The Tube Sock Killer

Serial Killer

The Tube Sock Killer

Overview

The name "Tube Sock Killer" refers to an unidentified person suspected of committing a series of unsolved killings in the isolated forests of western Washington during 1985. The crimes are more formally known as the Mineral, Washington murders or the Tube Sock Killings. They involved two couples who disappeared while visiting wooded recreational areas near Mineral, Elbe, Tule Lake and the Nisqually River in Pierce and Lewis counties. The unusual signature connecting the cases was the discovery of white tube socks tied around the necks of the two female victims. Both women had been separated from their male companions, violently killed and abandoned in remote locations. The similarities led investigators to consider the possibility that a serial killer had targeted couples camping or traveling in the region. No person has ever been convicted of the murders, and it has never been conclusively established that all four deaths were committed by the same offender.

The Murders of Stephen Harkins and Ruth Cooper

On August 10, 1985, 27-year-old Stephen Alexander Harkins and his 42-year-old girlfriend, Ruth Eleanor Cooper, left their home in Tacoma for a weekend camping trip near Tule Lake in southern Pierce County. The couple enjoyed camping and planned to return in time for work at the vocational school they attended. They brought their dog with them. When Stephen and Ruth failed to appear at school the following Monday, their families reported them missing. On August 14, hikers discovered Stephen's body at a remote campsite. He was still inside his sleeping bag and had been shot in the head with a small-caliber firearm. The circumstances suggested that he may have been attacked while asleep or before he had an opportunity to defend himself. The couple's dog was found nearby and had also been shot to death. Ruth was nowhere in the immediate area. Her disappearance prompted an extensive search, but weeks passed without any sign of her. On October 26, 1985, Ruth's skull was discovered near the dead end of Eighth Avenue South in the Harts Lake area, approximately a mile and a half from the campsite where Stephen had been found. Searchers recovered the remainder of her body and her purse two days later, roughly 50 feet from the location of the skull. A tube sock had been tied around Ruth's neck. Reports concerning her autopsy described her death as the result of homicidal violence, with later accounts identifying a gunshot wound to the abdomen as the fatal injury. The separation of her remains was believed to have resulted from decomposition and animal activity rather than deliberate dismemberment. ...

Confirmed Victims: (4)

Steven Harkins Age: (27), Date of Death: August 10, 1985

'Mommy was in the trees': The Tube Sock Killings | by Tim Gruver