Crystal Hawkins was 27 when she was found gravely injured near the main entrance of St. Francis Hospital in Federal Way, Washington, shortly before 4 a.m. on October 25, 2017. An employee arriving for work discovered her unconscious and bleeding from a severe head wound; she was taken into the hospital but pronounced dead after a CT scan showed a gunshot to the head. Witnesses reported a vehicle speeding away moments before she was found.

Hawkins had left her Renton home, where she lived with her mother, between 1 and 3 a.m. in her mother’s Volvo, saying she was going to visit a friend at a nearby apartment complex. Hours later the Volvo was found abandoned at a mobile home park in Kent with a large amount of blood and a single spent bullet casing inside, consistent with a violent struggle.

Detectives identified a 41-year-old ex-boyfriend, Richard Nelson, as the prime suspect; prosecutors say Nelson lured Hawkins using a fake name, shot her in the back of the head, drove her to the hospital and left her outside before fleeing. In May 2020 Nelson was charged with second-degree murder; his arraignment was set for June 1, 2020.

Did anyone see Crystal that night or know why she went to that apartment complex?