A Tacoma home where a search has been underway as part of a cold-case investigation was considered a base for criminal activity in the early 2000s, court records show.
The search was underway in the 3200 block of South Gunnison Street on Monday after detectives received a tip regarding an unsolved case, police said. Detectives have been investigating the tip for the past couple months, Tacoma Police Department spokesperson Shelbie Boyd told The News Tribune.
Investigators were seen digging through the backyard of the home on Monday.
Boyd said she could not say which specific cold case prompted the investigation. There are 147 unsolved homicides in TPD’s cold-case files and 20 missing-person cases with strong possibility of homicide, including that of Teekah Lewis, a 2-year-old girl who went missing from a bowling alley in that general area of the city in 1999.
The investigation continued Tuesday at the home, she said. The current occupants of the home are not related to the case in any way.
Criminal activity at Gunnison home
The home was once used as a place for methamphetamine users to buy their drugs and get rid of stolen property, according to a 2003 search warrant obtained by The News Tribune.
An investigation into the home began after a woman reported her 1986 Toyota truck was stolen from a grocery store at South 19th Street on May 10, 2003. Her truck was later found after a man, who was driving it, left the vehicle behind to steal someone’s dirt bike, documents show. The dirt bike owner reported the incident and truck to police.
The truck’s owner told police that empty of boxes of pseudoephedrine and lithium boxes were in the vehicle, but that they did not belong to her, documents show. Detectives believed the items were used to make methamphetamine.
Documents show a pay stub was also found that belonged to another person whose vehicle was stolen. The stolen-vehicle suspect previously admitted to detectives that he got the car from the owner of the Gunnison Street home. A telephone bill and Washington license plate in the truck also tracked back to the homeowner, documents show.
The previous owner reportedly received the house through his father’s will, documents show. The TPD drug unit at the time was aware of complaints that the home was used as a drug house.
Documents show that methamphetamine users would typically steal cars for valuable items in them. They would also use the stolen vehicle to go to drug locations, documents show.
Through records, detectives determined that 26 stolen vehicles had been recovered in the area of the Gunnison Street home within the past 12 months, documents show.
A witness who was familiar with the home told detectives that the house contained stolen items such as car stereos and speakers, documents show. There were also stolen car parts in the backyard, which a detective noted when they went by the home.
Another witness told detectives the previous year that car thieves would get orders from people at the home on what type of vehicles to steal, documents show.
The warrant shows that evidence investigators were looking for included:
Records, notes, book and other papers related to the transportation, ordering, purchase and distribution of stolen property
Information such as addresses or telephone numbers of any co-conspirators
Any firearms and munitions
Stolen property belonging to the victims
Property within that was determined to be stolen
Equipment used for the theft and/or dismantling of vehicles. This includes rings of car keys, lock picks, lock-out kits, pry bars and screwdrivers.
Online real estate records show the home was sold in March 2004. The home’s most recent sale was in July 2015.