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the Missing Persons file on Damon Wells. “He was twenty years old, about five feet tall, maybe one hundred ten pounds,” recalled Yerbury. “According to the original report, he lived with his great-grandmother Ann Robertson on South C. Street. The last time she saw him was Friday night, February 24, 1984, at about ten-thirty.”
    Mrs. Robertson described Damon as an exceptionally kind and thoughtful young man who was always willing to help others, especially his aged great-grandparents. Damon didn’t complete high school, she said. He tried enlisting in the navy but was rejected because of his height, and because he suffered a severe spleen injury in an auto accident when he was ten years old.
    The last time Mrs. Robertson saw Damon Wells, they were having coffee in the kitchen at about 10:15 P.M. when they heard the doorbell ring. Damon got up to answer the door. “It was a kid he knew,” Robertson said. The kid to whom she referred was eighteen-year-old Steve Wood. “Damon went upstairs and got dressed. Then he came down and said, ‘Grandma, I’m going to be right back,’ and that was the end of it. I thought he was going down to Pacific Avenue to buy a pack of cigarettes or something, but he never came back.”
    â€œApparently, Damon Wells always kept his grandmother informed of his whereabouts, and never gave her reason to worry about him,” said Detective Yerbury. “Naturally, when he didn’t come home and he didn’t call, she became very concerned and called the Tacoma Police asking them to help look for her grandson.”
    â€œThey wouldn’t look for him,” lamented Robertson. “The detectives said, ‘All kids run away.’ I told them he had a life here, that he was happy. I was afraid that maybe he was robbed, even though he left his billfold and Social Security card upstairs. He was wearing a very expensive genuine topaz ring, and he had an expensive watch.”
    Saturday, February 25, passed with no contact from Damon. Understandably concerned, his mother, Patricia Wells, called Steve Wood. He told her he and Damon had stopped by a party at a house on Pacific Avenue, and that he got into a fight with a fellow named Andrew Webb. Damon wasn’t involved in the altercation, and when Wood decided to make a hasty exit, Damon stayed behind. He assured Mrs. Wells that Damon was fine when he last saw him, and perhaps her son had had too many beers and was sleeping it off somewhere.
    As the day wore on, nerves wore thin, and Damon’s extended family experienced increasing anxiety. Excuses, rationalizations, and hopeful optimism gradually gave way to desperation. On Monday, February 27, his mother filed an official Missing Persons report with Officer Meeks of the Tacoma Police Department.
    â€œDamon Wells has shown absolutely no history of unexplained absences, according to his mother,” noted Meeks. “He was last seen wearing a blue nylon jacket, blue jeans, and white Nike shoes. He has a ‘T’ tattoo on his left forearm, ‘DW’ tattooed on right upper arm, and a six-inch abdominal scar. Patricia Wells said that her son has no history of drugs or alcohol abuse, and was not currently seeing a female.”
    Informed of the beer bust attended Friday night by Damon Wells, Meeks drove to the house on Pacific Avenue. He intended to question the residents, but no one was home. Two days later, Detective Price was assigned to the case.
    â€œOn March second, I contacted Steve Wood at his father’s barbershop,” reported Price. “He said that they had been at the party for a short time when a guy named Andrew Webb arrived. Shortly after, Webb and Wood got into a fight. They were told to move it outside, at which time Wood ran. He said that the last time he saw Damon, he was in the house.”
    Wood also told Price that Damon didn’t know the other guests at the party, that they originally went to