Police Narrowing Suspects In 17-Year-Old's Murder
A week after Michelle Koski's body was found in rural Snohomish County - and a day after her family buried the 17-year-old Lake City girl - police said they are narrowing the field of possible suspects in her murder.
Snohomish County sheriff's officers have a list of at least 100 people they want to interview, Detective Ron Perniciaro said.
``It's just not clear-cut, but by no means are we stagnated or at a dead end,'' he said yesterday.
Koski's body was found last weekend by a woman walking her dog in a wooded area near the Woodinville-Monroe Highway and Echo Lake Road in the southeast part of the county.
The county medical examiner's office said she had been strangled. Police later determined that she had been assaulted and killed at the site.
``We have a lot of work to do and a lot of people to look at,'' Perniciaro said, adding that several people have been eliminated as suspects.
The list of 100 or so people who might have information about Koski's death includes street youths, school friends and others, he said.
Police have a special interest in Koski's 28-year-old boyfriend, with whom she apparently was living at the time of the murder, and another person whom Perniciaro wouldn't name.
Police have established that Koski last was seen Aug. 20, and that she made at least four telephone calls, including one to her mother, that night.
The Snohomish County medical examiner's office has not yet determined exactly when she died. Police said her body had been at the scene at least least two days before it was found last Saturday.
Koski may have been en route between the areas of 14th Avenue Northwest and Northwest 62nd Street in Ballard and 30th Avenue Northeast and Northeast 133rd Street in Lake City when she disappeared, Perniciaro said.
He said he wouldn't classify Koski as a street youth despite the fact that she was known to hang out on ``the Ave'' in the University District with street people.
``She had an address, and she was in school during the school year'' at Summit K-12 alternative school in Lake City, he said.
She last was seen wearing a gold skirt-and-top outfit and a dark-blue and purple jacket that may have had the sleeves rolled up.
Police believe the incident was a random one and not part of a pattern. But Perniciaro said he will be meeting with investigators involved with the Green River killings, as is standard in such cases. There is nothing specific to link Koski's death with the string of Green River murders, he added.
Koski's funeral yesterday was attended by a standing-room-only crowd of more than 190 friends and relatives. Friends and teachers stood in small circles after the service, trading hugs and tears.
The Rev. Duncan Hanson described her as a gifted student who loved her mixed malamute dog, Bear, and who cherished her freedom.
``It is such a waste,'' he told the mourning crowd, many of them young people.
``When you're a parent, you try to help your kids figure out why things happen. But I don't know that anybody understands. . . . I wish I could give you a reason.''