The King County Medical Examiner has determined the cause in the investigation of a man found dead “with obvious signs of trauma” in the Madison Park neighborhood in May but mystery still surrounds the Seattle Police Department homicide case.
According to the updated report released by the examiner’s office last week, the victim died of “blunt force craniocervical trauma” but medical investigators have not been able to determine a manner of death. Continue reading
The investigation of a man found dead two weeks ago in a Madison Park parking lot with what police described as “obvious signs of trauma” is in the hands of medical experts.
The Seattle Police Department opened a homicide investigation after the May 24th discovery of 70-year-old James Edward O’Hara dead in a parking garage along an alley behind commercial buildings in Madison Park.
In the days following, the King County Medical Examiner identified the victim and said the 70-year-old had sometime on Saturday, the day before he was found. Investigators were not able to immediately determine a manner and cause of death.
Just over two weeks since his body was discovered, SPD says its investigation continues as detectives await key findings from the medical investigation. A department spokesperson Tuesday said they had no updates in the case.
A spokesperson for the Medical Examiner’s office declined to comment on the specifics of the O’Hara case but said cases are typically classified as “pending” while additional investigation is conducted. Continue reading
Detectives are investigating a homicide after a man was found dead Sunday evening “with obvious signs of trauma” along an alley behind commercial buildings in Madison Park.
The Seattle Police Department announced the investigation Tuesday afternoon saying circumstances leading up to the death are under investigation and that there is no suspect description available at this time.
According to SPD, police were called to a report of a person down inside a parking lot in the 4000 block of E Madison just after 5 PM Sunday. “There, officers found a man with obvious signs of trauma,” SPD reports. The Seattle Fire Department pronounced the victim deceased at the scene.
He has not yet been publicly identified pending completion of the medical examiner’s investigation.
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(Image: Madison Park Cooperative Preschool)
The Madison Park Cooperative Preschool has put the Madison Beach Park Bathhouse to good use since the 1970s. The city is ready to sign off on a new 10-year contract to keep the school part of the park.
An ordinance authorizing the deal is slated to come before the Seattle City Council’s Parks and City Light Committee Wednesday afternoon:
The proposed Council Bill authorizes the Superintendent of Seattle Parks and Recreation (SPR) to execute for and on behalf of SPR a ten-year Operations and Use Contract with The Madison Park Cooperative Preschool (MPCP) for the Madison Beach Park Bathhouse to provide early childhood educational programming including preschool for infants through five years of age, as well as family and community events. SPR has maintained a long partnership with MPCP, who have maintained the contract for this facility since the 1970s.
The bidding process for the contract opened in 2024. The city says the preschool was the only bidder to respond.
The city says the deal comes in at $274,800 — “paid in both cash and public benefits.”
Agreed public benefits focused on community engagement include seasonal community events, working with the Friends of Madison Park to provide space for meetings and their events, parent education opportunities, and supply drives that provide donated supplies to underserved communities.
A portion of public benefits adopted by MPCP over the next ten years will also include improvements to the bathhouse.
Madison Park Cooperative Preschool began in 1970 as a small baby-sitting cooperative founded by neighborhood parents. From its start, the co-op operated out of the historic Madison Park Bathhouse, where E Madison meets the shores of Lake Washington.
A drone view of the affordable Acer House development at 23rd and Cherry (Image: @benmaritz)
Hollingsworth isn’t on the ballot this week — but her brother in-law Girmay Zahilay is as he waits for the first counts in the race for the King County Executive race (Image: Joy Hollingsworth via Facebook)
As Seattle voters consider new leaders this week, the current Seattle City Council is busy finalizing next year’s City Hall spending plan including proposals from District 3 representative Joy Hollingsworth.
The council’s proposed tweaks, and additions reflect changing economic forecasts and neighborhood by neighborhood adjustments to Mayor Bruce Harrell’s 2026 budget proposal that hinges on continued strong public safety spending while preserving affordable housing, homelessness, and addiction programs through new revenue sources including the COVID-era JumpStart tax and hopes on this week’s General Election vote on overhauling the city’s B&O tax system.
The council’s cut on the proposed amendments will come Wednesday when budget chair Dan Strauss releases his balancing package followed by a day of public comment Thursday in front of the council’s Select Budget Committee.
Now in her second budget session since her 2023 election victory, D3’s Hollingsworth brought 20 proposed changes for the 2026 budget to the table.
Some of her 2026 proposals would address festering issues in D3. Continue reading
Last fall’s memorial and march for Dalton
Seattle officials, loved ones, and neighbors will gather in Madison Park Wednesday night to remember Ruth Dalton and celebrate a new plaque honoring her installed overlooking the beach of Lake Washington.
“Join us in remembering Ruth Dalton and her little Prince on the one-year anniversary of their senseless and violent murders,” organizers say. “We are asking the community she loved so dearly to come together to honor her legacy of love and kindness.”
“Family, friends and city officials will talk about the loss, update on the case and what has been done to make our communities safer,” according to neighborhood pub McGilvra’s. Continue reading
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Seattle Police are looking for a trio of bandits who targeted a man for his $45,000 Rolex wristwatch as he pulled into the driveway of a Madison Park home in a Tuesday afternoon gunpoint robbery.
SPD reports the victim told officers the armed suspects were waiting in a vehicle as he arrived around 3:22 PM and rushed toward him, grabbing the expensive watch, and then fleeing the scene.
According to East Precinct radio updates, a male and female armed suspect wearing hoodies and ski masks perpetrated the crime while a third suspect waited in the getaway vehicle. Continue reading
Police were on the hunt for an unusual bank robbery suspect after a bandit handed tellers a note and walked out of the Homestreet Bank in Seattle’s tony Madison Park neighborhood with $2,000 in cash last Tuesday afternoon.
The Seattle Police Department says witnesses reported the suspect was a woman. Bank employees say she fled on foot — and possibly ditched her wig — as she carried a beige tote stuffed with loot and disappeared into the neighborhood just before 1:30 PM Tuesday in the 4000 block of E Madison.
According to FBI statistics, the Madison Park suspect is a rarity. Only about 6 to 7% of bank robbery suspects are female, according to the feds. Continue reading
Hollingworth in front of the Leschi CC (Image: CHS)
With reporting by Matt Dowell
District 3 representative Joy Hollingsworth says the process to establish an updated comprehensive growth plan in Seattle is not being put on hold while environmental appeals by neighborhood groups opposed to the city’s proposals play out.
“The comp plan is still moving forward,” Hollingsworth told CHS last week following her office’s announcement of an updated schedule of meetings of the Select Committee on the Comprehensive Plan she chairs and Hollingsworth’s latest meeting with a D3 community group as she hopes to calm concerns about changes to the city’s zoning that could make way for the development of more multifamily housing in more areas of the city.
“We’re still making progress, we’re still having conversations,” Hollingsworth said.
The announcement of the six-meeting series of committee sessions through May 21st may come as a small relief to proponents of the growth plan changes concerned that Hollingsworth’s office might put the process on hold while six appeals filed demanding additional environmental review of the city’s plans are considered the Hearing Examiner. CHS reported here on the appeals including cases representing Madison Valley, Mount Baker, Hawthorne Hills, and “73 remaining Southern resident killer whales.” Continue reading
The carjacking murder of Ruth Dalton has become a flashpoint in Seattle’s concerns over crime and public safety. A memorial walk for the slain neighborhood dog walker Wednesday night included messages of resilience, anger, love, and politics as loved ones were joined by neighbors, city officials, and political candidates in the vigil and walk from where Dalton was dragged and killed in a Madison Valley carjacking attempt in August.
People streamed along E Madison Wednesday during the evening memorial walk for Dalton, an 80-year-old dog walker who was murdered in an August carjacking with her dog, Prince.
Leading the march were four people who helped Dalton during the aftermath of the brutal attack, holding a banner with a picture of Dalton and her pup, a cross and words that read: “We care—Be like Ruth. Change is coming.”
CHS reported here on the efforts to organize the march by the Friends of Madison Park community group and Dalton’s family.
The group trickled into Madison Park and posted up near the playground for the vigil. Melanie Roberts, Dalton’s granddaughter, said she’s been getting her strength from god, her grandmother and “little grumpy Prince dog,” who was Ruth’s defender, and spoke to each of the heroes holding the banner. Continue reading
