DNA evidence links convict to 1973 death

OLYMPIA — DNA evidence from the 1973 killing of a Seattle-area girl prompted authorities on Friday to arrest a rapist who has been in prison since 1976.

The 29-year-old case went unsolved until a test at the State Patrol Crime Lab linked the death of 14-year-old Katherine Devine to 55-year-old William Cosden Jr., Thurston County Sheriff Gary Edwards said.

"This is a good day for the family to bring closure to this case," Edwards said at a news conference.

Devine was last seen on Nov. 25, 1973, hitchhiking in Seattle. Her body was found Dec. 6 by caretakers at Camp Margaret McKenny, southwest of Olympia.

At the time, Cosden was working at his family’s truck stop near where Devine was last seen. Her family learned of the death when they saw her clothes on a television news account of the crime.

"I don’t think anyone should have to go through what our family went through," said Sally Devine, the victim’s mother.

Sheriff’s deputies arrested Cosden at McNeil Island Penitentiary, where he has been serving a 48-year sentence for first-degree rape since 1976. He is being held in Thurston County Jail on a charge of first-degree murder.

Because Devine died before the death penalty was reinstated in Washington, Cosden faces a maximum penalty of life in prison. A preliminary hearing is set for Monday in Thurston County Superior Court.

Investigators first examined blood and hair samples from Cosden in 1973, but DNA testing was not complete enough to support case, said deputy prosecuting attorney Philip Harju.

In 1986, deputies again collected samples of Cosden’s blood, hair and saliva. Last year, the crime lab tested the DNA samples against evidence recovered from Devine and were able to link the two, said prosecuting attorney Ed Holm.

While Cosden was a suspect in the case, investigators also thought Devine may have been a victim of serial killer Ted Bundy, said Capt. Dan Kimball. Bundy, who lived in Tacoma, had been a law student who preyed on college coeds around Seattle in the early 1970s. He confessed to 28 murders before he was executed in Florida’s electric chair in 1989.

Devine’s father, Bill, joined by ex-wife Sally and daughter Sherrie, said he never knew Cosden was a suspect and had for many years contented himself with the belief that Bundy was responsible for his daughter’s death.

News that investigators had uncovered a scientific link came as a surprise and at first was a disappointment, he said.

"I chose to cling to the belief that it was another person," Bill Devine said. "Now we have closure."

Longview

A 17-year-old girl died after being shot in the torso while visiting a friend’s apartment. Sara McCann died just after 8 p.m. Thursday. Someone entered the apartment about 4 p.m., said resident Fred Lee, but he said he was in another room and didn’t know who came in. He heard a shot and called 911.

No arrests had been made, police said Friday.

Police did question and arrest McCann’s boyfriend, 19-year-old Jeremy Agee, on misdemeanor warrants. He was booked into Cowlitz County Jail.

Lee said Agee had been in the apartment before McCann was killed, along with Lee’s fiancee and their baby.

Police Sgt. Jim Duscha would not say whether police believed the shooting was intentional or accidental.

Port Coquitlam

A British Columbia provincial court judge banned publication Friday of a 1997 search warrant involving Robert Pickton, charged with murder in Vancouver’s missing-women case. Media outlets had filed applications to see the warrants.

Pickton was charged with attempted murder after a woman fled his home in the middle of the night on March 23, 1997. Bleeding from several stab wounds, Wendy Lynn Eistetter ran to a neighbor’s and pleaded for help. Pickton was accused of stabbing her repeatedly with a knife, according to the information.

He was also charged with assault with a weapon, unlawful confinement and endangering the life of Eistetter by committing an aggravated assault. The charges were stayed in January 1998.

Pickton now faces two counts of first-degree murder related to two of 50 women who disappeared from Vancouver’s seedy downtown eastside in the last two decades. Both women vanished last year.

From Herald news services

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