Motive behind Ballard slaying is a mystery
"It's a possibility that it may have been a burglar, and it's a possibility that it may be random," police spokesman Clem Benton said yesterday.
The day of the killing, police served a search warrant on a ramshackle cabin at the foot of a bluff O'Steen's neighborhood overlooks.
Information was provided to detectives that the man who lives there could be a suspect, so a warrant was used to search his home in the 6400 block of Seaview Avenue Northwest, Benton said. The man was questioned and released, he added.
Yesterday, police were checking out a tip that a transient at the Sloop Tavern had bragged to other patrons that he had killed a woman.
But detectives were saying little about possible leads in the slaying of O'Steen, a well-liked woman who led an active life as a devoted mother, school volunteer and sailor. The family owns four boats.
O'Steen and her husband, Richard Haynie, a marine insurance broker, have an 11-year-old daughter and a 14-year-old son.
Yesterday, in a letter of tribute to her mother, the daughter wrote, "She never really gave up on anything. She always said what was on her mind ... Her three favorite things were to be in her garden, sailing her boat, and being with her family."
Sailed to South Pacific
She said her mother was devoted to caring for "her" boat, the Renaissance, which she once sailed to the South Pacific with her late husband, Jim O'Steen.
"She always kept our boat shining like it was brand new ... She was so strong, all you people who didn't know her, she was the best mom I could think of," her daughter wrote.
Though detectives would not confirm that O'Steen suffered stab wounds, several neighbors said that's what officers told them and early police-radio traffic referred to a stabbing at her home in the 6500 block of 37th Avenue Northwest.
Because of the investigation, Benton said detectives also won't say if the home was ransacked, if articles were stolen or where in the house O'Steen was found.
Thursday morning O'Steen took her daughter to a music lesson. When she failed to pick up the girl, and did not answer her phone, the music teacher took the girl home. The teacher and a neighbor found the body about 9:45 a.m.
Police used tracking dogs shortly afterward but came up with nothing.
Benton said while it's possible the killer may have been a transient, there is nothing leading police in that direction.
Rob Mattson, manager of the Ballard Neighborhood Service Center, said most of what little crime occurs in the neighborhood — car prowls and dangerous driving — is by teens or people leaving the waterfront nightspots along Seaview Avenue Northwest.
'Senseless loss'
O'Steen "was absolutely the most devoted mom you could imagine," said a close friend and neighbor, who did not want his name used. "This is just a senseless loss for that whole part of the neighborhood."
Doug Lenz, who has lived next to the O'Steen and Haynie family for years, said "everyone is on pins and needles. We'd like to have an answer."
Last night O'Steen's family released a statement that said, in part: "We are trying to understand why it happened and who would take the life of a mother of two young children and our beloved wife, mother, sister and daughter. We know the Seattle Police Department is working the case earnestly and we are hoping they find the person responsible for this heinous murder and bring that person to justice.
"We all loved Donna very much and will find it very hard to live without her."
Dave Birkland can be reached at 206-464-464-5682 or dbirkland@seattletimes.com.