Earlier this week, police handed anxious South Park residents a new sketch of the man they suspect snuck into a home in the early morning hours of July 19 and stabbed two sleeping women, one fatally. But they can't yet answer a question that arose as soon as neighbors began telling reporters that the women were a couple and had spoken recently of getting married: Was this gruesome act of violence—which drew South Park residents into the streets bearing towels to try to stop the bleeding of the screaming women—simply random? Or was it an anti-gay hate crime?

At a meeting held at the South Park Community Center on July 20, interim Seattle police chief John Diaz said: "Every motive is still on the table." When asked on July 21 whether the crime is being investigated as a possible hate crime, police spokesman Mark Jamieson said: "We're not ruling out anything. It's a brutal homicide that we are investigating."

Meanwhile, neighbors continue to wonder. "What's surprising is that [he] picked that house," said Sue Kershaw, a neighbor of the women. "The person next door had their doors wide open. It obviously wasn't a robbery. It's pretty obvious to those of us around: He didn't go in there to steal something, he went in there to hurt those ladies. Something in my mind tells me he had been watching."