Man arrested in 1995 slayings of 2 women

EVERETT, Wash. — Snohomish County detectives arrested on Thursday a 44-year-old man in the 1995 slayings of two women.

Danny Ross Giles, a registered sex offender, is expected to be charged with one count of first-degree murder and one count of first-degree murder with a deadly weapon.

Giles, who is an inmate in the Special Commitment Center on McNeil Island, has been a suspect for more than two years in the slayings of Tracey Brazzel and Patti Berry.

Giles is expected to be booked into the Snohomish County Jail later Thursday after being transferred from McNeil Island.

He will be held on $4 million bail.

Both Berry's and Brazzel’s family have been notified of the arrest.

Brazzel was 22 years old when on May 26, 1995, she was last seen leaving a bar in south Everett.  Her body was never found and she is presumed dead.

Berry was a 26-year-old mother of a toddler when she was reported missing July 31, 1995.  Her body was found about a week later in a wooded area near the Everett Mall. Police said she died from multiple stab wounds.

Both Berry and Brazzel disappeared within blocks of each other.  Because of the similarity between the victims, locations and crimes, detectives believed they were committed by the same person.

At the time, detectives collected evidence from various locations and conducted an extensive investigation into Brazzel’s disappearance and Berry’s slaying. They followed leads and interviewed several persons of interest, but were not able to successfully identify a suspect in either case, police said.

They sent collected evidence, including DNA samples, to the Washington State Crime Lab.

In 2008, Snohomish County detectives were alerted by the crime lab that the DNA samples from the case matched the DNA profile of prison inmate Giles.  Giles became a suspect in Berry’s murder.

In 2010, Giles was also linked to Brazzel’s disappearance by DNA evidence that had been collected from her home.  For the last few years, detectives have been re-examining the evidence, taking new witness statements, and following up on leads to build their case and solve the crimes, police said.

“Even though it took 17 years, through the dedication and hard work of our detectives, we finally got our man,” said Snohomish Sheriff’s Office Chief Kevin Prentiss, who has been involved in the investigation since 1995.

KIRO