Account
Nov 22, 2020
Jun 13, 2024
Kathleen
Paulsen
67
22
70 inches
170 lbs
White / Caucasian
Female
In the summer of 1979, a 22-year-old woman named Kathleen Roseanne Paulsen was last heard from in Yakima, Washington. It was July, and Kathleen, a young woman with blonde hair and blue eyes, was navigating a transient lifestyle at the time. Standing at five feet ten inches tall and weighing around 170 pounds, her presence was notable, yet details about the specific circumstances of her disappearance are scarce. The passing of time would stretch into decades before she was officially recognized as a missing person, a painful delay that has significantly complicated the efforts to find her. The official report of Kathleen's disappearance was not made to the Yakima Police Department until 2004, a full 25 years after her family last had contact with her. This significant lapse in time created immense challenges for the investigation from the very beginning. Memories of potential witnesses had faded, and any physical evidence that might have existed was long gone. Investigators were left with a cold case, piecing together a life from fragments of information. It is known that Kathleen was leading a transient life, which may have contributed to the delay in her family realizing she was truly missing and not just out of touch. Despite the passage of over four decades, Kathleen Paulsen's case remains an open and unsolved mystery. The Yakima Police Department continues to hold the case file, number 04-14216, but without new leads, the investigation has remained largely stagnant. While DNA from her family members is on file, the lack of any of Kathleen's personal items, such as clothing or jewelry, has left little for forensic analysis to work with. The story of Kathleen's disappearance is a somber reminder of how a combination of a transient lifestyle and a significant delay in reporting can create a nearly insurmountable challenge for law enforcement and leave a family with unanswered questions that span generations. The case serves as an overview of the difficulties faced in solving cold cases, where the trail has grown cold and the hope for answers relies on the faint possibility of a new lead emerging from the depths of time.
Jul 01, 1979
Yakima
Washington
Yakima County
No
95404
Yakima Police Department
Yakima
Washington
Yakima County
98901
200 South Third Street, Washington
5095756200
Local
Law Enforcement
04-14216
Yakima Police Department
8948
Blond/Strawberry
Blue
Blue
06/18/2026
