In the five decades since 1965,
twenty 8% of homicides in
our state remain unsolved.
Each case comes with a story,
a family, a mystery.
Tonight, we premiere a new KING5
special series focusing on those
cases in the pursuit of truth.
This is unsolved. Northwest.
Reporting for King news service.
From the truest
mysteries of our time, and so the second
day after it occurred,
this still remains the most
mysterious skyjacking in the
Northwest DB Cooper, who hijacked
a 727 jet plane out of Portland,
OR, on Thanksgiving Eve 1971,
to the notorious
crimes of the northwest.
But something was new.
The name Ted. They premeditated.
Plan or intent to affect the depth
of that, Lisa leaves my chance
to talk to the press, control and
the cases that have gone cold.
Three men burst into the business.
Their motive was robbery,
but it soon turned into murder.
Unsolved. Northwest is digging
through the King 5 archives
to help uncover the truth.
The name of the robbery
suspect has not been released.
And up to now, we hadn't
heard about any arrests. No,
many unsolved cases are solvable.
Maybe you know the very tip
that could help crack the case.
I'm Madison wade. I'm Steve Solis.
And I'm Sebastian Robertson.
This is unsolved northwest.
We're a team of journalists
dedicating time to help put a
spotlight on the cases that are
unsolved in the Pacific Northwest.
Thousands of cases. We're
talking crimes that date back decades.
We're talking murder cases,
missing persons cases.
And the hope is that a lot of
times that light that we shed on
those cases can actually uncover
secrets that have been hiding for,
at times, decades.
Multiple groups started
to track unsolved cases.
They started to look at 1965 to 2019.
They're nearly 3000 unsolved
homicides here in Western Washington.
There are 28% of homicides
that are unsolved, 28%.
And that's a problem because that
means there are a lot of families
who still don't have closure.
Ryan Backman founded Project Cold Case,
and they essentially dive deep
into the data surrounding these
cases all over the country.
The national clearance
rate is somewhere in the,
you know, low 60 percentage.
So you think about that,
that's almost 40 out of every 100
murders in the United States that go
unsolved. That's a lot of people
who got away with murder.
Whole lot of people that
got away with murder.
I think most people don't realize
how many cases do go unsolved.
It's just a a scary thought when
you think of all those people
out there that have not been held
accountable for their actions.
Items don't have justice.
Thousands of family members are left
waiting for answers. That's OK.
Yeah. I don't know.
It's whatever makes you comfortable.
Yeah. It's we'll do the best.
We absolute best we can.
Nothing's live. And
then, James, can you introduce yourself as
it pertains to the stories,
I am James and I am autumn's father.
James, tell us about autumn.
Loss is one part of it.
Family members are everyday praying
that there will be a phone call
with some sort of answer that
could bring some sort of closure.
There's a lot of responsibility that
comes with covering these cases.
That's a really delicate situation to be in,
earning a family's
trust. Is the biggest part of this for me.
You quickly find out that this
case never left their mind,
never left their heart.
We're going to be making sure that
these victims are remembered and
their story is told, and that's the
power of what we do day in, day out.
After the name Ted was printed and broadcast,
there were no more disappearances here.
If the Skyjacker was lucky
enough to survive that jump.
Reporting for King News service
in Tacoma, I'm Joyce Taylor.
This this is unsolved northwest.
While Madison, you and the
unsolved team have been working
for months on these stories.
So what can we expect
with the very first case?
Yeah, so Joyce and Greg,
the first case is autumn stone.
Her death was initially
ruled a suicide in 2019.
That's when she was found
dead in Green Lake.
This case is back open.
It's an active investigation,
according to Seattle police.
We spoke with her parents,
as you saw in that piece,
also a private investigator hired
to help the family to figure out
what happened to autumn stone.
What other stories does the unsolved
team have planned to to roll out?
Yeah, we are just getting started.
But another case we have is from
January 18th, 1995 in Tacoma,
the men grocery store was robbed.
The stores owner at the time,
Jung and Kim, a 56 year old Korean
immigrant was shot and killed.
His murder is still unsolved.
Then on February 15th,
1977 a 911 call came in from a
Woodinville home on Mink Road.
The victim here 51 year old Bill Wills.
Tried to give an address to the operator,
but he suddenly went quiet,
and a short time later a single
pop could be heard over that phone.
The pop was a single gunshot
wound that then killed him.
Then, also in 1998,
Linda Tran and her two children were
killed at their home in Tacoma.
She was pregnant at the time,
and their case is still unsolved.
For this story, we sat down with her family.
You're seeing them right here.
Many family members,
all gathered at their home in Tacoma,
showed US newspaper clippings,
exposed more information about what?
Happened to her and we are
working with that family,
also detectives with Tacoma police,
to bring forward more information
about what happened and hopefully
someone out there maybe wants to
clear their conscious or maybe
wants to come forward with more
information on those cases.