Less Than Half of Yakima County's Homicides Since 2017 Have Been Solved

Forty-nine people have been killed in homicides in Yakima County since the beginning of 2017, with 28 victims last year and 21 this year.

Of those deaths, local authorities have cleared 20 of the cases — either through making an arrest, not pursuing charges or otherwise solving the case. That's an average clearance rate of about 41 percent.

Clearance rates can fluctuate by year and depend on many factors, including luck, said Yakima police Capt. Jay Seely, who heads the department's detectives division.

Nearly half of last year's homicides and more than half of this year's in the county happened in the city of Yakima.

Last year, Yakima County had a murder rate of 11.2 per 100,000 residents, which is nearly triple the average for a county of its size, according to the most recent FBI's Uniform Crime Report. Kitsap, Whatcom and Thurston counties ­— similar sized counties in Washington — had 3.8, 1.8 and 2.9 homicides per 100,000 residents, respectively.

The homicide rate is higher in the city of Yakima, at 13.9 per 100,000 residents. That rate is nearly four times the average for similar size cities. Other cities in the state of comparable size report lower homicide rates, with 2.9 per 100,000 in Renton and 5.5 in Kent, respectively.

Because police often open a case one year and make arrests in subsequent years, clearance rates do not necessarily reflect how many of a specific year's cases are resolved by police. Rather, it shows how many cases were solved in a given year.

Yakima Police Department's homicide clearance rates have fluctuated in recent years, both in relation to previous years and in comparison to statewide rates, according to statistics from the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs.

Last year, Yakima police had the lowest clearance rate they've seen in years — making just three arrests in 2017 for the year's 13 homicides, a 23 percent clearance rate. That's less than half the statewide clearance rate of 55 percent for the year.

However, this year Yakima police are seeing one of their highest clearance rates. Of the 13 homicides in Yakima in 2018, police have made arrests or otherwise cleared eight, along with making two additional arrests in 2017 homicide cases. That's a clearance rate of 77 percent this year.

So what's different this year that's leading to more homicide clearances?

"It's hard to pinpoint one thing that we're doing or one thing that criminals are doing that's making it easier," Seely said.

Seely said it comes down to a string of good luck this year to rival the bad luck last year, which gave police some difficult cases.

"Part of the challenge is that several of the cases last year were gang-related," he explained. "That's why we're finding it difficult to get witnesses to come forward or talk to us."

Seven of the city's 13 homicides in 2017 were considered to be gang-related. Three, involving the deaths of Kabin Smith, Emilio Phelan and Napoleon Prado, have been cleared. Four remain unsolved, the deaths of Eddie Abrams, Jared Scroggins, Cuahutemoc Salamanca, and Raymond-Moreno Hernandez.

Although an exact number of gang-related homicides this year is unavailable, there seem to be fewer. Seely said that is a possible factor in the higher clearance rate through the first eight months of the year.

Police also have made progress this year in 2017 cases. Seely said police have "promising leads" in two additional homicide cases and are hoping to have resolution within a couple of months.

Out of the 49 homicides, 23 were outside Yakima's police jurisdiction. Seven were in the jurisdiction of the Yakima County Sheriff's Office, which has cleared five.

Sunnyside police had four homicides, three of which remain under investigation with no arrests made. The Sept. 27, 2017, shooting death of Nora Alcaraz-Madrigal, 41, has been cleared. Police say she was shot by her ex-husband, Christian Parra, who then shot himself to death.

Toppenish police had two homicides, neither of which have been cleared. Selah and Union Gap police had one each, which were cleared.

The FBI, which investigates homicides on the Yakama Nation and those involving tribal members, had eight, two of which have been cleared.