Ruth Cooper, 42, and her boyfriend Steven Harkins, 27, left Tacoma on August 10, 1985, for a weekend camping trip to Tule Lake in Pierce County, Washington. When neither returned to work the following Monday their families reported them missing. On August 14 hikers found Harkins inside his sleeping bag at a remote campsite, shot in the head, and the couple’s dog also shot. Ruth Cooper was not at the scene and was believed to have been abducted.

Cooper’s remains were discovered on October 26, 1985, near Harts Lake about a mile and a half from where Harkins was found; the rest of her remains and her purse were located two days later 50 feet away. The autopsy recorded homicidal violence from a gunshot wound to the abdomen, and a tube sock had been tied around her neck.

No arrests have been made. Investigators linked these killings to other Pierce County slayings that year, called the Tube Sock Killings, after another murder victim was also found with a tube sock around her neck. Does anyone have information about Ruth’s movements that August or about people who might have been in the Tule Lake area?