Worth More Dead: And Other True Cases (41 page)

Kitsap County detective Doug Wright worked with Seattle homicide detectives to solve the baffling murder of Cheryl Pitre. Here, he is participating in a raid on a marijuana grower.

Kitsap County detective Jim Harris who, with his partner, Doug Wright, investigated the murder of Cheryl Pitre in October 1988. It would take more than fifteen years before that mystery was finally solved.

To the casual observer, this looked like an ordinary bathroom. But behind the shower curtain was a cleverly designed and insulated prison, built to hide a teenage kidnap victim. This was only the latest of Roland Pitre’s complicated plots to make money for himself.

The cell hidden behind the shower curtain was padded with thick insulation so a kidnap victim’s cries for help wouldn’t be heard. Pitre worked for days to build what was, essentially, a death chamber for a teenager.

Lt. Lewis Olan first met Roland Pitre when his safe was mysteriously stolen, and Pitre was beaten while trying to get family mementos back. Later, Olan investigated the attempted kidnapping of Pitre’s stepson.

Seattle police homicide detective Hank Gruber in 1988. Gruber thought he was giving only a “courtesy assist” to detectives from Kitsap County in a missing person case. It wasn’t long before he found that he was deeply immersed in a homicide case in his own jurisdiction. It was to be one of the most frustrating cases of his long career—but sixteen years later, though he was retired, he saw that justice was finally done.

Fred McKee on his way to court to be sentenced for the murder for hire of Cheryl Pitre. The person who hired him once declared everlasting love for her.

Roland Pitre in 2004 as he appeared in court. The charismatic ladies’ man had lost much of his charm, and he heard his own family beg a judge to send him away for as long as possible.

“IT’S REALLY WEIRD
LOOKING AT MY OWN GRAVE”

Sex killer William Scribner planned to add to the graveyard where he’d left his first victim. Luckily, he wasn’t clever enough to overcome the next victim he chose.

OLD MAN’S DARLING

Denver detectives looking for the motivation behind a deadly shoot-out with most unlikely participants had to look no further than this tape recorder that lay on the ground next to the bodies. It was all there.

Randy Yoder’s pickup truck. CSI placed placards to mark bullets and casings. As Yoder tried to save Justyn Rosen and himself, they were caught in a “shooting gallery.”

Justyn Rosen’s new Ford Expedition SUV after the shoot-out outside a Denver police station. Rosen flung open his door and scrambled for safety behind Officer Yoder’s truck as Yoder desperately tried to save him.