By Scott North
Herald Writer
ARLINGTON – It’s been 12 years since Juliana Schubert disappeared from her Arlington-area home. She was 30, and the devoted mother of two young sons. She left without her car, suitcase or purse.
Suspicion quickly focused on her husband, David Charles Schubert, then a 49-year-old insurance broker and former Arlington reserve police officer. The couple was edging toward divorce, and investigators believed he killed his wife and hid her body.
Now they hope to prove it.
On Thursday, David Schubert, now 61, was arrested on a second-degree murder charge.
Snohomish County prosecutors plan to bring him to trial even though no trace of his wife has been found.
“I’ve been waiting a long time for this,” said the missing woman’s mother, Karil Nelson of Arlington.
Schubert was scheduled to be arraigned today. It will actually be the third time he has been brought to court to face allegations in his wife’s death.
David Schubert was first charged with Juliana Schubert’s murder in 1994 after Snohomish County sheriff’s detective Rick Blake pieced together enough evidence to convince prosecutors.
Blake’s case was based almost entirely on statements that David Schubert had made about his wife’s disappearance. Witnesses also were found who were willing to testify about the man’s domination of his wife and her attempts to break free.
But before trial, charges were dropped after the detective developed leukemia and died. Over Schubert’s protests, the case was dismissed in a way that would allow prosecutors to refile at any time.
Blake’s former partner, detective Gregg Rinta, has continued to investigate. Over the years, he has continued to talk to witnesses, maintain a regular – and fruitless – search for Juliana Schubert’s whereabouts, and press prosecutors to file charges.
“I think there were pretty strong feelings among our detectives about completing the case that Rick Blake started,” sheriff’s spokeswoman Jan Jorgensen said.
Nelson also refused to let the case go. In 1997, she brought a wrongful death action against David Schubert, getting the court’s permission to file the case on behalf of Juliana Schubert’s sons, who were 6 and 8 when she disappeared.
After hearing testimony about Juliana Schubert’s disappearance, a Superior Court civil jury in 1998 unanimously found that David Schubert was his wife’s slayer. The jury awarded $1.7 million in damages to the couple’s children, who continued to live with David Schubert after their mother’s disappearance and testified on their father’s behalf at trial.
The sons are now ages 18 and 20 and have no contact with their mother’s relatives, Nelson said.
David Schubert challenged the wrongful death verdict, but the state Court of Appeals let it stand, ruling “substantial circumstantial evidence” existed to show he killed his wife.
Snohomish County prosecutors took note, but said they were mindful that the “beyond a reasonable doubt” burden of proof in a murder trial is far greater than the “preponderance of evidence” standard in a civil wrongful death case.
Deputy prosecutor Ed Stemler said his office has spent the last three years quietly reviewing the murder case and taking steps toward filing new charges. “I’ve done everything I could possibly think of,” he said.
The prosecutor said he asked that sophisticated genetic testing be done on small blood drops found in the Schubert home 12 years ago. The tests, which weren’t available at the time, showed the blood was not Juliana Schubert’s.
The prosecutor said he and detectives also consulted with others who have successfully tried people for murders when the victim’s remains have not been recovered. Among those consulted was the prosecutor who handled the 2000 trial of Steven Sherer, a King County man who is serving 60 years in prison for the murder of his wife. The 30-year-old woman disappeared without a trace in June 1989.
Snohomish County detectives have continued since 1989 to search for records of any kind that would show Juliana Schubert is still alive.
“They have found none,” Stemler said in court papers filed Thursday. “No one has reported seeing or hearing” from the woman in more than 12 years.
But people haven’t forgotten, Nelson said. In Arlington, “daily I will get somebody asking how (the case) is going,” she said.
Three years ago, in the wake of the wrongful death verdict, Juliana Schubert’s mother and siblings arranged a memorial service for the missing woman. The time had come to say goodbye, Nelson said.
Now the time has come for a jury in a criminal court to hear the evidence against David Schubert, she said, adding, “To me, it is all in God’s timing.”
You can call Herald Writer Scott North at 425-339-3431
or send e-mail to north@heraldnet.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
