in Seattle parking lot

The 2003 Volkswagen Jetta driven by murder victim Nicole Pietz the day she disappeared was found last week.

Seattle police discovered the car in a downtown parking lot. They declined to give the exact location where it was found.

Pietz left her Lynnwood home to meet friends Jan. 28 and was reported missing by her husband Jan. 29.

Her body was found in bushes near Des Moines Memorial Drive and S. 145th St. in Burien Feb. 6.

The King County Medical Examiners Office said she died from strangulation.

The homicide remained under investigation last Friday and no arrests had been made.

Prowling leads to arrest

A Tukwila police officer was dragged and two police vehicles were damaged as officers attempted to apprehend a suspect at the Westfield Southcenter Mall Feb. 17 around 4:13 p.m.

After a citizen saw a man prowling around cars in the parking lot and called 911, the first Tukwila officer on the scene approached the suspect, who was sitting in a parked car.

The officer told the suspect to get out of the car, when the man did not get out the officer tried to get him out.

The suspect then put the car in reverse, backed out of the parking lot, hit a police motorcycle and sped away, momentarily dragging the officer. The officer suffered minor injuries.

Other officers followed the car to 16400 51st Ave. S., where a police car was damaged when the suspect rammed it in an attempt to escape.

He was then taken into custody.

The car the suspect was driving had been stolen from Federal Way on Jan. 26. The man was also wanted on multiple felony warrants for narcotics and forgery. A gun and various narcotics were found in the car.

Cold-case killer dies

James B. Braman, the man recently arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murder for a crime that happened Tukwila in 1975, died in Oregon on Feb. 21.

Braman, who suffered from terminal liver cancer, was released from jail after posting $500,000 bail. He was taking methadone for the pain and officials believe he swallowed too many pills.

Braman was charged for the shooting deaths of Frank Hinkley, 45, and his girlfriend Barbara Rosenfield, 42. Hinkley owned The Bear Cave, a controversial topless bar in Tukwila. Braman worked as the bar manager.

Hinkley and Rosenfeld were found shortly before midnight on Dec. 3, 1975. Police investigators believed it was an inside job.

The case was reopened in 2003 by detectives because new evidence implicated Braman as that killer.

Braman apparently had told three people that he committed the killings.

He was arrested Feb. 7.

Compiled by Sara Loken