More than 30 years after 14-year-old Tanya Marie Frazier vanished and was later found murdered in Seattle, a suspect has been charged in the decades-old cold case. Tanya disappeared in July 1994 while waiting for a bus to her first summer job, per the New York Times. Her body was discovered five days later in a wooded area less than a mile from the bus stop. She'd been sexually assaulted and died from sharp force injuries to the neck and head. The case haunted the city before fading into unsolved crime files, only to be revived as forensic technology advanced. The break came when DNA evidence from the scene was processed through the national CODIS database, linking the crime to Mark Anthony Russ, 57.
Russ has a criminal record that dates back decades, with convictions for robbery, assault with a deadly weapon, and attempted rape. He reportedly stabbed a girlfriend, who required 175 stitches, in 1987 and tried to rape a house cleaner during a robbery a decade later, per KOMO. Initially handed a life sentence in 1996 under Washington's persistent offender law, he was freed in 2021 following sentencing reforms and has faced new charges in the years since his release. He was charged Thursday with one count of murder in the first degree with a sexual motivation. He's also accused of failing to comply with the requirements of a registered sex offender.
Russ' mother lived across the street from Tanya's school and his own home was near the spot where Tanya's belongings were later found dumped, KOMO reports. "He's a monster," Tanya's younger sister, Teara Frazier, tells the Times. "I hope I get to look him in the face and tell him what he did, how much he's hurt so many people." She says her sister's death shaped every part of her life, leaving her unable to get close to people. Though Tanya lives on in Teara's daughters—named Tanya, Marie, and Angel—the family still has questions about how they came to lose their loved one. Soon, those questions might finally be answered.
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