Washington cold case solved 51 years later only for cops to discover suspect died last week; may be involved in 2 other killings
Washington cold case solved 51
years later only for cops to discover suspect died last week; may be involved
in 2 other killings
Authorities in Washington state
finally cracked a 51-year-old murder of a woman only to discover the suspect, a
former sheriff's deputy, died three days before they were granted an arrest
warrant.
The Spokane County Sheriff's
Office revealed in a Facebook post this Monday that detectives were planning to
arrest 85-year-old Duke Pierson in Covington County, Alabama in connection to
the murder of Dorothy Fielding in 1967.
Fielding, who was 31 at the time,
was reported missing on August 19, 1967. Her decomposed body was discovered
eight months later in a shallow grave near the area of the 7-Mile Off Road
Vehicle Park in Spokane.
"The case had remained
unsolved since that time," the sheriff's office said.
Two other deaths in the area
around the same time caught the attention of police, who believed they might
have been connected.
One was the case 47-year-old Ruby
Lampson, who was reported missing on June 6, 1967. In 1971, Lampson’s
"badly decomposed body" was discovered in a shallow grave near the
7-Mile ORV Park, not far from the location where Fielding’s remains were
discovered, according to the sheriff's office.
The second was the reported
suicide of 33-year-old Sandra Pierson, Duke Pierson’s wife at the time.
Pierson's body was found in a vehicle in the family garage on Sept. 12, 1967,
and there was a hose leading from the exhaust to a rear window. Tinfoil was
found stuffed in the exhaust pipe of the vehicle with the garage door closed,
but detectives discovered something strange.
"They noted the garage
contained a lot of exhaust but found the engine of the vehicle was not running
although the ignition was on and the gas tank was approximately 1/2 full,"
the sheriff's office said. "Detectives were unable to determine a reason
why the engine was not running."
Sandra Pierson, who was 20-weeks
pregnant at the time, died one month after Fielding's disappearance and
3-months after Lampson's disappearance.
"Due to Sandra’s small
stature, several people including Sandra’s now adult children believe Sandra
wasn’t physically capable of opening and closing the heavy, possibly
malfunctioning, garage door on her own," police said. "Both children
suspect Duke was involved in their mother’s death."
After years of new no leads,
officials reopened the case in April 2018 after the Major Crimes Unit received
a call from someone who mentioned that Fielding was a member of the Falls View
Tavern Bowling Team, which caught the attention of a Detective Kirk Keyser.
Keyser later discovered that both Fielding and Lampson had gone to the tavern,
and were friends.
When reviewing the Fielding
investigation, he also found reports to indicate that she was having an affair
with Duke Pierson before being reported missing, according to police.
"With these similarities,
Detective Keyser began reviewing all three cold cases and worked to obtain
additional information," police said. "This led to Friday’s arrest warrant
for Pierson charging him with the murder of Fielding."
But that's when authorities
discovered that Pierson died on Jan. 22, reportedly due to natural causes,
according to the sheriff's department.
Pierson had worked for the
sheriff's office from 1959 before quitting in 1966. Former co-workers said he
suddenly stopped showing up for work and his "his attitude and demeanor
changed significantly."
"When coworkers contacted
Duke to determine why he wasn’t coming to work, Duke threatened them, saying he
would shoot/kill them, for no apparent reason," police said. "Duke
was described as clearly being mentally unstable."
Keyser had gone to Pierson's home
in Alabama in April 2018 and interviewed him, where he denied knowing Lampson
or Fielding.
"Pierson admitted to dating
thousands of women, and if he had dated Fielding, the relationship lasted no
more than a week," police said.