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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1876 | 1 |
| 1877 | 1 |
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| 1889 | 2 |
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24 stories matching decomposit
- The Tragedy at Mill Creek
A body discovered by children near an old farm prompts a grim investigation into a man believed to have taken his own life.
- A Ghastly Discovery in Spokane
An unidentified man is found brutally murdered in a barn loft, sparking a grim investigation.
- The Body in the Duwamish
A missing merchant’s identity is confirmed through the gruesome discovery of his belongings, heightening fears of foul play in Seattle.
- The River's Grimmer Secrets
A gruesome discovery near the Coyote pumping station finally provides a clue to a year-old riverside mystery.
- Grim Discovery on Vashon Island
An unidentified man's remains were found stuffed inside a wooden box after washing ashore.
- Discovery of Missing Lad’s Body Under South Aberdeen Wharf
A boarding house keeper searching for a lost coat discovers the remains of a boy drowned in the harbor months prior.
- The Strange Desecration of Timmerman’s Grave
After two years in the earth, the body of an executed murderer was dragged from its resting place and anchored in the river.
- A Ghastly Discovery on Samish Island
A decomposed body found on the shores of Samish Island reveals signs of a brutal, weighted murder.
- Grim Discoveries Along the Railway Construction Line
Workers find bodies of unidentified victims, likely victims of violence, near old tent cities along the railroad path.
- The Price of a Filthy City
In 1877, Seattle editors warned that stagnant water and neglected gutters were more than just a nuisance—they were a matter of life and death.
- The Beachcomber and the Princess
A Canadian man is jailed after a gruesome discovery near Victoria harbor, linked to an elopement with a Tahitian princess.
- The Aftermath of the Roslyn Mine Explosion
A town mourns forty-five dead while the community rallies to support eighty-four orphaned children.
- Fatal Blast in the Roslyn Mine
A driver is killed instantly when his lamp ignites gas in the coal pit, leaving his mule lost to the encroaching deadly fumes.
- Post-Fire Sanitation: The Fight for a Healthy Seattle
Following the Great Seattle Fire of 1889, local physicians and concerned citizens publicly debated the city’s primitive sewer systems, warning that decaying waste in the 'burnt district' threatened a public health crisis.
- The Unknown Man of Lake Washington
A decomposed body found near the Madison Street wharf is briefly linked to a notorious double drowning before being buried in potter's field.
- The Body in the Bay: Peter Samuelson's Mysterious Death
After nearly two weeks missing, a Port Townsend man was found dead on the shore, his boat capsized and his pockets still heavy with gold. A coroner's jury ruled accidental drowning.
- The Skykomish River Tragedy
A saloon-keeper's body is discovered in the wilderness, unraveling a dark story of frontier isolation, lawlessness, and the lethal 'whisky' of the Great Northern construction camps.
- The Death Rate Was Up. The Health Officer Blamed the Syringe.
In 1891 Olympia's health officer reported an unprecedented mortality spike—and pointed to morphine and cocaine injections, with young women said to be using them 'just for fun.'
- The Man Who Vanished Into the Fog: A Barber’s Final Journey
Coroner Cross and Dr. Root piece together the identity of a decomposed body found near Salmon Bay, linking it to a boarder at the Commercial Hotel who may have taken his own life with morphine.
- The Unknown Man Below the Falls
A decomposing body wedged between trees near a downtown Spokane thoroughfare is examined by a coroner's jury — and buried without a name.
- The Milk That Made Kent Grow
Kent's condenseries turn White River Valley milk into Carnation and baby food, and a struggling village becomes a dairy boomtown.
- The State Germ Lab in the Burke Block
Seattle's new bacteriological laboratory tested city water, hunted typhoid and tried to make diphtheria antitoxin—while its doctors covered the rent.
- The Sewer Plan That Imagined a City of 200,000
Engineer J. S. Camp presented Olympia’s council with a tide-powered reservoir and automatic flush tanks, a system meant to grow with the capital city.
- A Body in the Ashes at Rolling Bay
An eyewitness to the coroner's inquest corrects the Post-Intelligencer's lurid account of a bullet-scarred, half-burned corpse found in a shack on Bainbridge Island — and lays out his own theory of an unsolved Kitsap County killing.