A suspect has been identified in the 2003 murder of Tamara “Tammy” Mattson, although he is unable to be prosecuted due to extreme dementia.
Island County officials in Washington state recently reported that investigators suspect Carl D. Schlobom, 69, killed Mattson two decades ago. Schlobom is currently receiving a life term without parole in Arizona for the 2005 murder.
Mattson, a 39-year-old mother of seven, was discovered dead on December 9, 2003, in Camano Island State Park, according to the Island County Sheriff’s Office.
For nearly six years, investigators explored leads and interviewed numerous people, but they kept hitting dead ends, and the case became cold.
DNA technology was limited at the time, but in the summer of 2009, the Washington State Patrol Crime Lab was able to create DNA profiles from trace amounts of human biological material, according to a joint release from Island County Prosecutor Greg Banks and Island County Sheriff Rick Felici.
A DNA profile was then created using cellular material discovered on a cigarette butt in the parking lot near Mattson’s body.
The DNA from the cigarette buttocks matched that of Schlobom, whose DNA was uploaded to the national CODIS database after he was convicted in Arizona.
While this placed Schlobom at the crime scene, officials lacked more evidence to establish he was in the park when Mattson was killed.
Detectives continued their investigation into Schlobom, attempting to learn everything they could about him and his relationship to Mattson, while ruling out other prospective suspects whose DNA was also discovered in the region.
In 2019, former Detective (now Lieutenant) Shawn Warwick and Detective Ed Wallace interviewed Schlobom in the Arizona prison, but he refused to answer any questions.
The COVID-19 epidemic began only months later, and the probe was blocked for more than a year.
In April 2021, Schlobom submitted a letter to Island County investigators, claiming to have information regarding Mattson’s death and offering to disclose information on the murder in exchange for an extensive list of demands.
“Of all his crazy demands, the only one I considered was to allow him to spend the rest of his life in a Washington prison, if he turned out to be the murderer, and pleaded guilty,” stated Banks, according to the release.
Banks eventually arranged for a “free talk” with Schlobom, allowing them to interview him while he was granted temporary immunity.
“Without his confession, we were stuck,” Banks explained. “This allowed him to speak candidly and allowed us to verify that he was the killer before we would negotiate any kind of deal.”
After the interview, the police were certain they had found Mattson’s killer.
“He knew things that only the killer and detectives knew,” Detective Wallace said, adding that Schlobom had filled in gaps and described his motive, which was to kill Mattson over a drug transaction dispute, according to the release.
Schlobom said that once prison transfer preparations were finalized with the Arizona and Washington Departments of Corrections, he would sign a sworn confession and be charged in Island County with first-degree murder and kidnapping.
However, the plan failed when investigators were unable to reach an agreement that would allow Schlobom to complete his term in Washington rather than being sent back to Arizona after pleading guilty.
At the time, the Department of Corrections was releasing prisoners who were most vulnerable to COVID.
Schlobom refused to sign the confession unless he was guaranteed the right to remain in Washington. And without Schlobom’s confession, there was no proof he was the murderer, thus he could not be charged, according to the release.
Then, in 2024, Banks attempted to restart negotiations with Schlobom, but all attempts to contact him were met with silence. A family member of the suspect contacted Banks in October 2024, informing him that Schlobom had suffered a series of devastating strokes and had advanced dementia. She doubted Schlobom could read or comprehend the contents of the letters Banks had been sending.
Two months later, Arizona officials verified Schlobom had advanced dementia and was confined to a Special Needs Unit because he required round-the-clock care and monitoring.
Banks said it was upsetting that they couldn’t establish a legal record of Schlobom’s actions, but he and detectives were able to provide some peace to Mattson’s family by confirming that he will spend the rest of his life in jail.
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