Cold case: Woman was found gagged and strangled near U.S. 2

GOLD BAR — Somewhere along the way, Hazel Ann Gelnett lost her footing.

The Pennsylvania housewife ended up living on the fringes, far away from her family and home. She drifted along, likely suffering from a mental health problem. She hitched rides with strangers and took on different names.

Then Gelnett, 67, turned up dead May 8, 1988.

A man gathering ferns discovered her body about 100 feet off U.S. 2, east of Gold Bar. Her hands were tied behind her back. She had been gagged and strangled.

Police have never caught the killer.

Detectives haven’t given up hope. Gelnett is part of the state’s first deck of cold-case playing cards that was created last year to drum up new leads in unsolved homicides and missing persons cases.

Snohomish County sheriff’s detectives have sent thousands of decks to jails and prisons around the state in hopes of soliciting tips from inmates. Tipsters are offered a $1,000 reward for information that helps detectives solve cold cases dating back to the 1970s.

Gelnett is featured on the six of spades.

Homicide detectives didn’t know the identity of the slain woman for more than a year. Police eventually were able to identify her through fingerprints on file in Alaska.

It was even longer before Don Gelnett knew his mother was dead.

He doesn’t know how she ended up in Washington. She didn’t have any relatives here. His mother had been swindled out of her nest egg several years earlier by a fortune teller, Don Gelnett explained. She fell on hard times and then she vanished, he said.

“She got out of whack somewhere. She hopped, skipped around and then flat disappeared,” the Pennsylvania man said. “It’s a sad case. It’s awful indeed.”

Hazel Gelnett was known to hitchhike along the I-5 corridor, Snohomish County sheriff’s detective Jim Scharf said. Investigators suspect a trucker likely is responsible for the murder. Gelnett was dumped close to the highway, leading police to believe the killer was behind the wheel of a big rig and couldn’t leave the roadway other than to pull off on the shoulder.

Don Gelnett, 69, says whoever killed the woman he still calls his “mommy” needs to be punished.

“She was a great lady,” he said. “Everybody loved Hazel.”