Seven years ago what appears to be a serial rapist/killer was in our midst. And it took a tip from a Glenoma woman to allow the cops to find and arrest the man who became known as Cowboy Mike.
Michael Braae, back in the summer of 2001, was in his early 40s when he went on his killing and raping rampage. The details are given in an exhaustive report by reporter Aimee Curl in this weeks Seattle Weekly, an alternative newspaper with statewide distribution.
Braae stalked through our area, including Baileys Lounge in Olympia, the Red Barn in Grand Mound and the Roadside Inn tavern in Glenoma. At Baileys Lounge he met Lori Jones. Dressed in his jeans jacket and cowboy hat, the two danced the night away, drinking whiskey. Braae became known by detectives for his penchant for Yukon Jack with a shot of lime juice known as a snakebite. Jones disappeared that night. Her body was eventually found hidden underneath her bed. Braae was long gone.
By the time detectives determined Braae was a suspect in the death, he had fled Western Washington with his on-again, off-again girlfriend, according to the Seattle Weekly report. He left with Marchelle Morgan. The two hung out together at the Red Barn tavern in Grand Mound. They ended up in Yakima. Eventually, Morgan would be found in a ditch with a gunshot wound to her head. That same day, Braae went back to a Yakima bar and picked up on another woman. She took him home. She woke up in the morning in her bed, with no pants on. She remembers being hit on the head and being strangled. The next day she saw Braaes photograph in the newspaper.
Braae then fled west to Glenoma. He showed up at a garage sale and ended up playing guitar for the people at that home. He went along with Glenomas Brenda Keen to the nearby Roadside Inn. They spent the night together, according to the report. Braae did not harm her and left the next morning. Again, Braaes picture was in the papers, and Keen recognized him. She also remembered his car and its license plate number. That led to Braaes arrest a few days later, following a dramatic chase that included Braae shooting at police, ramming through a barricade, jumping into the Snake River and a police dog swimming after Braae.
Braae was finally convicted this past May of raping and murdering the woman he met in the Olympia bar following a three-week trial that included Braae taking the stand. It took the jury only two and a half hours to find Braae guilty of first-degree rape and second-degree murder. Prosecutors are asking for the maximum sentence of 56 years. His sentencing is expected this week.
Braae is suspected of committing many other rapes and murders. He should have been in prison, or at least heavily supervised parole, that murderous summer of 2001 when he roamed through Southwest Washington.
Braae had been in and out of prison for years. In a hearing in late 2000 in Thurston County Superior Court, Braae was found to be in violation of his probation for his conviction of a jail escape three years earlier. The judge ordered Braae be placed on community supervision. Instead, the Department of Corrections put Braae into a program where he only had to pay fines. He should have been under tighter control, from geographical restrictions to home visits by parole officers.
Now the state is being sued by the survivors of the Olympia murder victim, the woman shot in the head and left for dead, and also the woman in Yakima who was sexually assaulted by Braae.
Back in 1998 a Clackamas County Sheriffs Office deputy requested that if Braae was to be released, that the detective would be notified 24 hours in advance. He was investigating the death of another woman in Oregon, and suspected Braae. He also said Braae had been arrested or investigated three times in rape cases that never made it to trial.
Two lessons are clear. Our law and justice system needs to keep such dangerous criminals as Braae in jail or in the highest level of supervision possible. And when you meet a captivating stranger such as Cowboy Mike in a local watering hole, remember that you really dont know that person, just his charm.
