The cold case murders of three teen girls bear striking similarities

Cold case murders of teenage girls bears similarities

NORTH BEND, Wash. - It was a chilly Halloween night. Charles Habakangas was staying in watching movies and tried to convince his 17-year-old sister Sarah to do the same, but the teen was set on going out with friends. "She was all dressed in orange so I said alright don't turn into a pumpkin, and that was the last I saw her."

Days later Sarah’s family got the news that destroyed their lives forever. Sarah’s body was found in a wooded area off 1-90 in North Bend. Family says she’d been strangled to death.

"I just can't imagine what she went through before she died, and it seems like it'd be the most horrible horrible death, especially for someone who hadn’t lived long enough to realize the world's not always a nice place," says Charles.

We found Sarah’s case bore striking similarities to others. All cases involving teenage girls who went missing from the same general area, and who were all found in remote wooded areas in North Bend.

The similarities weren’t lost on detectives. The first murder was that of 14-year-old Heather Kinchen who’s skeletal remains were found on the fourth of July in 1991, about two months after the went missing from Seattle. 17-year-old Sarah was found four months later. And almost exactly a year after Sarah’s murder, 19-year-old Nicole French was discovered. Like Sarah, she too had been strangled.

"I remember hearing and knowing there were similarities and that they had been friends," says Charles.

Investigators later found that Nicole and Sarah actually knew each other, making loved ones wonder even more if their cases were connected. Meanwhile, many were wondering if the three murders could be the work of the Green River Killer, who back then was still unidentified.

"People can't imagine collecting, I would say scores and scores of dead bodies and that was your job," says retired King County Sheriff Dave Reichert.

Reichert led the Green River Killer investigation during the 1980s as the body count of young women and teens soared, ultimately getting to a confirmed number of 59. But investigators tell us all these years later, there is nothing linking the murders of Heather, Sarah, and Nicole to the Green River Killer. So we asked Reichert, ‘Could there have been other serial killers out there?’ He says it’s possible.

"What surprised all of us I think was there was some many suspects on our list that fit the profile of the person who was described to us by profilers of being able to commit crimes like this," says Reichert.

Today Charles worries his sister has been forgotten. "I just can't imagine the monster who would do that to a 17-year-old girl. She never got a chance to grow up, she was still figuring out what was out there, experiencing the world." He wonders if he’ll ever have answers. "I think about her every day no matter what."

If you have any information on the murders of Sarah Habakangas, Heather Kinchen, or Nicole French please contact the King County Sheriff’s Office, or you can remain completely anonymous through Crime Stoppers of Puget Sound by calling 1-800-222-TIPS.

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