MUKILTEO — It was a little after 5 p.m. April 7 when Mukilteo police were called to help a woman lying on the sidewalk along Mukilteo Speedway. She was bleeding from a knife wound in the back.
The woman, in her 20s, freely admitted that she was a prostitute. At the hospital, she said her attacker was a man who’d earlier agreed to pay her for sex but demanded his $60 back when the transaction wasn’t completed, Mukilteo police detective John Ernst said in court papers.
She’d encountered the man along Highway 99. The stabbing occurred as she let herself out of the man’s maroon SUV in the 11700 block of Mukilteo Speedway.
“I went in search of video in an effort to identify the vehicle,” Ernst wrote in a police report that was filed in Everett District Court on Friday.
The 12-page document described the path the detective took in identifying a Lynnwood man as the person police believe stabbed the woman and left her bleeding in the street.
Roland Leroy Cole, 40, was arrested Thursday afternoon for investigation of first-degree assault. He allegedly admitted paying the woman for sex and arguing with her over money along Mukilteo Speedway, but denied having anything to do with her stabbing.
The detective’s search for video led to footage shot by a surveillance camera at an auto dealership. It showed the stabbing victim climbing into an SUV. When Ernst sent out a police bulletin with a still from the video, he heard back from a Snohomish County sheriff’s detective who said the vehicle appeared to be a Chevrolet Blazer.
The detective found more surveillance video, this time from a fast-food restaurant, linking a maroon or red Blazer to the attack. He also spoke with witnesses who reported seeing the aftermath of the stabbing. One said the SUV had stickers in the windows, including one advertising the U.S. Army, and another that read “Got Jesus.”
The woman described her assailant as white, at least 6 foot 3 and upwards of 350 pounds. She also reported he had “spiky” hair and scars on his head.
The detective used the New World Law Enforcement Records Management System to search for people with those characteristics. When he found a possible match, he checked vehicle licensing records to see if the man owned a red or maroon Blazer.
Cole fit the bill. A booking photo snapped by Redmond police showed a scar “that ran from temple to temple across the top of his head. I believed that Cole was likely the suspect,” the detective wrote.
The woman reportedly picked out Cole as her attacker when shown his photo in a montage with other men.
Working with the Violent Offender Task Force, police tracked down Cole at his job in north Seattle. His Blazer was outside. It had stickers in the window as described by one of the witnesses, Ernst wrote.
After being placed under arrest, Cole reportedly agreed to provide a DNA sample and to speak with detectives.
He was jailed in connection with the attack although no charges have been filed.
Scott North: 425-339-3431; north@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @snorthnews
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