A pink hula hoop rests against fishing nets. A jug of Pine Sol cleaner shares a shelf with a suitcase and car stereo, just above a bag of teddy bears.
Bloodstained clothes are in the freezer. Bicycles hang from the ceiling, along with bags of marijuana.
"I probably have one of everything. Whatever you can think of, it has come in here," said Ken Christensen, evidence and identification supervisor for the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office.
These people have seen and cataloged it all, Christensen said.
Take the dentures that a man once filled with marijuana and then jammed in his mouth, thinking it was a convenient hiding place. Or a frozen dog that neighbors thought was being poisoned. Then there were the mice that a man nailed to his ex-girlfriend’s door.
There are boxes and boxes of stuff. Some of it is evidence in crimes, and some of it was found on buses or alongside the road. All of it piles up.
But a new $5 million state-of-the-art evidence building has made organizing, storing and tracking the evidence easier. The building is in downtown Everett at a location the sheriff’s office asked not be published.
"It is probably one of the best in the state," Christensen said of the new building. "The old one was a pit. It was never designed to store evidence."
He and his staff moved in about two months ago. The new building is about 22,000 square feet, nearly double the size of the old one, making room for about 50 percent more evidence and lost property.
There are dozens of automated shelves that with a push of a button roll across the floor. The shelves are double the size of those in the old building.
A ventilated room stores marijuana plants before they are destroyed. Bicycles hang from an automated rack that allows users to punch in a number to lower a bike within seconds.
Evidence, such as bloodstained clothing, is preserved in a large freezer. DNA samples are stored in a room kept at a constant temperature.
"I’m very proud of it. Evidence facilities get the least amount of attention because they’re the least visible, so to have something like this built is just wonderful," Christensen said.
About 2 percent to 4 percent of the items will be used as evidence in criminal trials. Christensen, who was a deputy for nearly 25 years, knows evidence can make or break a case.
"I’ve sat on the witness stand before. It is important to be able to show who has handled the evidence or how long it’s been here. It can be crucial," he said.
Some evidence might never make it to court, but it isn’t destroyed until it’s determined that it won’t be needed. Evidence for homicides and other violent crimes is never destroyed, Christensen said. In fact, there is evidence for a murder that Christensen investigated when he was a county deputy coroner more than three decades ago.
There also is a lot of unclaimed property. Items found in the county or on Community Transit buses are turned over to the sheriff’s office.
Even a dollar bill is tagged and entered into the computer.
By law, the county must hold onto the found items for at least 60 days. The staff works to find the owner, but if it isn’t claimed, Christensen can decide to destroy it or send it to an auction. The proceeds go into the county’s general budget.
"It’s someone’s stuff. We can’t just throw it away," Christensen said.
Reporter Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463 or hefley@heraldnet.com.
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