re-creation of the fatal stabbing aired on television failed to yield a single telephone call.

Police are getting frustrated. ``We're hurting for information right now,'' said Renton police Sgt. Rob Sofie. ``We don't have any strong suspects.''

Just after midnight Jan. 20, Sneddon, was stabbed several times in the chest and abdomen by a man who broke into the well-tended home where Sneddon and his wife, Frances, had lived for more than 30 years.

According to Renton police, the

intruder awakened the Sneddons when he broke into the house in the 800 block of Kirkland Avenue Northeast.

The two went into the kitchen to check the noise. The intruder cut Frances Sneddon's hand with a knife, and when her husband tried to intervene, the man attacked him, too. As Frances Sneddon ran to a neighbor's house for help, her husband died on his dining room floor.

The couple had been married more than 40 years. Walter Sneddon was a retired Boeing engineer who took up cabinetmaking as a hobby. Frances Sneddon is a retired schoolteacher. She has since moved.

The intruder made off with Sneddon's black wallet, filled with credit cards.

Sofie thought someone might try to use the stolen cards.

No one has.

Detectives have also been checking to see if the murder was similar to other stabbings in the region.

It wasn't.

Two months ago, Seattle/King County Crimestoppers re-created the crime on videotape, with actors portraying the Sneddons and the intruder. The 60-second public service announcement was aired on local television stations in hopes someone would call in with a tip.

No one did.

``We're checking even the vaguest leads two or three times,'' Sofie said. ``We're committed to

solving this crime.''

Sofie would not say if detectives have followed up on a lead by Milma Nelson, a neighbor of the Sneddons. On Jan. 10, Nelson said she saw a stranger polishing his car in front of the Sneddon home. The car was a midsized foreign model, tan or gray in color. The headlights were on; the doors were open and the motor was running. Nelson said the man kept looking at the Sneddon home, but she didn't get a look at his face. She did not call police.

Then on Jan. 19 - several hours before Sneddon was killed - Nelson said she saw what may have been the same man, standing out in front of her home with another man. She described the men as ``tough looking,'' and their appearance so scared her that ``I ducked under the dining room table,'' she said.

Nelson said she called police after the murder to tell them about the men, but never heard back from the detectives.

Nelson said the murder of Walter Sneddon has changed the once peaceful neighborhood, where most of the residents have lived since their homes were built in the late 1950s. Residents have added new locks to their doors, and have become more suspicious, she said.

``We drive around the block twice every time we leave, checking to make sure someone isn't waiting for us to leave,'' she said.

``And we never go out after dark.''