Homicide probe rattles Machias

MACHIAS – Kelly Sarsten was full of life, said neighbor Beverly Seese.

“She wasn’t a big person, but she was very strong-willed. She knew what she wanted and hit out for it,” said Seese, 75, who lives next door to Sarsten’s home.

Sarsten, 37, who lived alone at 201 N. Machias Road, owned a dump truck and worked hard for independence, Seese said. They often saw each other over the fence in this rural area southeast of Lake Stevens.

Sarsten was officially declared missing on Thursday. Snohomish County sheriff’s detectives found the body of a woman in the Pilchuck River on Friday while searching for the missing Machias woman.

Officials won’t say whether the body they found is that of Sarsten until the county medical examiner finishes an autopsy, sheriff’s spokeswoman Jan Jorgensen said.

“I miss the idea she’s not going to be there. I think it’s terrible. Sure, I miss her. We’ll all miss her,” Seese said Saturday, looking over to Sarsten’s house, which police had sealed off with yellow crime scene tape.

Officials are investigating the case as a homicide, Jorgensen said, but she declined to say how they came to believe the woman had been killed.

Meanwhile, several friends dropped by Sarsten’s residence on Saturday morning. By noon, balloons, carnations and roses were set up in front of the house as a makeshift memorial.

“We loved her dearly. She was like a sister,” said Sandi Clark, of Lake Stevens, who had known Sarsten for about a decade.

Clark said she saw Sarsten on Monday at a barbecue at her house. Sarsten, who lived alone after going through a divorce, didn’t indicate that she was in any trouble.

“She never said anything was wrong,” Clark said.

Clark said she and Sarsten spent Thanksgiving and Christmas together. “She was a fantastic friend,” she said.

Clark said she had no clue about the incident.

“Why did this happen to her? Senseless,” she said.

The neighborhood is usually quiet, said Ray Watts, 73, who lives across the street from Sarsten’s house.

“We’re a bit worried now,” said Watts, who didn’t know Sarsten well.

No arrests had been made as of Saturday.

Anyone with information about Sarsten’s disappearance or the body found Friday is asked to call the sheriff’s tip line at 425-388-3845.

Reporter Katherine Schiffner contributed to this report.

* Friends and neighbors set up a makeshift memorial at the home of a missing woman.

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