On October 7, 1999, 31-year-old Washington State Patrol Trooper James Saunders was shot multiple times and killed while conducting a traffic stop on a green pickup truck just off Highway 395 in Pasco, Washington. Saunders radioed a description of the truck and its plate; less than a minute later a citizen used the trooper’s radio to report that Saunders had been shot. He died at the scene; he had served nearly nine years as a trooper.

Investigators identified Nicolas Solorio Vasquez as the primary suspect and launched a 26-hour manhunt. The abandoned pickup was recovered with both Saunders’ and Vasquez’s fingerprints on it. Vasquez, a convicted felon who had been deported three times and was out on bail for a drug charge, was captured the following evening after attempting to flee with another person.

Vasquez later pleaded guilty to aggravated first-degree murder, which spared the death penalty; he was sentenced to life in prison without parole and is serving that sentence at Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla. Trooper Saunders was survived by his wife, Billie, who was pregnant when he died, and their 2-year-old daughter; a son was born four months after the murder and named in his honor.

Did anyone in the Pasco area in October 1999 witness the stop or the manhunt and still have information to add?