MACHIAS — She was missed immediately.
The day Kelly Sarsten, 37, didn’t show up for work, her friends began looking for her. She should have been behind the wheel of her dump truck.
The search turned into a nightmare. Sarsten’s remains were discovered in the Pilchuck River, not too far from her Machias home. Someone tried to hide her in the water.
The killer has never been caught.
Sarsten is featured on the ace of diamonds in the state’s first deck of cold-case playing cards. Snohomish County sheriff’s detectives have handed the cards out in prisons and jails in hopes of soliciting new leads for unsolved homicides and missing persons cases. Inmates are offered a $1,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest in cases dating back to the 1970s.
Sarsten was last seen Aug. 18, 2004. She was sitting on her back deck, wrapped in a white bath robe. She often went outside at the end of the day to do the paperwork for her business Extreme Rock.
“Kelly didn’t live a risky life. She was just a nice person, who lived out in the county, had her dogs and her business,” her brother in-law Tom Stephenson said. “She didn’t go looking for problems. She’d figured her life out and was doing good.”
Sarsten’s family say they are waiting for the day when they have answers about what happened. More importantly they want to see the killer brought to justice.
“Somebody did something horrible to our sister,” Judy Stephenson said. “I’d give up knowing what happened if it meant catching this person. That’s what we really want. They are out there free — that’s just wrong.”
Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463, hefley@heraldnet.com.
About this series
Snohomish County sheriff’s detectives created the state’s first deck of cold-case playing cards. Each Sunday for a year, The Herald will publish a story about a case featured on one of the cards.
Anyone with information about unsolved homicides and missing persons cases is asked to call Crime Stoppers of Puget Sound at 800-222-TIPS (8477). Up to $1,000 is offered for tips that lead to an arrest and conviction.
Tips also can be called into the sheriff’s tip line at 425-388-3845. Callers may remain anonymous, although tips have been shown to be more successful when callers leave their phone numbers and are willing to speak with detectives, police said.
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