Cold case: A blow to the head killed Bothell woman

MONROE — Detectives were scouring a roadside garbage dump when they found part of her.

Sun Nyo “Julie” Lee, 36, had been missing for eight months before her damaged skull was discovered down a steep embankment off High Bridge Road near Monroe.

A blow to the head killed the Korean immigrant. Her death was ruled a homicide. The killer has never been named.

Lee is part of the state’s first deck of cold-case playing cards. The Bothell woman’s picture and details of her 1990 disappearance are featured on the five of clubs.

Snohomish County sheriff’s detectives have handed out more than 3,000 decks of cold-case cards in the state’s prison and jails in hopes of generating new leads about unsolved homicides and missing persons cases dating back to the 1970s.

Detectives came across Lee’s skull on March 27, 1991, while investigating another grisly discovery. A day earlier, a county road crew worker had found a scalp and an ear. The remains, belonging to an unidentified man, had been there for about a month. Investigators later ruled that a severed leg that turned up a month earlier on the banks of the Skykomish River near Startup belonged to the same man.

Sheriff’s detectives found Lee’s remains and her purse about a 150 feet away from the man’s scalp. The skull had been there for at least six months, investigators said at the time.

Lee was last seen June 25, 1990, leaving her Bothell home to look for a job. She had a history of street crimes, including prostitution. Her background led investigators to probe the possibility that she may have been the victim of a serial killer.

Snohomish County detectives interviewed convicted serial killer Gary Ridgway about Lee’s death, along with other unsolved homicides.

There was no indication he was responsible for Lee’s death, sheriff’s detective Jim Scharf said.

“We’ve never been able to link her with any remains found in the same area,” he said.

Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463,hefley@heraldnet.com.