Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Sirens & Gavels

Police hope for new clues in cold case

Laurie Partridge was 17 when she left Ferris High School on Dec. 4, 1974, but never made it home. Investigators believe she was murdered but have no evidence and few clues. Detective Mike Ricketts of the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office is trying to generate more tips.  (Dan Pelle / The Spokesman-Review)
Laurie Partridge was 17 when she left Ferris High School on Dec. 4, 1974, but never made it home. Investigators believe she was murdered but have no evidence and few clues. Detective Mike Ricketts of the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office is trying to generate more tips. (Dan Pelle / The Spokesman-Review)

Laurie Partridge’s disappearance not only stumped detectives, it pushed her parents apart and prompted her family to move far from Spokane County.

“It determined the whole way my family lived,” said Partridge’s sister, Taryn Chambers, who lives in Florida.

Their parents reunited and remarried more than a decade later, but the girls’ mother died in 2004 not knowing what happened to Partridge, who was 17 when she left Ferris High School for home on Dec. 4, 1974.

She never made it, and no trace of her was ever found.

Spokane County sheriff’s Detective Mike Ricketts is taking a renewed look at the case and hoping the 36th anniversary of one of the county’s most talked-about cold cases will generate new clues.

“With cold cases, one of the things that is on your side is that time sometimes affects relationships,” Ricketts said. “Sometimes people who were unwilling to talk at the time become willing to talk.”

Read the rest of my story here.



Public safety news from the Inland Northwest and beyond.