Another Look At Unsolved Murders -- Bellevue Police Will Use New Technology To Dust Off Old Files

BELLEVUE

Hoping to use new technology, detectives are dusting off old files and searching through the Bellevue Police Department evidence room to come up with new information on the city's seven unsolved murders, the oldest dating to 1965.

Detective Bob Thompson said a great deal of evidence was collected at the time, and he now hopes blood samples, clothing, personal items and information from interviews can turn up something that may lead to suspects.

"One problem . . . is locating people we interviewed at the time," he said. "Some have moved out of the state, some may be dead."

Detectives hope new clues may turn up with advances in forensics and DNA blood and tissue testing, latent fingerprint examination and information from witnesses not available when the deaths occurred.

And there is the possibility that some witnesses or involved parties may have had a change of heart over the years and now are willing to cooperate, said Lt. Bill Qwinn, who took over the crime-against-persons unit a few months ago.

Thompson, along with Detectives Jeff Gomes and Jerry Thompson, have been assigned the cases.

Thompson has been assigned the oldest and newest cases. Loren Sundholm was stabbed to death in an altercation on Interstate 90 on Dec. 4, 1965, and Faye Monwai was found slumped in a chair at the kitchen table in her Somerset home on Feb. 14, dead from a gunshot wound in her head.

Sundholm, 23, of Kirkland, had been driving with another man when some sort of dispute erupted between them and two passengers in another car. Both cars pulled off on the ramp at Bellevue Way and a fight ensued. Sundholm and Bob Huff, his passenger, were stabbed. The other men drove off in a car bearing Oregon license plates.

In the Monwai case, an intense investigation turned up no suspects. Monwai, 71, had been eating a bowl of egg soup when she was killed. She was found by her stepson.

Police found the front door ajar and the key in the lock, theorizing someone she knew was invited in. The family said Monwai always kept the doors locked.

The other unsolved cases:

-- March 31, 1979: Jessie Barber, 29, was shot once under his left eye execution-style and at least three times in the chest. He was left in the back seat of a car parked at Hillaire Elementary School near Crossroads.

-- April 23, 1980: Susan Lowe, 19, was found in her bed strangled with a pair of pantyhose in her apartment near Bellevue Community College.

-- Nov. 26, 1981: Celsa Villalobos, 25, who was pregnant, was found shot to death and dumped in a cul-de-sac in Surrey Downs.

-- Feb. 7, 1984: James Barry, a 45-year-old attorney, was found dead in his office near 148th Avenue and Main street. He was shot and stabbed numerous times. Barry, who specialized in civil suits, had made separate appointments to meet with a man and a woman at 7 and 8 p.m. It is not known whether the two clients - or people pretending to be clients - showed up, but police believe they were involved in the slaying.

-- Aug. 28, 1987: Fatally stabbed, 28-year-old Judy Nealy's body was discovered in a pickup parked at an apartment complex at 156th Avenue Northeast and Northup Way.