Tanya Frazier

A 14 year old is found dead by a man walking his dog
In the summer of 1994, Tanya Marie Frazier, a sweet and loving 14-year-old White girl, was eagerly anticipating the start of high school. Having just graduated from Washington Middle School in Seattle, she was a responsible and determined teenager who spent her time volunteering and working. Her mother, Theresa Frazier, remembers her as a happy kid who always smiled and gave great hugs. Tanya was an active member of her church, St. Clement's Episcopal in the Mount Baker neighborhood, and worked part-time at the Chicken Soup Brigade, an organization providing meals to people in need. She had enrolled in summer school at Meany Middle School for the sole purpose of being eligible for her job, hoping to earn money for a pager and CDs. Tanya was also incredibly close with her younger sister, Teara.

On the morning of Monday, July 18, 1994, Tanya left her summer class at Meany Middle School. Classmates later told police they saw her talking to an unknown man near the school at 21st Avenue and East Thomas Street. She was on her way to her job at a thrift shop run by the Chicken Soup Brigade but never arrived. When Tanya didn't come home, her family knew something was terribly wrong, as it was completely out of character for her. Her mother reported her missing, but she felt police initially dismissed her concerns, suggesting Tanya was a runaway.

The family's worst fears were confirmed five days later, on July 23. A man walking his dog discovered Tanya's partially clothed body in a ravine in the 2200 block of East Highland Drive in the affluent Capitol Hill neighborhood, just blocks from where she was last seen. An autopsy revealed she had been sexually assaulted and had died from multiple sharp-force injuries to her head and neck. Investigators believed she was killed at another location and her body was moved to the ravine. Months later, some of her personal belongings were found near Longfellow Creek in West Seattle.

For more than three decades, Tanya’s murder remained unsolved, a source of profound and enduring pain for her family and a haunting mystery for the Seattle community. The Frazier family worked with private investigator Rose Winquist, who began looking into the case the week Tanya disappeared and never gave up. Multiple generations of Seattle Police detectives also continued to work the case, refusing to let it go cold. DNA evidence was collected from the scene, but for years, technology wasn't advanced enough to yield a definitive match.

In November 2025, a breakthrough finally came. The Seattle Police Department announced that advancements in forensic DNA technology had led to an arrest. The Washington State Patrol Crime Lab reported a CODIS database match, linking 57-year-old Mark Anthony Russ to DNA evidence recovered from Tanya’s body during the autopsy. Russ, a Tukwila man with an extensive criminal history including convictions for robbery, burglary, assault, and attempted rape, was arrested on November 4, 2025. In 1994, his mother lived across the street from Meany Middle School, where Tanya was last seen. Russ had previously been sentenced to life in prison under the state's "three strikes" law but was resentenced and released in 2021 following legislative reforms.

The arrest brought a complex wave of emotions for Tanya’s family. "It was like a weight was taken off my shoulders to put a face with the person that did it," her mother, Theresa, said. "But it doesn't bring her back." Her sister Teara added, "She's never been forgotten." Seattle Police Detective Rolf Norton acknowledged the family's long wait for answers, stating, "Today is not a day for celebration; it’s a day to reflect on Tanya Frazier and her surviving family as they continue to grieve."

Mark Anthony Russ was charged with premeditated first-degree murder with sexual motivation and a deadly weapon enhancement. He pleaded not guilty in court in November 2025. Following a competency evaluation, a judge ruled in August 2026 that Russ was competent to stand trial. As of that month, he was being held without bail at the King County Jail, awaiting trial. For Tanya's family, the legal process is the next step in a journey of more than 30 years. "We never gave up," said private investigator Rose Winquist. "We knew this day would come."