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Tips sought in unsolved 2007 murder of woman found dead in Washington quarry

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – Thurston County law enforcement officials are asking for the public’s help in solving the murder of a woman found dead at a quarry in Rochester, Washington in 2007.

The last time 37-year-old Karen Bodine was seen alive was in January 2007 after a resident in a Lacey, Washington neighborhood reported seeing her walking the streets without a coat and called police out of concern, according to “Murder in the Rain” podcast host Emily Rowney.

After Bodine met with police and told them she was fine, Rowney said, police left the scene.

“Karen had been seeing a man whom she lived with, but they had recently been in a rather large fight which resulted in an order of protection against her. Because of that, she had to leave her home and was staying with a friend,” Rowney said.

Rowney says that friend had others staying with her who were known to “be involved with” drugs. One witness in the home reported seeing Bodine there at 3 a.m. January 22, the last reported time she was seen alive.

Bodine’s body was discovered at the entrance to an old quarry on Little Rock Road in Rochester hours later, about 30 miles from where she was staying, Rowney said.

Officials determined she was strangled to death with a ligature.               

Rowney noted “a local stepped forward and claimed to have seen a brown early 1980s Datson with a light-colored camper shell parked at the gravel road entrance that led to the location,” about an hour before Bodine’s body was found.

Anyone with information about the case is asked to contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office at 360-786-5500.