The Tube Sock Killings

The Mineral, Washington murders, also known as "the Tube Sock Killings".

A series of unsolved murders that occurred in remote areas of Lewis and Pierce County, Washington, near the remote community of Mineral, Washington, in 1985.

Harkins and Cooper

August 10, 1985, Steven Harkins, 27, and his girlfriend, Ruth Cooper, 42, left their Tacoma, Washington home for a weekend camping trip at Tule Lake in Yelm, Pierce County.

 When the two did not return to their jobs the following Monday, their families reported them missing.

Four days later, hikers passing through Pierce County found Harkins' body near a remote campsite. 

He had been shot in the head.

His body was still in a sleeping bag.

This suggested he had been murdered while sleeping.

 Nearby, searchers also found Harkins' and Cooper's pet dog, who had been shot to death as well.

At the time, law enforcement suspected that the case may have been connected to the murders of Edward Smith and Kimberly Diane La Vine.

 They were a couple from Kent, Washington who were abducted, murdered, and disposed of in a gravel pit near the Columbia River in March 1985.

October 26, a skull was found at the dead end near Harts Lake, about 1.5 miles from where Harkins' body was found.

 Dental records confirmed the skull belonged to Cooper.

Two days later, her body and her purse were also recovered from the area, fifty feet from where her skull had been found.

 A tube sock had been tied around her neck.

According to the autopsy, she had died of "homicidal violence".

Riemer and Robertson

Over a month after the discovery of Ruth Cooper, on December 12, 1985, Mike Riemer, 36, his girlfriend, Diana Robertson, 21, and their daughter, Crystal Louise Robertson, age 2, traveled from their Tacoma home to Pierce County.

They planned to find a Christmas tree near the Nisqually River.

Riemer, an animal trapper, also planned to check on traps he had set in the area.

Later that evening, customers at a Kmart store thirty miles north found the couple's daughter, Crystal, standing outside the store entrance.

Crystal was placed in temporary foster care until her maternal grandmother saw her photograph on a local news broadcast two days later.

When asked where her mother was, the two-year-old told her grandmother that her "Mommy was in the trees."

Police searched the area both on foot and by air, looking for evidence of Riemer's red 1982 Plymouth pickup truck to no avail.

On February 18, 1986, the body of Diana Robertson was discovered half-buried in snow by a motorist near a logging road off of Washington State Route 7 in Mineral.

Bloodhounds scoured the area in the following days.

Six inches of snowfall impeded the search.

Riemer's pickup truck was found near Robertson's body.

In the truck, police discovered a note on the dashboard that read "I love you, Diana." 

It was written on a manila envelope.

Robertson's mother claimed the handwriting was that of Riemer.

Bloodstains were also found on the seat of the truck.

An autopsy revealed that Diana Robertson had been stabbed seventeen times.

She was also found with a tube sock tied around her neck, as that of Ruth Cooper.

Due to Riemer's disappearance, investigators believed he may have been responsible for Robertson's murder.

That he had abandoned his daughter at the Kmart store and then subsequently fled.

Police theorized that Riemer may have been responsible for Harkins' and Cooper's murders as well.

In February 1986, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer published an article revealing that Riemer had been charged with domestic assault against Robertson on October 19, 1985.

The couple had reconciled by December, the month in which they disappeared.

DEVELOPMENT 

On March 26, 2011, hikers discovered a partial human skull later determined to be that of Mike Riemer. 

It was found in an area within a mile of where Robertson's body had been discovered in 1986.

After recovery of the skull, Lewis County investigators stated that they believed Riemer could have been a possible victim of homicide as well, though his cause of death could not be determined.

Based on the condition of the skull, authorities were able to rule out a gunshot wound to the head.

Possible Related Murder

Edward Smith and Kimberly Dianne LaVine

On Saturday, March 9, 1985, the couple wanted to get away for the weekend.

Their plan was to travel three hours away to Grant County, Washington on I-90 and explore the beautiful surroundings and well-known tourist landmarks in the area. 

The following afternoon, the deceased body of Edward Smith was found in a gravel pit near the Wanapum Dam.

Edward's wallet and any form of identification were absent. 

His hands had been bound behind his back and he had been killed by having his throat slashed. 

Kimberly was nowhere to be found. 

March 11, 1985, Edward and Kimberly's employers called the Kings County Sheriff's Department when they didn't arrive to work that morning or pick up their phone after several attempts of contact.

A missing person(s) investigation ensued.

Nothing pivotal sprouted up until two weeks later when Edward and Kimberly's vehicle was found abandoned ten miles away from where his body was located. 

The car and body of Edward matched descriptions given.

The authorities were on high alert to locate Kimberly with not a lot of optimism.

They did manage to obtain a single fingerprint on the vehicle that didn't belong to the couple.

August of 1985, Kimberly's skeletal remains were discovered two miles away from where her fiance Edward was found.

In 1989, the single fingerprint found on Edward's car was matched with a truck driver named Billy Ray Ballard Jr. 

He had been serving time on a separate charge in Wyoming State Penitentiary. 

With the fingerprint belonging to Ray, he was extradited to Washington State and plead guilty to the murder of Edward Smith and Kimberly LaVine.

I couldn't find anywhere anything stating the police asked Edward about the other murders.

Who do you think did it?

Do you think that Billy Ray Committed all the murders?

Or perhaps it was an unknown serial killer that did the others? 

Or was Mike Riemer that did he other murders all along and he killed himself or succumbed to the elements?