Three Separate Unsolved Stabbing Incidents in Three Years Spark Community Concern — Sandra Ladd, Travis Juetten, & 4 University of Idaho Students all Stabbed by Unknown Suspect While Sleeping

Continued Reporting:

This article is intended to address community concern — not cause concern — surrounding multiple homicide investigations with striking similarities. Authorities have not connected the following crimes in any official capacity, though, residents continue drawing their own connections given the similar circumstances in each of these incidents.

Three separate unsolved stabbings in 3 years, all under suspiciously similar circumstances, have caused residents across the Pacific North West to reexamine past incidents and draw connections to the recent unsolved Moscow Idaho quadruple homicide which took the lives of 4 University of Idaho students.

In a previous article from The Idaho Tribune, we highlighted connections being made between two seemingly unrelated crimes which took place a year apart. In each case the victims were sleeping in their beds in the early hours of the morning, attacked by an unknown assailant with a knife, and thus far, neither crime has been solved.

Now, it appears there is a third stabbing incident with unmistakable similarities, within a short driving distance from the previous incident, that has yet to be solved.

On June 14, 2020, Sandra Ladd, 71, was found deceased in her home with stab wounds to her torso. Ladd was presumably sleeping in her Washougal, WA home, possibly in the late hours of the 13th, when an unknown intruder entered her residence and stabbed her to death. Her crime was never solved.

No arrests have been made, but police said their investigation leads them to believe there is “no danger to the public at this time.” Law enforcement did not elaborate after claiming there was no further danger to the public.

“We want to make sure that we have all of the information that we can possibly get,” said Washougal Police Chief Wendi Steinbronn. Asking the public for help in the investigation, Steinbronn said “We want to raise the profile and keep the case fresh in people’s minds.”

“Sometimes people see something or know something that they don’t think is relevant. We want to draw that out. We don’t want people to worry about feeling silly. We want to hear about it, no matter if it turns out to be relevant or not. Some people who don’t know if their information is valuable or not might not be aware of the investigation.”

Fast forward one year, and only an hour and a half drive away, authorities in Marion County, Oregon have hit a dead end in their investigation into the August 13, 2021 homicide case wherein an unknown masked assailant entered a sleeping couple’s home and attacked them at 3:00 AM with a knife, never to be caught.

The husband, Travis Richard Juetten, 26, was pronounced dead at his home, while his wife, Jamilyn Rebekah Juetten, survived after being stabbed 19 times.

The intruder is said to have entered the Juetten residence at 3:00 AM and began stabbing the couple as they were in bed. The husband, Travis Juetten, is reported to have defended himself and his wife from the masked intruder, ultimately succumbing to his wounds. Jamilyn Juetten suffered 19 stab wounds, ultimately surviving the attack.

No suspect has been named in the early morning stabbing, and authorities have asked the public fore help by providing tips to aid in the investigation.

Striking similarities in both incidents have sparked the curiosity of online sleuths, who have said that the unsolved stabbings appear to have taken place under similar circumstances as the recent November 13, 2022 stabbings of 4 University of Idaho students in Moscow Idaho.

The locations of the three incidents can be viewed below

Very little information has been released to the public in the three cases.

In each of the cases, an unknown intruder entered the residence of the victims, stabbed them while they were in their beds, and no suspect has been publicly identified. While although Sandra Ladd had been discovered by police officers stabbed to death in her bed on June 14, 2020, it is unclear how long she had been there before authorities arrived.

Having been discovered in her bed, Ladd is presumed to have been sleeping when the attack occurred, leaving online investigators to believe she may have been attacked in the late hours of the night of the 13th of June 2020.

If this is the case, all three incidents will have taken place on the 13h of their respective months, only a little more than 1 year apart.

While authorities have revealed little detail surrounding the Moscow Idaho murder of 4 University students, even less is known about the murders in Oregon and Washington. Authorities in Oregon have not described the assailant, even though there was a survivor, nor has there been any release of information regarding anything the attacker may have said during the altercation. Even less is known about the circumstances resulting in the death of Sandra Ladd.

We at the Idaho Tribune do not want to cause any more concern to the communities that have been affected by these crimes, though, we do believe these crimes deserve further attention and ultimately a swift and timely end.

We will continue to follow this story as information is made available.