Murder Cases Sap Sheriff's Budget

EVERETT - Solving a string of murders that has made South Snohomish County a dumping ground for bodies may require a $200,000 budget boost for the Sheriff's Department, according to Sheriff Jim Scharf.

Scharf, who yesterday discussed his department's investigation into the grisly slayings, said he would ask the County Council to pay for two additional homicide investigators and support staff, and purchase a computer and software.

The Sheriff's Department is investigating 12 unsolved murders involving bodies dumped in remote wooded areas since 1983 with a homicide staff of one detective-sergeant and two investigators. Four bodies have been found in the past year, three during the past two months.

The council, which last year approved a $15.2 million budget for the Sheriff's Department for fiscal 1991, plans to meet with Scharf on Tuesday.

"Our budget is pretty tight right now," County Councilwoman Elizabeth McLaughlin said yesterday. "It's possible, I would think, especially if they continue to have a lot of unsolved body finds. It's pretty gruesome."

Investigators yesterday stopped short of saying a serial killer is responsible for the slayings, but they did point out similarities among some of the murders. Five victims had been involved in prostitution, and four had drug problems. Some of the killings resemble those of the Green River killer, who generally targeted prostitutes in South King County, but Sgt. Tom Greene declined to elaborate.

The Sheriff's Department already has plans to open a new precinct this fall in Monroe, near the county fairgrounds, to cover the East Valley between Monroe and Index. That area includes dumping sites of 10 of the 12 bodies.

The new precinct will be staffed with 15 deputies, three sergeants, one lieutenant and support staff, Scharf said.

However, the department will still be trying to handle its growing load of homicide cases with only Greene and two investigators, Scharf said.

On Monday, homicide investigators from Snohomish, King, Skagit and Kittitas counties and Everett and Bothell police met to review the 12 unsolved cases.

The consensus is that the Highway 2 corridor from Monroe to Index is a dumping ground for murders probably committed outside the area, Greene said. Many of the victims were last seen outside the county, he said.

The killer or killers is probably still at large, Greene said.

Scharf said he will tell the council his two homicide investigators are too overloaded to solve their existing cases, and "there's a good likelihood we're going to have more."

Four of the 12 victims remain unidentified: Pieces of scalp with an ear and curly brown hair found March 26 above the Snoqualmie River near Monroe; the severed leg of a man found Feb. 28 along the Skykomish River near Startup; a woman's skeleton found in January 1988 in the Canyon Park area between Brier and Bothell; and a man's dismembered body found in June 1987 two miles east of Gold Bar.

The identified victims are:

-- Sun Nyo Lee, 36, of Bothell, whose bashed skull was found March 27 near the scalp-discovery site.

-- Michelle Koski, 17, of Seattle (Lake City), whose strangled body was found in August 1990 near Maltby, southwest of Monroe.

-- Robyn Kenworthy, 20, of Seattle, whose nude body was found October 1988 beneath a pile of logs two miles north of Index.

-- Jennifer Burnetto, 32, of Tacoma, found stabbed to death in June 1988 eight miles northeast of Index.

-- Hazel Gelnett, 66, a transient, found strangled in May 1988 three miles east of Gold Bar.

-- Jay Cook, 20, of British Columbia, found shot to death in November 1987 beneath High Bridge near Monroe.

-- Molly Purdin, 21, of Kennewick, found bludgeoned to death in June 1987 eight miles northeast of Index.

-- Joanne Hovland, 16, last seen when released from an Everett-area detention center in May 1983 and found one month later near Granite Falls.