Man arrested for murder 26 years after Bremerton woman's death



Lee Miller (Ada County Sheriff's Office)



BREMERTON, Wash. -- Twenty-six years after a Bremerton woman was found dead in her apartment, police went to Boise, Idaho to arrest a man for her murder.

According to the Bremerton Police Department,  54 year-old Lee Robert Miller was arrested on Wednesday for Murder in the Second Degree.

The investigation began on Sept. 10, 1992, when officers were asked to conduct a welfare check on Marilyn Hickey at an apartment in the 400 block of Chester Avenue.

That's where they found Hickey dead inside, with evidence that her death was a homicide.  Police have not said how she was killed.

The investigation continued for several months, but eventually, the case went cold.  In 2006, several pieces of evidence were sent to the Washington State Patrol state crime lab, and the DNA found at the scene eventually matched the DNA in another unsolved homicide in Boise, Idaho.

Detectives from the Bremerton Police Department worked with detectives from Boise, eventually identifying the suspect using the matching DNA.

The suspect is still being held in Idaho and is awaiting extradition to Kitsap County.

The Bremerton Police Department was assisted in this investigation by the Kitsap County Prosecutor’s Office, WSP Crime Laboratory, Violent Criminal Apprehension Program (ViCAP), FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit, WA Attorney General’s Office HITS Program and the Boise Police Department.