See, I told you so! And, I "ignored" her.
I can tell you what happened. My Seattle Times route started on the little side street that you can turn off on just before entering the West Seattle Freeway from the south. Its just north of Yasuko's. The route went down to the corner, left, and over the pedestrian overpass. On the other side of the freeway, my sister had a West Seattle Shopping News route. She did not have to collect for that route. They just paid her to deliver it.
On that particular day, it was a very cold and rainy day. She was waiting for me to come over the overpass. She did not want to finish her route. She helped me finish mine. When we got to 33rd Ave. SW and Charlestown, we walked down to Fauntleroy & Charlestown and crawled over the metal railing and down along the chainlink fence. It is right above the southern turn in the West Seattle Freeway as it approaches West Seattle.
We started tossing the Shopping News into the blackberry bushes. I had to urinate, so I went down a trail while my sister finished with the papers. The trail ran along the top of a ravine. I walked to the end of the trail and urinated on a tree stump. As I headed back up the trail. I noticed a pair of legs. It looked like someone was laying on the side of the ravine. It wasn't until I got further up the trail that I noticed the rope suspended from a tree root at the top of the ravine.
I did not see Penny's face, her back was to me. She had on blue bell bottoms, a gold jacket and a blue knit hat. To be honest, it looked like a young boy. She was only 14 or 15 at the time. My sister started to come down the trail looking for me and I just started screaming for her not to come down. I ran up the hills to my house and told my mom. She was making dinner and did not believe me. She told me to tell my father. He was having one of his "War and Peace" moments in the restroom. I was literally jumping up and down in place waiting for him to come out of the bathroom.
He and I went back down and I showed him what I had found. He crawled down the hill and checked. He confirmed that it was indeed a person. We went back up to 33rd Ave. S.W. and went to the first house we could find. There was an invalid in the house. We were talking to her through the mail slot in her door. We kept asking her to call the police and she kept yelling that if we didn't leave she would call the police. It would have been funny if it were not so tragic.
When the police showed up, it was a cruiser at first. When he saw what we had found, he called the detectives. They questioned my father and I. They also undressed Penny while she was still hanging as the coroner hadn't shown up yet. They found that it was a girl, not a boy, and that she had bite marks and cigarette burns on her torso.
The police let us go, but not before my mom stopped by, on her way to a fundraiser. to see how we were doing. When we got home, I did not sleep for four days. My parents had a king sized bed and I sat in between them until I finally passed out from exhaustion. My trauma lasted less than a week. The Haddenham family's lasted much longer. I feel very lucky that I was able to bring Penny home. Her family had closure. They were able to bury their daughter and prosecute the suspect.
James Ruzicka had also raped and murdered Nancy Kinghammer. The Explorer Scouts found her body in what was an empty lot across from the piano store on Avalon Way. The property is a condominium now. However, at the time, Ruzicka had buried her in a carpet he'd brought from his ex-wife's house and also under a log. He went back and raped her every two or three days after she was dead.
It took a year, but my father and I testified at his trial. He was convicted. I am very happy for my part in the entire incident. No one can challenge my motives. I brought the neighbor girl who used to play with our poodles home.
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West Seattle Blog
West Seattle Blog
