A rumor spread online that there was a serial killer in Seattle. Law enforcement has refuted the claim. The King County Sheriff’s Office and Seattle Police Department both said they are not investigating a suspected serial killer. The sheriff’s office, whose jurisdiction includes Burien, said it had no evidence of deaths under investigation in these locations sharing similar characteristics.
Seattle’s Police officials refuted the serial killer claims on Twitter and in an emailed statement, saying it did not have any serial homicide cases. In addition, the King County Sheriff’s Office, which is the main law enforcement agency for unincorporated areas of the county and 12 cities including Burien, also denied the claims on Twitter and by email.
“The King County Sheriff’s Office is aware of unsubstantiated on-line social media reports that select death investigations, in the vicinity of South Park / SR509, may share similar characteristics,” the statement read. “At this time, the Sheriff’s Office has identified no evidence affirming this for any cases under our jurisdiction.”
The original claim was that King County detectives have been notifying locals about a serial killer in Seattle after several women in a southern section of the city and the nearby city of Burien were found dead with their bodies posed in the same way. The claims erupted on social media over the weekend as Seattle residents warned each other about the alleged criminal.
One tweet that was shared amassed nearly 40,000 likes that read: “Multiple women’s bodies have been discovered recently in the Burien and SODO area, apparently posed in the same way,” the post continued, referring to a district of downtown Seattle. Seems that a bar manager started the rumor. The King County Sheriff’s Office on Oct. 7 did request the public’s assistance investigating what happened to a female found dead on the side of Highway 509, near south Seattle, but it did not suggest the case was linked to any other cases in the area.
