Three Murder Victims Were Badly Beaten, Medical Examiner Says

In 17 years on the job, after performing hundreds of autopsies on hundreds of murder victims, King County Medical Examiner Donald Reay thought he'd seen it all.

Then he was called to the Bellevue restaurant parking lot where Mary Anne Pohlreich lay dead, her battered body posed peacefully with hands clasped together, resting on her abdomen in a "funereal pose."

That was June 23, 1990, and Reay, testifying this week in the triple-murder trial of George Waterfield Russell, said he'd never before seen a body posed so deliberately. "Not like this," he said.

Just nine weeks later, Reay saw a similar scene, when he went to Andrea Levine's Kingsgate apartment.

A few weeks before that, one of Reay's assistant medical examiners had seen yet another woman beaten to death, stripped and posed. That woman, Carol Marie Beethe, was found in bed in her Bellevue home.

Russell, 33, of Mercer Island, has pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder in the Pohlreich case and aggravated murder (because they were committed during burglaries) in the Beethe and Levine killings.

The trial, believed to be the first ever in King County of an accused serial killer, began Friday.

Reay spent two days on the witness stand, yesterday finishing his testimony that detailed for the King County jury just how and when the women were likely killed, and what was done to their bodies afterward.

Pohlreich, 27, was asphyxiated, Reay said. Blows to the head, likely from fists, probably knocked her unconscious, but didn't kill her.

It took a great deal of impact to tear Pohlreich's liver, Reay said, causing injuries more often inflicted by auto accidents and falls from heights. However, he said, she didn't die until she was strangled.

Reay put the time about 2 or 2:30 a.m., based on the fact Pohlreich's body temperature was 83 degrees when he checked her body and using the formula of a two-degree-per-hour loss of body temperature. But estimating time of death, isn't exact, he said, and a three-hour allowance either way is a rule of thumb.

Both Beethe, 35, and Levine, 24, died of massive head injuries that fractured their skulls and damaged their brains, Reay said.

In the Beethe murder, the weapon used left "Y" shaped marks on her scalp. The weapon, which has not been found, was either very heavy or was swung with a lot of force, Reay said.

"There's quite a bit of energy involved in fractures to the skull," he said.

Beethe, who also had fractured ribs, died Aug. 9 in the early morning hours of 2 or 3 a.m., Reay estimated.

But it was the body of Andrea Levine, found Sept. 3, that had suffered the most damage. Because her body was beginning to decompose, Reay said, fixing her time of death was even less exact. He figured she'd been dead about three days.

Levine had suffered at least 15 separate blows to the head, he said, with a tool or weapon that extensively damaged her brain and caused her death. After Levine died, more damage was inflicted.

"Over the entire body there were stab wounds," Reay said. Because they were free of blood, Reay determined they were made after death. He counted 223 of them, including cuts made in the soles of her feet.