Account
Apr 15, 2010
May 31, 2023
Rebecca
West
44
12
55 inches
95 lbs
White / Caucasian
Female
On October 21, 1991, in Spokane, Washington, 12-year-old Rebecca West and her 11-year-old friend, Iryll "Nicki" Wood, asked for money to buy snacks from a convenience store in their neighborhood. The two girls, who were classmates, were last seen together at a service station that day but never returned home. Their families reported them missing, launching a search that would soon take a devastating turn. Just a couple of hours after they were reported missing, searchers discovered the burned body of Nicki Wood under a pile of pine needles in a remote area north of Spokane known as "Seven Mile," near Riverside State Park. She had been strangled. Despite an extensive search of the area, there was no sign of Rebecca West at the scene, and her whereabouts remained unknown. The investigation quickly focused on a man named Michael W. Tarbert, who lived in a cabin near where Nicki's body was found. Tarbert was an acquaintance of Nicki's mother and initially told police he had given the two girls a ride home from a store on the day they vanished, claiming he dropped them off safely. However, the evidence began to point in his direction. Bloodhounds tracked the scents of both girls to his cabin and traced Tarbert's scent from his cabin to the location where Nicki's body was discovered. Witnesses also reported seeing Rebecca and Nicki getting into Tarbert's car after buying candy. While in prison for an unrelated rape and theft conviction from 1992, two inmates came forward stating that Tarbert had admitted to killing the girls while under the influence of drugs. Years after the girls' disappearance, the case against Tarbert grew stronger. In January 1996, Spokane County's prosecutor formally charged him with the murders of both Rebecca and Nicki. The case was built on circumstantial evidence, including the bloodhound tracking and the inmates' testimonies. Later, DNA technology, which was not available in 1991, showed that blood found on Tarbert's pants likely belonged to Nicki Wood. Four days before his trial was scheduled to begin in May 1998, Michael Tarbert entered a no-contest plea to two counts of first-degree manslaughter, a deal he took to avoid a potential life sentence from a first-degree murder conviction. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison but maintained his innocence, claiming he only accepted the plea deal to avoid the harsher sentence. Tarbert was released from prison in August 2022. Spokane County Sheriff's detectives met with him as his health failed, hoping he would finally reveal the location of Rebecca's body, but no revelation came. Michael Tarbert died in November 2022, taking with him any knowledge of where Rebecca could be found. The tragic disappearance of Rebecca West and the murder of Nicki Wood left a lasting scar on the Spokane community, prompting the creation of neighborhood police substations to improve safety. Rebecca's body has never been recovered, leaving her family without answers and the case without complete closure.
Oct 21, 1991
Spokane
Washington
Spokane County
No
30436
Spokane County Sheriff's Office
Spokane
Washington
Spokane County
99260
Marc Melville
Detective
1100 West Mallon Avenue, Washington
5094772240
County
Law Enforcement
91-83103
Spokane County Sheriff's Office
Brown
Brown
Brown
06/11/2026
