The Murders of Renae and Shannah Wicklund and Barbara Hendrickson

Renae Wicklund was 23 years old in December of 1974, married not quite three years and a devoted mother to her nearly two-year-old daughter, Shannah. The Wicklund family, which included Renae’s husband and Shannah’s father Jack, lived in Clearview, Washington, a community about half an hour northeast of Seattle, nestled between Woodinville and Snohomish. Although the Seattle area had been devastated through more than half of 1974 by missing and murdered women (crimes eventually attributed to Ted Bundy), crime had not touched the small hamlet of Clearview or the Wicklund family.

Not until the afternoon of December 11. It was unseasonably warm and sunny that day, a time of year when it was normally rainy. Renae decided to take advantage of the good weather and give herself and Shannah some fresh air and time out of the house, while Jack was working, and wash the family home’s windows. While the Wicklunds’ one-story rambler style home sat on a good acre or so of property surrounded by fir trees, it was a Wednesday afternoon and Renae had little cause to be concerned or worry about her safety or that of her daughter. Clearview was safe; nothing ever happened there. Besides, the Wicklunds’ closest neighbors, Don and Barbara Hendrickson, were within shouting distance across the street.

Renae first saw the man coming up the driveway. He was young, very tall and had reddish hair. She looked him the eye and he turned and headed back toward the road, leaving her to assume he had been lost or chosen the wrong house. She had gone…