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.” recommended

Eli Sanders was The Stranger's associate editor. His book, "While the City Slept," was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. He once did this and once won...

15 replies on “Mysterious Motive”

  1. Somehow I feel certain this was a hate crime. Even if it turns out the home invasion began as a standard crime of opportunity, the murderous savagery of the attack that followed is about hatred or denial of the victims’ humanity, either of which could be rooted in the attacker’s realization that both residents were women, and/or suspicion they were a couple.

    That realization may have come before he broke in (premeditation is suggested by the reporting that the neighbor’s house, by contrast, was wide open), or he may have enraged himself once he confronted them.

    Antigay or anti-woman, or a deadly stew of both. It’s just so awful.

  2. There won’t be any way of knowing if this was a hate crime or not until the criminal is apprehended and questioned (and even then, it may remain a mystery), but the fact that a murderer intent upon killing females would case a house where two females live does not indicate that they were specifically prompted by the fact that the victims were a couple. Does anybody remember Ted Bundy? He cased houses where female college students lived in groups. It had nothing to do with homosexuality.

  4. Here’s a question – what if they had simply been two women sleeping, of whatever orientation? Why aren’t crimes against women, targeted for their gender, classified as hate crimes? Why doesn’t anyone seem to be concerned that the number one cause of death for pregnant women is murder by a partner?

    Oh right. Because then we’d have to admit that there’s and epidemic.

  5. “Were the South Park Stabbings a Hate Crime?”

    Seriously? C’mon, I know you guys ain’t journalists but you’re not Fox or The Enquirer either. At least you don’t gotta be. Right?

  6. Being a neighbor, I really hope that this gets solved. Looking out my door every day and seeing a crime scene truck, and 2 units is a constant reminder that this is not over.

  8. Who gives a fuck what kind of crime it was? Two ladies got horribly mutilated and some sick fucker should rot for it. End of story.

  9. agreed with #8, tally the details for trend analysis, but after that who cares? A perpetrator of something this unprovoked and gruesome cannot be rehabilitated. Running man, anyone?

  10. Why did Eli Anderson get burgled repeatedly? NO REPERCUSSIONS! A person’s home is a sacred thing. How about this: Funded by the Homeland Security department, shotguns for all homeowners (and no, I don’t support the NRA).
    And OF COURSE lock your damn doors even when you’re home. That way if they’re coming through, they probably deserve some lead.

  12. I don’t feel unsafe in Seattle based on being gay. I’ve lived in a number of cities and this is the one I feel _safest_ in when out. But a week or two ago I was reassuring my partner that, while locking doors and windows is good protection against burgulars, random strangers don’t generally want to break into your house and kill you.

    Um, yeah.

    http://www.seattlepi.com/national/1110ap…

  13. @4: Sure, crime against women is terrible. But, so is crime against men, or anyone. Get off your pedestal of womanhood and join the rest of us.

  14. Kiki @4 asked “Why aren’t crimes against women, targeted for their gender, classified as hate crimes? “

    What makes a hate crime a hate crime, and the reason the penalties are more severe, is that a hate crime intends to frighten the group, not just the individual. If you attack someone who is gay, that’s not nec a hate crime. If you attack someone BECAUSE they are gay, then it is. A hate crime is meant to keep all members of the group in fear, or moving out, or staying closeted, and thus is a crime against more than just the victim of the assault.
    Not to lessen an attack on women, but it isn’t the same thing when a spouse beats a pregnant woman vs when a sicko targets pregnant women to keep other women in fear of being openly pregnant.

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