At approximately 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday, April 5, officers found a naked, badly beaten woman crawling eastbound on the 1400 block of South Plum Street, screaming for help. According to the police report, the officers found her lying on the sidewalk with “severe facial and head trauma.” The woman told police that she had been violently beaten by another woman in her home, and moreover, her attacker was still there. The report is sparse on details. It doesn’t note whether or not the victim knew her attacker or explain why she was naked. It doesn’t recount a fight from the victim’s perspective, like many reports do.

What it does is lay out the bare-bones facts of what happened next: officers proceeded to the victim’s stated residence. Once there, the report states they were stopped in their tracks by “an overwhelming odor of natural gas,” and heard “the clicking of an igniter, either from the fireplace or stove.” Seattle Fire Department was dispatched to shut off the main gas valve to the house. When SPD officers re-entered, they found “all four burners on the stove turned to the maximum position, no flame.”

The officers cleared the residence without finding anyone inside, and handed the case off to homicide and crime scene investigation units when they arrived on the scene.

16 replies on “Police Reports Are Among the Saddest, Most Disturbing Goddamn Reading Material You Will Ever Find”

  1. One of the biggest parts of my job is reading police reports. If you limit yourself to juvenile misdemeanors, they go from Disturbing to Goddamned Hilarious.

    …man, but kids are dumb.

  4. Well, um, if they shut off the main gas valve, of course there would be no flame on the burners… even if there had been.

    SPD FTL once again?

  6. @5, they may think it was an attempted murder (but then the details are sparse) so in that case homicide would be called in initially at least

  7. K, dear, A strong smell of gas would seem to indicate that something was left open with the flame off, probably with the hope of blowing the place up. A dear friend of mine who was suffering from dementia did the same thing to his place. Then he gave his Mercedes to a total stranger. He got the car back, but it was too late for the house.

    (that story has a happy ending. Dear friend is still alive. He got on the treatment cocktails just in the nick of time and is now happily retired in Southern California)

  9. @8: No, that is patently untrue. According to the study, homosexuals are more likely than heterosexuals to have SUFFERED from domestic violence in the past (and bisexuals are most likely of all). However, homosexuals, heterosexuals, and bisexuals were ALL EQUALLY LIKELY to have suffered from domestic violence in the past year only, according to the study.
    This indicates that homosexuals and bisexuals are more likely to have suffered from domestic abuse early in adulthood. Say, when they’re in a heterosexual relationship, and the stress of coming out of the closet (and the ensuing knowledge that the relationship is doomed) makes things get ugly.
    Frankly, the most logical conclusion to be drawn is that homosexuals who are in relationships when they come out of the closet are likely to suffer retribution from their special others. But this is entirely unrelated to the matter at hand.

  12. I recommend a reading of Charles Reznikoff’s Testimony if you can get your hands on it. I doubt it will ever lose its relevance.

  15. My ex-boyfriend and his wife live next door to this woman. The ex’s wife has a heart condition, came home to find a bunch of police in front of her house and when they met her on the hill to ask her some questions she suffered a heart attack – stress and concern. She’s not even 30. The whole day…tragic. I believe this turned out to be a “domestic violence” issue and while i’m not certain, at one point they weren’t sure if the woman who was beaten was going to survive.

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