Sex offender linked by DNA to 1980 slaying pleads guilty

Originally published June 26, 2014 at 8:43 PM | Page modified June 26, 2014 at 9:12 PM

For friends and family of Susan Lowe, Thursdays guilty plea by a violent sex offender finally offered the answer that has eluded them for 34 years.

Michael Allan Halgren, 58, who has been committed as a violent sexual predator for the past 12 years, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, admitting he strangled Lowe in her Bellevue apartment in 1980.

He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison when he is sentenced July 18.

Lowes roommate, Diane Dietz, discovered her body on April 24, 1980. She said the slaying was a horrible lightning bolt out of the blue and she has long wondered who would kill her friend.

I finally have an idea of what happened. Up until this day it was inexplicable, Dietz said by phone from her office in Eugene, Ore., on Thursday. I had to learn to put one foot in front of another, raise a family and have a career.

Although a reward was offered for information on Lowes killer, the case went cold until 2012, when scientists from the Washington State Patrol Crime Laboratory matched DNA found in Lowes bedroom with Halgren, according to charging documents.

Halgrens DNA was obtained by investigators while he was confined at the Special Commitment Center on McNeil Island, where he was civilly committed in 2002.

Halgren was initially charged with first-degree murder in January 2013. Senior Deputy Prosecutor Kristin Richardson said Thursday that the DNA evidence had degraded over time, prompting prosecutors to reduce the charge in exchange for a guilty plea.

These issues are typical in cold cases, Richardson explained. We have no doubt it was him.

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Sex offender linked by DNA to 1980 slaying pleads guilty