The murder of Karen Lee Bodine remains one of the most disturbing unresolved homicide cases in Thurston County, Washington. Karen was a 37-year-old mother of three who was last verifiably seen alive during the night of January 21, 2007, in the Lacey area near Olympia. By the following morning, she had been strangled, stripped of her clothing and left beside a rural road near an abandoned gravel quarry north of Rochester.
The circumstances surrounding her final hours suggested that someone within her social circle may have known what happened. Karen had spent part of the evening at a residence where several people were reportedly coming and going. Investigators later examined multiple individuals connected to the house, but no one was arrested or charged.
Karen’s body was discovered on January 22, 2007, near Littlerock Road Southwest and Sargent Road Southwest. The positioning of her remains, the evidence recovered from the ligature used to strangle her and tire tracks found near the scene gave detectives important leads. However, those clues have not yet resulted in the identification of her killer…