Everett police officer honored 120 years after death in line of duty

EVERETT, Wash. - Nearly 120 years after Everett Police Officer Charles "Ed" Ray died in the line of duty, his name is finally being etched into history.

This month, members of the Everett Police Department stood in Olympia as Ray was posthumously awarded the Washington State Medal of Honor and formally added to the Washington State Law Enforcement Memorial. This week, members of the department’s Honor Guard traveled to Washington, D.C., where Ray’s name has now also been engraved on the National Law Enforcement Memorial.

The backstory:

For decades, Ray’s story had vanished from public memory. His grave sat unmarked at Evergreen Cemetery in Everett. Even within the police department, none knew he existed.

The discovery began in 2025 when Everett Police Lt. Greg Sutherland was reviewing the department’s history of fallen officers and came across an old newspaper clipping mentioning "Ed Ray." 

"So, I thought, who in the world is Ed Ray?" Sutherland said. "Because we had Charles Raymond, we have John Fox, and then we had Brian DeBucci and Dan Rocha."

What followed became a months-long historical investigation involving detectives, patrol officers and archivists determined to restore the identity of an officer whose sacrifice had been forgotten for more than a century.

"And eventually we found out that Charles Ed Ray was a police officer that was hired with the Everett Police Department," Sutherland said. "And that has just spiraled into a big project that we’re doing."

Detective Susan Logatheady described the effort as an unusually personal cold case investigation.

"Very, very cold case," Logatheady said. "And what we learned was so incredible. We learned that this officer that had this amazing life was one of our own."

Working alongside Everett Public Library historian Lisa Labovitch, investigators pieced together Ray’s life through census records, newspaper archives and family genealogy research. Officer Alyssa Graetzer helped uncover Ray’s official swearing-in date: Oct. 15, 1906.

"Once we found his name, everything else started falling into place really quick," Graetzer said.

Timeline:

Investigators learned that Charles Edward Ray was born in Springfield, Missouri, in June 1858, one of 11 children born to John and Roxanna Ray. As a child during the Civil War, Ray and his siblings hid in the cellar of their family home during the Battle of Wilson’s Creek while the property above them was converted into a makeshift hospital.

Years later, Ray moved west to Asotin, Washington, where he married Lola Ray. The couple later settled in Everett in 1902, where Ray worked as a barber on Hewitt Avenue before joining the Everett Police Department in his late 40s.

"Back then, the city was about 15 or 16,000 people," Sutherland said.

On Dec. 31, 1906, Officer Ray responded to a drunken disturbance near the Lobby Saloon on Hewitt Avenue. According to investigators and archived newspaper accounts, Ray attempted to arrest a 23-year-old mill worker named William Mark.

"According to witnesses putting together different newspaper articles, it sounds like William struck Officer Ray in the temple, that dropped him to the ground, and then William started kicking Officer Ray in the ribs," Sutherland said.

A local mail carrier, Charles Titus, intervened and helped restrain the suspect until other officers arrived. But Ray died minutes later.

"They were trying to charge him for murder because he had just beaten a cop to the ground and kicked him and punched him in the head," Graetzer said.

The coroner, however, ruled Ray’s death was caused by "exhaustion while making an arrest," and the murder charge did not hold. Over time, investigators believe Ray’s identity became confused with another fallen Everett officer, Charles Raymond, who died four years earlier.

"So what we think happened was that Charles Ray ended up getting mixed up with Charles Raymond because Charles Raymond died in 1902 and Charles Ray died in 1906," Graetzer said. "No one ever really knew that they were two separate people."

Dig deeper:

The tragedy deepened only months after Ray’s death when his wife, Lola, died from typhoid pneumonia. Their young daughter, Faletia, was orphaned and returned to Missouri to live with relatives. She later became a nurse, married a surgeon and lived until 1994.

Investigators eventually tracked down Ray’s descendants across the country, including his great-great-granddaughter, Mindy Blives McCoy.

"Well, first, we didn’t know he was an officer," McCoy said. "I also didn’t know the honor that comes with being an officer and being a fallen officer. So it’s not only learning about your family, but learning that they put officers at such a high prestige, I mean, that you’re not forgotten."

Logatheady said reconnecting surviving family members with Ray’s story became one of the most meaningful parts of the investigation.

"Hearing the excitement in their voices and learning what happened to their grandmother’s parents has been really special," she said.

The investigation also uncovered another painful discovery: both Charles and Lola Ray had been buried in Evergreen Cemetery without visible headstones.

"It’s on the side of a hill…there’s probably been some movement over the 120 years," Sutherland said.

Officers searched through overgrown hillsides, aging cemetery maps and even yellow jacket nests before finally locating the buried markers.

"The groundskeepers were able to find Charles’s headstone in the hill with the yellow jacket nest," Graetzer said. "I got stung twice."

New headstones are now being created through the Everett Police Officers Memorial Fund, and a formal graveside ceremony is planned to honor the couple.

"I just didn’t know that this type of honor for fallen officers was granted," McCoy said. "I mean, he’s been gone forever, but they’re still bringing this out, and it’s like he could have passed a week ago."

Everett Police Chief Robert Goetz said the recognition is long overdue.

"Every officer who makes the ultimate sacrifice deserves to be remembered," Goetz said. "I’m incredibly proud of the detectives, officers and staff who worked so hard to piece together Officer Ray’s story and ensure his service and sacrifice are honored with the dignity he deserves."

Everett Mayor Cassie Franklin praised the department’s efforts to recover a lost piece of the city’s history.

"Thanks to the dedicated work of Everett police detectives, officers and the Everett Public Library’s Northwest Room, Officer Charles Ed Ray’s story and sacrifice will no longer be lost to history," Franklin said. "Officer Ray made the ultimate sacrifice serving our community, and it’s important that his legacy is remembered."

For the officers who spent months reconstructing Ray’s life, the mission ultimately became about restoring dignity to a man who disappeared from the historical record despite dying in service to his city.

"To be able to honor Officer Ray appropriately is very important to us," Logatheady said.

And for Sutherland, the lesson is simple.

"Every officer who makes the ultimate sacrifice deserves to be remembered," he said.

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