SEATTLE, WA – After more than three decades without answers, police have arrested a suspect in the 1994 western Washington murder of 14-year-old Tanya Marie Frazier.
Police announced Wednesday that 57-year-old Mark Anthony Russ was booked into the King County Jail for investigation of homicide after being linked to the case through DNA evidence. Russ was recently released from prison before his arrest.
Tanya disappeared on July 18, 1994, after leaving a summer school class at Meany Middle School in Seattle. Her body was found later that day by a man walking his dog in the 2200 block of East Highland Drive on Capitol Hill — just blocks from where she was last seen.
Seattle Police Detective Rolf Norton said in a statement that “multiple generations of investigators and scientists have worked on this case for over three decades.”
“Today is not a day for celebration; it’s a day to reflect on Tanya Frazier and her surviving family as they continue to grieve for their daughter, sister, and aunt,” Norton said.
At the time of her death, Tanya had recently graduated from Washington Middle School, attended St. Clement’s Episcopal Church, and worked part-time at the Chicken Soup Brigade, an organization providing meals for those in need.
Russ is expected to make his initial court appearance Wednesday at 2 p.m. The investigation is ongoing in coordination with the King County Prosecutor’s Office and the Washington State Department of Corrections.
