The Washington State Patrol’s missing person’s unit has debuted two trailers bearing two pictures of Misty Copsey. One shows the 14-year-old girl she was when she disappeared outside the Puyallup fair more than 26 years ago. The other, a computer estimate of what she may look like today at nearly 40 years old.
Space on the trailers was donated by Sumner based Kam-Way Trucking. The pictures are part of a program to get images of missing children in front of as many people as possible.
“And we hope that getting Misty’s picture out there will generate useful tips to the investigating agency to help bring some resolution to Misty’s case,” said Carri Gordon with the WSP’s missing persons unit.
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Copsey's mother Diana Smith was there as the trailers were shown to the public for the first time. After all this time Smith is resigned to the belief her daughter is no longer alive, but hopes someone knows what happened to her.
“And if they can grow a heart, maybe in their old age they get softer, they can see a picture of her and maybe get ahold of the police or me,” Smith said.
Recent arrests of suspects in the murder of two girls in Tacoma have raised some hope that even a disappearance from 1992 can still be solved. DNA connected Gary Washburn to the 1986 murder of Jennifer Bastian. He pleaded guilty in January of this year. Gary Hartman faces trial in two weeks in the rape and murder of Michella Welch, who was found murdered several months before Bastian.
Smith says even with those arrests, she has little hope whoever took her daughter will face justice.
“It seems like all the forensic evidence in Misty’s case has led to nowhere,” Smith said.
The News Tribune
