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BREAKING NEWS
Human remains found by work crew in Snohomish
May 10, 2018
(SNOHOMISH, WA.) – The Snohomish County Sheriff’s office says a crew cleaning up roadside litter Wednesday afternoon found what appeared to be human remains near the intersection of Downes Road and Fales Road near State Route 522.
“Detectives with the Major Crimes and Collision Investigation Units responded around 3 p.m. and recovered the unidentified remains,” said sheriff’s office Communications Director Shari Ireton. “Gender and age of the person were undetermined. Also recovered was a suitcase and a blanket.
Identification of the deceased will be determined by the Snohomish County Medical Examiner, as well as cause and manner of death.
There was no mention by the sheriff’s office if any indications of foul play were present at the recovery scene.
UPDATE
REMAINS FOUND WERE JAMIE HAGGERTY
Officials said the remains were found near Downes Road and Fales Road on May 9. Deputies said a crew cleaning up roadside litter found the remains near a suitcase and blanket.
KIRO7’s Deedee Sun learned from the King County Sheriff’s Office on Friday that a crew picking up trash along SR522 found Haggard’s body inside a suitcase, but almost missed the crucial discovery.
“A road crew found it, it was on the side of a road. And they put the suitcase up to get it picked up by a dump truck. Just prior to the dump truck picking it up, they opened it and that’s when they found remains inside,” said Sgt. Ryan Abbot, with the King County Sheriff’s Office.
Her cause of death was homicidal violence.
Search crews combed the area near where her body was found looking for more evidence that could lead to Haggard’s killer.
This is a horrible case, very tragic. She had two daughters, a family that cares a lot about her. So this is heartbreaking. To get a little bit of closure, to find at least her remains – but we still have a lot of work to do because we still have to find out who is responsible for this,” Abbott said.
Timeline of events:
June 2016: Jamie Haggard, 27, is reported missing
July 2016: Investigators search backyard of her Kenmore home
May 2017: Tips lead investigators to again excavate backyard of Kenmore home, but find nothing
May 2018: Road crews find body near SR522 in Maltby
July 2018: Body identified through DNA as Jamie Haggard and death is ruled a homicide
If you have information on Haggard's death, you're asked to call police at (206) 296-3311.
Earlier coverage from May, 2017 on the disappearance of Jamie Haggard:
For a second time, detectives searched a Kenmore yard for the remains of a woman who has been missing since last June.
Jamie Haggard, 27, was last seen on June 8, 2016. She was reported missing on June 17.
King County deputies said there had been no activity with her bank accounts, credit cards or cellphone. She is presumed to be dead.
“Jamie would call her mom every other day. That’s kind of what she did," Det. Jessica Santo with the King County Sheriff's Office said. "She had two small children so for her to just disappear is highly suspicious. For her to not have any activity on her cell phone, her credit cards, bank accounts -- that is out of what she would normally do.”
Last July, a crew dug up part of the backyard of the Kenmore home where Haggard had been living with her boyfriend and her brother for about three months, but no remains were found.
On Thursday, after detectives said they had new information, a backhoe was used to excavate part of that same yard at the home in the 8200 block of Northeast 145th Street. The home is currently vacant.
No remains were found.
Lee Haggard, Jamie's father, told KIRO 7 he won't give up trying to find his daughter.
He said he met with investigators a few weeks ago and was told they believed Jamie was dead. Detectives got DNA swabs from her parents that would help them identify her remains.
"I think about her all the time. I worry about her, I've always worried about her," he said. "To have a child missing, there's no closure. It's an open wound and always will be."
He pleaded for the public to come forward and help investigators.
"It's been a year -- somebody has got to know something," Haggard said.
Anyone with information can call 206-296-3311. Crime Stoppers is offering a $1,000 reward and anonymous tips can be called in at 1-800-222-TIPS.
Investigators are not revealing what led them back to the house.
Twenty-seven-year-old Jamie Haggard was extremely close with her family. She and her sister Stephanie Haggard did everything together, their father Arthur "Lee" Haggard told Dateline.
“They even dressed alike,” Lee recalled to Dateline. “But as time moved on, [Jamie] became very independent.”
Lee said Jamie grew into a “very smart, and very ambitious” woman and decided to join the medical field, eventually becoming a medical assistant.
Along the way, Jamie became a mother. In 2008, she gave birth to her twin daughters Dylan and Madison Rose when she was 19 years old. She separated from the girls’ father, Jake Rose, soon after their birth, but the pair remained close and shared custody of the children.
In early of 2016, Jamie was going through a rough time, according to her father Lee.
“She was just sad. She didn’t like where she was living, she didn’t like some of the people who were hanging around where she lived,” Lee told Dateline. He believes Jamie might have been going through a period of depression.
A close family friend who Lee calls a “surrogate daughter,” told Dateline she also noticed Jamie was going through something.
“She was going through a hard time in her life -- breaking up with her fiancé,” the friend, who asked to remain anonymous, told Dateline.
Around this time, Jamie’s friend said Jamie moved in with her until she could get back on her feet. Jamie still spent time with her daughters, who were staying with their father Jake.
In March 2016, Jamie found a place of her own to rent in Kenmore, Washington. Later that month, her father told Dateline, Jamie came over to visit him at his home about 15 minutes away in Bothell, Washington, where Jamie grew up.
On June 9, 2016, Lee says he remembers Jamie seeming sad. He was very aware of her depression, and says they spent the day with their extended family.
That, Lee told Dateline, was the last time he saw his daughter.
Lee thought it was strange that no one had spoken to his daughter. So he called her friend and learned that she also hadn’t heard from Jamie in days and had been concerned as well. That’s when, on June 17, 2016, Lee decided to go to Jamie’s home and look for her. He couldn't find her anywhere, so he flagged down a Kenmore Police officer who was driving by and reported Jamie missing.
About one year after that, King County Sheriff's Office posted on their Twitter account to say “new information had led detectives to search section of backyard at house… in Kenmore,” for a “missing woman's body.” A later tweet stated they did not find anything in the second excavation.
Sergeant Ryan Abbott with the King County Sheriff’s Office told Dateline Jamie’s case is active and ongoing, but he could not provide additional information, to protect the integrity of the investigation.
Jamie’s daughters Madison and Dylan now live with their father Jake. Lee says that, at first, his granddaughters were confused as to why they didn’t get to see their mother.
“They thought [their father] was trying to keep them away from their mom,” Lee explained through tears. He told Dateline he is upset the situation has caused so much confusion and sadness for the girls, who are now 10 years old.
Jamie’s friend said things were starting to look better for Jamie when she disappeared. “It kills me to know she was figuring things out and had everything going for her, and somebody took that away from her,” she said.
“It's really hard some days,” the friend continued. “These two beautiful girls who are growing up without their mom.”
Jake has since remarried, and his wife adopted the twins. Lee says he is happy the girls have the loving parents they do.
Lee continues to post on social media in the hope that if Jamie is out there, she will know he is always looking for her.
“I think about Jamie all the time, and I dream that she's coming home,” Lee said. “Everywhere you go, you think you see someone who looks like her, sounds like her, laughs like her. It's really hard to miss somebody that you raised from day one, just have her yanked away from you.”
Jamie Haggard would be 29 years old today. She is described at 5’6” and weighs about 120 lbs., with brown hair and dark brown eyes. If you have any information, please contact the King County Sheriff's Office (206) 296-3311.