Newspaper Article Archive of
West Seattle Herald

Seattle Homicide detectives have solved a case that lay dormant as a cold case for 42 years. The suspect died in 2013 but they now know who shot and killed Scott Vanderpool on May 5, 1984, in West Seattle.

Jonah Spengenthal-Lee writing for the Seattle Police Blotter wrote:

Around 1:45 AM that morning, a motorist spotted Vanderpool lying in an alleyway in the 7700 block of 16th Avenue Southwest. Officers found Vanderpool, then 36, dead from a gunshot wound to his chest.
Police canvassed the neighborhood, but weren’t able to find any witnesses to the murder. However, police later received a call from one of Vanderpool’s relatives, who said he’d been seen the night of the murder with another man, Gary Tolliver.

Tolliver was reportedly volatile, was known to carry a gun, and ran in the same circle of methamphetamine users as Vanderpool. Detectives interviewed Tolliver in 1984, but weren’t able to gather enough evidence to arrest him.

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