Beach Drive murder: Greggette Guy’s family sets up fund

| Beach Drive murder | Crime | West Seattle news

We’re hearing tonight from the family of 51-year-old Greggette Guy for the first time since her father’s unexpected appearance at last Sunday’s vigil in her memory.

On the eve of her memorial service, her brother-in-law Dennis Guy has reached out on behalf of her family. His message:

There seems to be a lot of interest for helping Greggette Guy’s family and we would like to respond. We established a fund for the purpose of providing financial funds for the following purposes:

(1) increasing the amount of reward money for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of the suspect(s) responsible for the murder of Greggette Guy

(2) and/or assisting the city in installing additional lighting and/or memorial bench along the area where the crime took place

We are thankful to the West Seattle Blog for providing information to the community and are sorry that we were not able to provide information due to personal and investigative reasons. We echo the thoughts of some of the (commenters) that speculation, especially insensitive ones, should be kept to oneself as they can be especially hurtful at a time such as this. Greggette Guy had lived in the West Seattle area for a few years when she was younger and enjoyed the serenity and the waves of the Alki Beach area.

We are thankful to the media for respecting the family’s privacy in this time of need as a result of this tragic event.

The link for more information about who Greggette Guy really is:and how to make contributions:
http://www.edlineyahncovingtonfuneralhome.com/sitemaker/sites/Edline1/obit.cgi?user=595115Guy

Sincerely,
Dennis Guy

The page at that link includes Ms. Guy’s full obituary, with much more about her life than we have heard before, as well as information on where/how to donate to the fund. Meantime – police have not commented publicly on the case since Southwest Precinct commander Captain Steve Paulsen spoke at last Tuesday’s West Seattle Crime Prevention Council meeting (video of everything he said is in our report from that night). If you have any information that might be related to the case, call 911 or the Seattle Police Homicide Tip Line, 206-233-5000 (police say anonymous tips are welcome). Our coverage of stories about Ms. Guy’s murder, dating back to the discovery of her body the morning of March 12th, is archived here, newest to oldest.

casaboba March 23, 2012 (11:41 pm)

I would be privileged to match the first $500.00 raised.

Lura Ercolano March 23, 2012 (11:44 pm)

Is there a reason to believe that additional lighting would have prevented this terrible crime?
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This park is a beautiful location to watch the moon’s reflection in the water. Lighting would take that away.
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Let’s be sure that lighting is actually a useful safety improvement before going ahead with that. I know it’s been mentioned in the other threads, and it’s natural to want to “do something”, but I’d hate to take away one of our rare urban locations to see moonlight reflecting on waves.

ws_s March 24, 2012 (12:05 am)

Reading Greggette Guy’s obituary is simply heartbreaking. I will contribute to the memorial fund in her name at Bank of America. My deepest sympathy goes out to all who knew her and loved her.

Lolaleah March 24, 2012 (8:31 am)

Truly heartbreaking. I haven’t been able to stop thinking of her family and how awful this must be for them. My heart goes out to the Guy family.

Ace20604 March 24, 2012 (8:33 am)

My heart goes out to all who have felt this loss. No more people need to be taken from our world.

@Lura Ercolano
Could motion sensor lights down on the lower part be a compromise? They can be set correctly to people sized motion in a certain area. When the park is closed it would be very easy for an alert officer to notice the activity from a distance.

Thomas Fine March 24, 2012 (1:40 pm)

Wonderful people have short life!

It is so sad when events like this happen, especially when lighting may have prevented this. The city can spend money on new bus stop, when nothing is wrong with the existing, but when life safety is an issue, our leaders get an “F”.
We have serious issues and our leaders, whether they are local or federal, they are not focused on the real issues.

We need lighting for areas like this park, not to enhance the beauty but to enhance the safety.

Let our city official know we need to look at safety for our parks and not beautification

visitor March 24, 2012 (5:52 pm)

Many studies have shown that lighting contributes to the perception of safety, but not to an increase in real safety, or to a decrease in criminal activity. I am sure the city is aware of the research and will not do anything in haste. Rest in peace, dear lady!

ws_s March 24, 2012 (6:41 pm)

Thomas Fine: Just met with Officer Bauer for a home assessment to get suggestions on how I can improve my security. One of the many things he told me was that the police need to hear from us – the community — to know what they can do to make our neighborhoods safer. The goal is to work as a partnership together. It’s up to each of us to be in touch with the right folks with our suggestions and concerns.

And regarding enhancing the beauty of our public spaces, I strongly believe that spending public money to create beautiful, appealing spaces is as important as protecting our safety. People won’t spend time in places that don’t appeal to them. The more people, the safer that area.

Incidentally, the home assessments are free and very helpful. Officer Bauer even was able to come out the same day I emailed to request an appointment. For anyone who would like one, call the SW Precinct at 206-733-9800.

Sgt Joe March 24, 2012 (11:00 pm)

Thanks ws_s. I would encourage anyone who has questions or needs an assessment to email me. joseph.bauer@comcast.net
We can’t staff the clerk at the SW Precinct full time right now to answer the phone at the precinct but I will do my best to do as many assessments as possible
Let’s work together and reduce crime in West Seattle.
Thomas Fine. Please email me and we can discuss your concerns. I’d like to share a few things with you.
Sgt Joe Bauer

Wsmom March 24, 2012 (11:08 pm)

I ran the length of beach drive and Alki today and saw only one crime stoppers poster. (One other one near the crime scene had been torn off) anyone know why this is? I expected to see many along the streets surrounding the area. Seems if they are looking for info the best place to start is with people walking the area that may of seen something but not following the story on the blog and other places.
I was happy to see that the area has been opened up by trimming bushes.

WSB March 24, 2012 (11:44 pm)

WSM – There were more last weekend at the time of the vigil; my co-publisher and I walked the stretch of Beach Drive at sunset tonight from Jacobsen to Cormorant Cove Park and also noticed some of the ones on poles were gone (a couple replaced by advertising flyers, which is either cynical or tone-deaf or both – perhaps the person advertising there does not realize what happened just 2 weeks ago). Police also have canvassed Alki businesses asking them to put up flyers – I haven’t walked the storefronts lately so I don’t know how many people have. – TR

Jtk March 25, 2012 (9:47 am)

Would we have put lighting in before any of this happened? Would you lobby to put crosswalks in at every corner before someone gets hit in the street. You can’t light every corner and you can’t protect every block of Seattle. You can walk in pairs. You can TRY to be aware of others around you. You can take a self defense class. I actually carry pepper spray when i walk my dogs. There are a lot of things we all can do to try to protect ourselves, the city will not protect us, we have to try to protect ourselves. Putting a light or two in is not going to help anything. This is a horrible tragedy. I’m so sorry for the family and hope you get some closure soon.

PhotoBug714 March 26, 2012 (4:10 pm)

Thank you WSB for your continued support in keeping this in the news. As a friend who attended her memorial this weekend it was a fitting tribute to her and while we had been focusing on the years she will now loose it was nice to remember the 51 great ones she had. She was an amazing person and left behind an equally amazing family and group of friend.

WSB March 26, 2012 (4:54 pm)

Thanks, photobug … it may take a long time before police have something to say (we had a 2009 murder here that took more than half a year to solve, but it did get solved, and three of the four defendants are in prison, while the fourth awaits a new trial) … but we continue to look for things to report to make sure the search, and Ms. Guy, are not forgotten.

ws_s March 27, 2012 (1:05 am)

WSB — Thanks for this information. It gives me more hope even though the days tick by. I know the police are doing everything they can to help us in the community, and to find this person.

Errol March 27, 2012 (2:40 am)

If you are going to do lighting get with the times. Do it right. Go to dark sky association. You can light the areas you need lit without shining lights in people’s eyes. Being able to see the effect but not the source is key. Shining lights in people’s eyes just blind them and they look away or hit a pedestrian or run off the road. Get it right. I sure do hope they can get this killer off the streets asap

sera April 8, 2012 (10:05 pm)

I live on beach drive. This story makes me very sad as I have hundreds of times gone to cormorant cove park, where her body was discovered and hundreds of times gone to Mee Kwa Mooks park. I also have a baby and have strolled him to both places hundreds of times. I will say that at Mee Kwa Mooks Park in the past year I have noticed a lot of suspicious activity (large Vans parking out side of it), strange activity in the bath room porta potty across the street, homeless people, drunks, also when down below at mee kwa mooks park you can not see up to the road and vice versa and I have to admit that when down there the 4 times I went last yr with my baby, I felt unsafe as there was drug dealing activity in broad daylight in the summer time, and then on rainy days odd cars waiting for another one to pull up rt next to the bathroom. While that is my favorite jogging path since it is right outside my home and beautiful, I think more people walking it, brighter lighting, and more police drive by’s by mee kwa mooks and the forested park across from it (since the trees there are so dense it looks like there are homeless camps being built in the woods) and often feels scary to walk by. Brighter lighting, more walking presence, and police drive by’s would help. I definately think its too dark there at night even in the afternoon. I walk it every day and so am very familiar with how “Un safe” I feel at times yet it is my walking path outside my home. I also think more people walking it and frequenting it would help, instead of walking alki, walk beach drive.

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