Gary Boynton

Gary Boynton is a true-crime writer, researcher and teacher. He lives on an island near Seattle. He has a B.A. in abnormal psychology from the University of Puget Sound, and has completed numerous classes in police science, criminal investigation, criminology and forensics. He has worked as a probation and parole officer, private investigator and paralegal. After a year of law school, he completed the Nonfiction Writer's Program at the University of Washington

Gary has had more than a dozen articles, including cover stories, published in Detective Files, True Police Cases, Detective Dragnet, Headquarters Detective, Startling Detective and Detective Cases Magazines.

In 1998, he assisted noted crime author Gregg Olsen in researching If Loving You is Wrong: The Shocking True Story of Mary Kay Letourneau, the schoolteacher imprisoned for her sexual involvement with one of her teenage students. Crime author Ann Rule called the book " wonderfully researched…A must read for both true-crime aficionados and students of abnormal psychology."

At Discover U in Seattle and at two national Police Writers Association conferences, Gary has taught "Making Crime Pay: How to Research, Write and Sell True Crime Stories."

He is currently assisting Gregg Olsen with several book and TV projects, and is working on two books of his own. His email is: gboynton364@aol.com

Too Many Hit Men

February 5, 1997 would have been Steve Ver Woert's 44th birthday, but he didn't make it to work on time that day at his job at a cellular phone company in Redmond, Wash., home to software giant Microsoft and many other high-tech firms. When the usually reliable Ver Woert still hadn't made it to work by midday, a co-worker was sent to find out why. When she arrived at Ver Woert's fifth-wheel-type trailer in nearby Bothell's Lake Pleasant RV Park, she found blood just outside the front door and called the Bothell police.

by Gary Boynton

Patrol Officers Lawson and Seuberlich responded to the call and entered the stylish trailer through its unlocked front door. After passing through the kitchen, they found Ver Woert's body lying facedown in a pool of blood in the living room. They checked to make sure that he was dead, then carefully left the trailer, so as not to disturb any possible evidence, before calling in to report what they had found.

Bothell Police Sergeant D.C. Nielsen arrived at the scene shortly. Paramedics soon joined him. They confirmed that the victim, who appeared to have been stabbed in the back and then to have had his throat cut, was indeed dead.

Two Bothell detectives, Ed Hopkins and Denise Langford, were next to arrive, followed by Det. Olsen, who would process the crime scene along with a team from the Washington State Patrol Crime Lab. Dan Christman, a blood-spatter specialist from the Snohomish County Medical Examiner's Office, and Dr. Eric Kiesel, the medical examiner, also came to examine the body.

The investigators noted that an exercise bike had been knocked over near the body and several boxes appeared to have been thrown around, both indicating a possible struggle. A Bible lay open on a nearby table.

Gothic Murders

On Jan. 4, 1997, two boys were playing in a park in Bellevue, Wash., an upscale suburb east of Seattle, when they spotted what they thought was a pile of clothes concealed by shrubs about five feet off a trail. When the boys returned to the park the next morning they soon realized what they had seen was a body. They ran home; one of their mothers called the Bellevue Police Department.

by Gary Boynton

At 11:30 a.m., Bellevue detectives responded to the scene, where they found the body of a young woman, dressed in blue jeans, a white T-shirt and "waffle-stomper" boots. Although she did not appear disheveled, as if she had been involved in a struggle, there was a cord wrapped around her neck, with which she obviously had been strangled.

Identification on the body indicated that the victim was Kimberly Wilson, age 20, and that she lived only a few blocks from the park.

After securing and processing the crime scene, Det. Jeff Gomes, an investigator from the King County Medical Examiner's Office, and Senior Prosecutor Patti Eakes proceeded to the victim's home. Gomes, although he'd been a cop for 23 years, was dreading informing Wilson's family of her death as he knocked on the front door of the white, two-story, wood-frame house.

Even though there were three cars parked in front, and the outside Christmas lights were on, the inside of the house appeared dark. When no one answered, Gomes went to a sliding-glass door on the side of the house. Finding it unlocked, he opened it, leaned into the house and called out. Again receiving no reply, Gomes drew his gun and stepped inside.

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