It has been one year since Darek Darewski was shot and left to die on a freezing Harvard Ave sidewalk in the only Capitol Hill homicide recorded in 2012. Despite murky video evidence, Seattle Police homicide detectives have been unable to crack the case.

The 49-year-old Darewski was a native of Poland and a sometimes Alaska fisherman. He was shot to death behind Seattle Central late on the night of January 17th just two weeks after serving a single day in jail following a guilty plea in a 2010 harassment case.

His last known address at the time of that November 2010 incident was a low-income housing facility in Pioneer Square. Court documents showed he also carried an Alaska driver’s license.

Following the murder, a friend who asked not to be identified contacted CHS to say he was upset that our reporting on Darewski painted an inaccurate picture of a man who had an unfortunate run-in with the law but was looking forward to getting his life back on track following two years of probation that had prevented him from returning to work on an Alaskan fishing boat. That friend told us Darewski was waiting for a job in Alaska and was ready to head north with his probation behind him.

The scene as investigators worked to gather evidence in January 2012 (Image: CHS)

Despite murky surveillance video showing what is believed to be the suspect’s vehicle and the muzzle flash from the shot that killed Darewski, no arrests have been made in the case.

“The shooting happened after the campus had closed for snow,” a Seattle Central official told CHS in the weeks following the killing. “There was a lone gunman, who left the area in a vehicle. We were able to provide SPD with a copy of the surveillance video that we had.” The official said Darewski had been a student at the school but was not attending classes at the time.

Darewski’s murder added to what began as an extremely deadly year in Seattle with 22 homicides recorded in the first six months of 2012. By the end of the year, the city recorded 26 murders — still above 2011’s tally of 21 — but a welcomed cooling off of the ugly pace set early on. Crime in general across the city leapt in the first six months of the year, according to FBI statistics. CHS reported that full-year totals for Capitol Hill appear to have also trended higher.

The 2012 murder on Harvard Ave joins a small list of unsolved homicides around the Hill. Since 2009, we’ve reported on three such mysteries including Darewski’s.

We are told Darewski was buried in his native Poland but were not able to confirm. This email from a friend shed a little light but, you’ll note, she was looking for answers about what happened to him, too.

Darek was buried in his hometown in Poland.We, his firiends there, had not heard about him since he left Poland in the hardest time in our country in 80s – SOLIDARNOŚĆ fighting for our rights. He was a mistery.For all of us his death is very sad. I do not know anything about his life in the last thirty years, but I can tell he was a loyal and helpful friend when we were at school and college in Wrocław.We all here believe that the American Police can find who killed Darek. If you have any info about the case please let me know.