A 59-year-old man is now sitting in the Pierce County Jail, booked on suspicion of first-degree murder and two counts of second-degree rape in connection with the death of a woman whose body was found along a Tacoma roadside nearly five years ago. Tacoma police arrested the man Thursday, closing in on a case that had gone unresolved since October 2021.
The woman, later identified as 30-year-old Kalyn Smith, was discovered along the side of the road in the 3100 block of East M Street on October 12, 2021, according to KOMO News. Tacoma police officers responded to the scene at about 7:33 a.m. that morning, and Tacoma Fire Department personnel confirmed the adult woman was dead, per the same report. At the time, police said the circumstances surrounding her death were unknown, and detectives along with forensic services personnel began investigating what had happened to her.
It wasn't until June 2022 that the case took a definitive turn. The Pierce County Medical Examiner's Office formally identified the woman as Kalyn Smith and ruled her cause of death was asphyxia due to compression of the neck, according to a Pierce County Medical Examiner's Office announcement. That ruling prompted Tacoma police to officially reclassify what had initially been treated as a suspicious death into a full homicide investigation, an eight-month gap that reflected how long it took to confirm how Smith died.
What Led Police to a Suspect Remains Unclear
Police have not disclosed what evidence or investigative developments led detectives to the 59-year-old man now in custody, nor have they detailed his alleged connection to Smith. The report notes that no additional information was provided about what led detectives to the suspect. That silence leaves a central question in the case — how a nearly five-year-old homicide suddenly produced an arrest — unanswered for now.
The booking charges reflect initial police suspicion rather than finalized criminal counts. Suspects booked into Pierce County Jail on investigation of violent felonies must go through formal court proceedings, where the Pierce County Prosecutor's Office reviews the evidence before filing formal charging documents, according to KING 5. Whether the suspect will ultimately face first-degree murder and rape charges, or some other combination, is now up to prosecutors.
Steep Penalties Attached to the Allegations
Under Washington law, first-degree murder is a Class A felony that carries up to life imprisonment and a $50,000 fine when committed with premeditated intent or during another felony, such as rape, according to the Washington State Legislature's criminal code. Washington has abolished the death penalty, making life imprisonment the maximum possible sentence. Second-degree rape, meanwhile, is also a Class A felony under state law, carrying up to life in prison, a $50,000 fine, and mandatory sex offender registration when committed through forcible compulsion or against a physically helpless person.
A Killing From Tacoma's Deadliest Year
Smith's death occurred during what was, at the time, the deadliest year on record for Tacoma. The city recorded 34 homicides in 2021, a four-decade high according to state police records dating back to 1980, as reported by The Chronicle. That grim record was later surpassed again the following year, underscoring how much violent crime strained the city's police resources during that stretch.
The case also illustrates the scale of unsolved violence still on the books in Tacoma. As of June, the Tacoma Police Department maintained 147 open homicide cases and 20 missing persons cases classified as cold cases, figures the department has cited to describe its ongoing backlog. Regional law enforcement agencies have increasingly leaned on advanced forensic re-testing and DNA analysis to crack open older cases, a trend cited by KING 5 in connection with the 2024 arrest made in the decades-old murder of Jennifer Bastian. It is not known whether similar forensic advances played any role in Smith's case, since Tacoma police have not detailed what brought investigators to their current suspect.
Tacoma's police department currently employs more than 350 commissioned officers serving a city of roughly 222,000 residents, according to city data, resources spread across patrol duties and specialized investigative units tasked with working through cases like Smith's. For now, the arrest marks a significant step forward in a case that sat unresolved for nearly five years, even as the full circumstances behind the break remain under wraps.
