Community Mourns Murder of Seattle School Librarian

http://www.ala.org/ala/alonline/currentnews/newsarchive/2006abc/july2006a/seattlelibn.cfm

$node.absurl

$node.contribution("Title")

$node.absurl

Posted July 21, 2006.

Community Mourns Murder of Seattle School Librarian

Hundreds of family and friends gathered July 20 along a hiking trail to honor the lives of Seattle school librarian Mary Cooper, 56, and her 27-year-old daughter Susanna Stodden. “We know there are bad people in the world,” family friend Bill Shanks told CBS Seattle affiliate KIRO-TV July 21. “Tonight we get together to show that there are also good people in this world.” Cooper and Stodden, who were avid hikers, were found shot to death the afternoon of July 11 along the Pinnacle Lake Trail in the Mount Baker–Snoqualmie National Forest. Other hikers discovered their bodies some five hours after the mother and daughter had left home for a day trip.

Three days after the murders, several dozen schoolchildren brought flowers to the Alternative Elementary II School and lingered in the media center to remember the woman students called “Mary in the Library.”

“As you all can easily imagine, it’s with breaking hearts that we as a school family, along with the Stodden family, mourn the loss of Mary Cooper,” stated principal John Miner, the July 15 Seattle Times reported. “The school people will always have a place in their heart [for Cooper],” agreed 5th-grader Joe Adamo, who added, “Really, if you’ve had somebody in your life like that, you just shouldn’t let them go.”

Dave Hayes of the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office told the Times that several law-enforcement agencies continued to search for clues, as well as a motive for the slayings.

Posted July 21, 2006.