Detective refused to let disappearance case go unsolved

By Scott North

Herald Writer

Second of two parts

Juliana Schubert’s 1989 disappearance created an enduring mystery. But Snohomish County sheriff’s detective Rick Blake refused to let it go unsolved.

As months stretched into years, Blake continued looking for anything that would confirm whether the missing woman wasalive or dead. He got court approval for additional searches of the Arlington-area property she shared with her husband and two young sons. He monitored credit cards, bank accounts and Social Security records for any sign that the missing woman might have resurfaced elsewhere.

Blake also kept in close contact with the missing woman’s mother, Karil Nelson of Arlington, assuring her that he wasn’t going to stop his search. Although he had other cases, Blake seemed willing to look into any lead, and once even accompanied Nelson on what she now calls a "wild goose chase," visiting an area river where she had a hunch her daughter’s body might be hidden.

"I can remember Rick Blake telling me, ‘Call me any time,’ which I did, probably once a week," Nelson said.

As the investigation continued, Blake’s suspicions continued to focus on the missing woman’s husband, David Schubert. The self-employed insurance broker and former reserve police officer had told contradictory stories about his wife’s disappearance.

Eventually, Blake began lobbying Snohomish County prosecutors to charge David Schubert with murder even though no physical evidence of a killing had surfaced. In 1994, he got his way.

Although rare, "no body" homicide cases sometimes lead to convictions because jurors in criminal trials are instructed to view circumstantial evidence as having the same weight as other forms of proof.

Two notorious cases in Washington are examples. Ruth Neslund was convicted in 1985 of shooting and dismembering her husband on Lopez Island five years earlier. His remains have never been found. She died in prison. In June 2000, Steven Sherer of Mill Creek was convicted in King County of murdering his wife and hiding her body a decade earlier. He is appealing his conviction and 60-year sentence.

Ken Cowsert is a Snohomish County Superior Court judge, but in 1994 he was a senior deputy prosecutor. He decided to charge David Schubert with second-degree murder.

Cowsert’s eight-page affidavit went into detail about the Schuberts’ marital friction and challenged the defendant’s story about what happened to his wife. The prosecutor described Schubert as controlling, a "manipulator" and a "petty tyrant."

Public defender Richard Tassano, Schubert’s attorney then and now, attacked the allegations, calling them short of proof and long on innuendo. Over the next year, he pushed to have the case tossed out of court.

Judge Richard Thorpe agreed the case against Schubert was "rotten" and the prosecutor’s affidavit "read more like a novel" than a court document. But he declined to dsimiss the case.

That happened for other reasons. Not long after Schubert was charged, Rick Blake began feeling weak and started losing weight. He was diagnosed with acute leukemia, and in February 1995 he died.

The 1994 case against David Schubert was dismissed, but in a way that allowed prosecutors to refile charges at any time. Nelson, who had come to view Blake as a friend, said the outcome was a double blow. She resolved to do what she could to see the case through — for Juliana Schubert and the detective.

Blake’s former partner, Gregg Rinta, picked up where his colleague had left off. He painstakingly reconstructed all of the steps the detective had taken and continued to pursue leads of his own. Among other things, he had genetic testing done on small drops of blood found in the Schubert garage in 1989. The blood did not belong to the missing woman.

Nelson’s inspiration for her next move came from an unlikely source: O.J. Simpson.

The former football great spent most of 1996 in court, losing a civil wrongful death lawsuit that held him liable for the slashing deaths of his former wife and her friend. The suit was brought by grieving relatives of the victims, who felt Simpson had gotten away with murder when he was acquitted in a 1994 criminal trial.

Nelson went looking for an attorney to press her own wrongful death case. Royce Ferguson of Everett agreed to help.

In some ways, David Schubert made it easy. In 1996, he had gone to court and quietly had his wife ruled dead as part of a probate case. Nelson’s wrongful death case contested Schubert’s claim to any of his wife’s assets, citing laws that preclude killers from benefiting from their criminal acts. The court granted her permission to bring the suit in the names of her grandsons, who still lived with their father.

The civil trial in 1998 aired in court much of what jurors likely would have heard in 1994 regarding Rick Blake’s investigation and Schubert’s version of what happened to his wife.

"We just brought in all these people he told stupid lies to" and had them testify, Ferguson said.

Schubert also took the stand. Jurors later told reporters they found his testimony unbelievable.

In February 1998, jurors unanimously found David Schubert liable for his wife’s death. They awarded $1.7 million in damages to his sons, a largely symbolic gesture because Schubert’s legal troubles had long since left him financially strapped.

Nelson and Ferguson didn’t get a dime. Indeed, the Everett lawyer spent his own money to bring the case to trial.

"There is something about doing something noble, doing something right," Ferguson said. "Here you don’t want to see a guy get away with it."

Prosecutors and detectives say Nelson’s decision to press the civil lawsuit was the key to their decision to spend the past three years preparing to bring Schubert to trial for murder.

"Certainly, additional information gained in the wrongful death action and the result the jury reached in that case had an impact on my office’s decision to take another look," said Ed Stemler, one of two deputy prosecutors handling the case.

Schubert’s testimony in the civil case likely will be allowed at his criminal trial, Stemler said, but he declined to discuss details about what other evidence prosecutors likely will offer.

"We are going to need to present everything that is available to us that is relevant," Stemler said.

Schubert’s attorney, Tassano, said the verdict in the civil case is irrelevant, in part because jurors likely won’t be told about it, and the standard of proof in a criminal trial is much higher. In the civil case, Nelson needed only to show that her son-in-law was more likely than not the person responsible for Juliana Schubert’s disappearance. In the criminal case, prosecutors must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that David Schubert murdered his wife and cunningly hid her remains.

"The state, in order to prove this case, is going to have to throw a whole bunch of stuff up against the wall and hope it sticks," Tassano said.

The defense plans to challenge everything, including the presumption that Juliana Schubert is dead, and more particularly, that unassailable proof exists that her husband is responsible.

Nelson said she is prepared to live with whatever the jury decides, adding, "In my heart, I know I did the best I could for my daughter."

You can call Herald Writer Scott North at 425-339-3431

or send e-mail to north@heraldnet.com.