Bothell Police detectives arrest armed robbery suspect

By Kailan Manandic • October 30, 2017 3:30 pm
Bothell Police detectives arrest armed robbery suspect

Bothell police detectives identified, located and arrested a Snohomish County woman within 24 hours of her robbing two Bothell convenience stores at gunpoint on Oct. 24.

The woman brandished a handgun and demanded cash and lottery tickets from a 7-Eleven and 76 gas station in the 22800 and 20700 blocks of Bothell Everett Highway. Sgt. Ken Seuberlich with the Bothell Police Department praised detectives for how quickly they solved the case.

“It was good, old-fashioned police work,” he said. “Any time you have an arrest of a violent felony within 24 hours, that’s pretty darn good.”

Arrest times for these cases often vary across the board, according to Seuberlich. Some can be immediate, while some can be years later.

Detectives used the suspect’s vehicle to locate her. The license plate on her vehicle was not visible in the surveillance video but detectives were able to identify the vehicle as a 2008 Mercedes Benz CLK convertible.

Seuberlich said the surveillance video’s high quality helped detectives significantly. If the video was blurry or the quality was lower, they wouldn’t have identified the suspect’s vehicle and made the arrest so quickly.

“For this one, the stars aligned for lack of a better term,” Seuberlich said.

After identifying the vehicle, detectives compiled a list of each match in Washington, about 400, and narrowed it down to registered owners in the area who matched the suspect’s description.

When they arrested her, they found a handgun and other evidence linking the suspect to the robberies.

Police later released surveillance video of the 7-Eleven robbery on Twitter, which recorded how quickly it happened — less than 30 seconds.

The cashier reacted exactly how Seuberlich said anyone should react in that situation.

“Money and whatnot can be replaced, people can’t,” he said.

Victims should cooperate with the criminals and be a good witness, according to Seuberlich. It’s important to pay attention to the criminal’s features, car and the direction they go, then call 911 as soon as possible.

“I will say I’m proud of our detectives,” Seuberlich said. “I’m happy that we got her off the street and can hopefully get her help.”