‘Seattle News Weekly’: Haunting cold case out of Snohomish, WA

SEATTLE – A cold case in Snohomish County has haunted the community for nearly twenty years. On a Tuesday in July 2006, Mary Cooper and her daughter, Susanna Stodden, were murdered at the end of their hike on the Pinnacle Lake Trail off the Mountain Loop Highway. 

On the tenth episode of the ‘Seattle News Weekly’ podcast, David Rose sits down with reporter Lauren Donovan, to discuss the case. Both Rose and Donovan have closely followed the case in their Seattle journalism careers and have worked directly with Snohomish County law enforcement to learn as much as they can about both the case itself, and the process that goes into working with such a sensitive cold case. 

Cold case homicide flyer courtesy of Snohomish County Sheriff’s office

Donovan begins the podcast by laying out the scene of the crime: The women were at a natural resting spot on the trail, a spot where one would pull over for a sip of water or grab a bite to eat. Then, they were both found shot to death. 

Rose began his FOX 13 Seattle journalism journey in 2007, a year after the murders took place.

Rose explains the process of working with unsolved cases. He says they take out the entire file, they reconcile it, and they look for things they can retest for DNA and if they get DNA, they can submit that for genetic genealogy. 

Earlier this month, Donovan reported on the story, shining light on the grief that still looms over David Stodden, the father and husband of the victims in the case. On the podcast, she talks about her experience spending time with Stodden and Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office Detective Dave Bilyeu. 

One of the key pieces of this story that Donovan covers on the podcast, is that Stodden was a a person of interest for nearly a decade. His name was not cleared until after taking three polygraph tests. Donovan describes the feelings surrounding the case, when she spent time with Stodden, who read a poem aloud in the spot where his wife and daughter were killed. 

They conclude the podcast with a clip from Detective Bilyeu, who talks about the Sheriff’s Office’s commitment to bringing answers to the family and the community. They highlight his effort to never stop bringing the case to life and their commitment as journalists to continue that effort as well. 

Donovan says when she reported on the story earlier this month, she felt like she was able to step into the shoes of an investigator, which she says she appreciated a lot.