Unsolved mysteries

"How many homicides are unsolved and why?" That was the question Tom Rasmussen raised near the end of a City Council committee meeting yesterday, where he and four other councilmembers voted to recommend the confirmation of Kathleen O'Toole's as Seattle's next police chief. Public commenters at another confirmation meeting had caught Rasmussen's attention when they raised the issue of unsolved homicides. "I'd like to hear more about that from you after you've had a chance to be there for a while," he said to O'Toole. Later he added: "It's disturbing to the community, particularly the families, who cannot understand why there has been no arrest."Police department spokesperson Drew Fowler told Crosscut Thursday that determining the number of unsolved homicides in Seattle is complicated because the cases are never closed. This means that a 70 year old murder could still technically be classified as unsolved. Asked if it was possible to get the number of unsolved cases from the last five or ten years, he said in an email: "The Homicide supervisor has said they don’t have the manpower right now to assemble that data." There have been 14 homicides so far in 2014, Fowler said. Two of these cases were officer-involved. Seven are unsolved. — B.L.