World War II vet murdered nearly 20 years ago, but detectives need one more piece of information

RENTON -- Raymond Brown was 82-years old when he was murdered almost twenty years ago. His son-in-law, Marshall Brenden remembers him well. “We got along really good. He was a second father to me,” Brenden said. He was also an American hero serving as captain of his own ship in World War II. At 5 feet 6 inches tall he was short in stature, but huge to the men who followed him. After leaving the service, Raymond moved to Renton to be closer to his family. “He had a son and, my wife Nancy the daughter, and we had eight children so he spent a lot of time with them," said Brenden.

But on one cold January morning in 1995, Raymond was murdered inside his home. “We received a 9-1-1 call from a house keeper, a female, who normally came to this residence to clean,” said Detective Jake Pavlovich from the King County Sheriff’s Office. The housekeeper discovered the war veteran in his bed, badly beaten. “Heart attack was one of the causes listed in the autopsy report that led to his death, however that heart attack was very probably brought on from the manner in which he was killed,” says Pavlovich. Detectives quickly zeroed in on four suspects who gave conflicting statements and failed multiple lie detector tests, but didn’t have enough evidence to charge them. They need just one piece of information to close this case. “I think knowing them at the time, and knowing their lifestyle, I believe that they talked to other people. I think there’s other people who know what happened here,” says Pavlovich. Marshall’s wife, Nancy recently passed away. She was never able to see her father’s killer brought to justice. Now her family and police are making another plea before any more time passes. “Twenty years have passed, we’ve not forgotten about it, Mr. Brown’s family has not forgotten about it, and there’s somebody out there that knows," Pavlovich said. "They may think that what they’ve heard isn’t that important, but it may be that one piece of information we need.”