“Hallie Ann Seaman: Unmasking the Killer After Nearly Five Decades | Seattle Unsolved Homicide Case”

Accident – Death – Obituary News : Hallie Ann Seaman, a standout student at the University of Washington, was tragically killed in 1975, just two terms away from earning her master’s degree in architecture. Described as intelligent, strong-willed, and athletic, Seaman was studying how to design quality low-income housing. She was last seen alive on the night of April 29, 1975, at her drafting table in UW’s architecture building.

The next afternoon, a man on his lunch break discovered Seaman’s body concealed in bushes bordering a parking lot on Eastlake Avenue East and immediately called Seattle police. It was determined that Seaman had been sexually assaulted and repeatedly stabbed at an unknown location hours earlier. Additionally, her station wagon had been set ablaze 4 miles away from where her body was found.

For nearly five decades, Seaman’s killer remained unidentified. However, in a stroke of serendipity, her killer was finally unmasked. Seattle police Detective Rolf Norton, who began reviewing Seaman’s unsolved homicide in 2017, received an email in August from William Stubbs, a forensic scientist at the Washington State Patrol Crime Lab. The lab report revealed that DNA found on Seaman’s body identified her likely killer as Charles Rodman Campbell, a convicted triple-murderer who was executed by hanging in 1994.

Campbell was a widely reviled figure whose trial, appeals, prison abuse allegations, and last-ditch efforts to avoid execution generated significant media attention. A prison psychologist in 1979 described Campbell as “conscienceless,” “blithely uncaring of others,” and “imminently harmful to all who directly or indirectly capture his attention or interest.”

In December 1974, just four months before Seaman’s murder, Campbell forced Renae Wicklund to perform a sex act while holding a knife to her 1-year-old daughter in Clearview. Campbell remained a fugitive for 13 months until he was arrested for burglary in Okanogan County. He was then convicted of assault and sodomy.

While on work release in April 1982, Campbell killed Renae Wicklund and her 8-year-old daughter, Shannah, as well as their friend and neighbor, Barbara Hendrickson, in their Clearview home. Campbell was quickly identified as a suspect and charged with aggravated murder. He was eventually convicted and sentenced to death by hanging after 11 years of appeals.

Although Campbell will never face trial for Seaman’s homicide, Detective Norton finds solace in knowing that he will be held accountable historically. He commended the efforts of the detectives who investigated Seaman’s killing and those who submitted forensic evidence for testing decades later. The surprising lab report only became possible due to a legislative change in 2019 and a decision by a retired Tacoma police detective working for the state attorney general.

Detective Norton has been diligently reviewing unsolved Seattle homicides, trying to identify potentially solvable cases. He never uses the term “cold case” and believes that a case is only cold if it’s sitting in a closet untouched. When he first reviewed Seaman’s case file six years ago, he believed it was solvable due to the forensic evidence submitted for testing in 2002. Although a male DNA profile was generated, there were no matches in CODIS, the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System.

Norton wanted to employ a new strategy called genetic genealogy to identify possible suspects using unknown DNA profiles and publicly available DNA profiles. However, the available forensic material had been used when generating the suspected killer’s genetic profile in 2002. It was not until the 2019 legislation expanded the criteria for DNA inclusion in CODIS that Detective Lindsey Wade, a retired Tacoma police homicide detective, decided to submit Campbell’s DNA profile. The DNA ultimately connected Campbell to Seaman’s killing.

Norton encourages other police agencies to review unsolved cases from the same time period to determine if Campbell may have committed similar crimes in other jurisdictions. He believes that the combination of serendipity, investigative work, and out-of-the-box thinking led to the unmasking of Seaman’s killer..