Hazel Ann Gelnett, 67, was found murdered on May 8, 1988, in a wooded area about 100 feet off U.S. Highway 2, east of Gold Bar, Washington. A man gathering ferns discovered her body. She had been gagged, her hands bound behind her back, and the cause of death was determined to be strangulation.

Originally from Pennsylvania, Hazel had been living a transient lifestyle after reportedly being swindled out of her savings. She was known to hitchhike along the I-5 corridor and sometimes used the names Mary or Jennifer James. It took investigators more than a year to identify her through Alaska fingerprint records; her family in Pennsylvania learned of her fate only later.

No arrests have been made and the case remains unsolved. Investigators noted the body’s proximity to the highway and suggested the killer might have been a long-haul trucker; the case has been included in the state’s cold-case playing cards to generate leads. Does anyone who traveled or worked along U.S. Highway 2 or I-5 in 1988 remember anything that could help identify Hazel’s killer?