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<< Previous   of   Next >> (click to enlarge) Yee Lu, who was beaten and choked to death, was found in her home in 1983. Lu is on the four of spades in a deck of cold case playing cards.  Photo Gallery: Cold Case Cards   ADVERTISEMENT   Related Stories • Tips sought in Monroe cold case from 2000 10/30/09 • Families plead for tips on cold cases 5/24/09 • Cold-case playing cards bring police new leads 5/24/09 • Family of slain Machias woman waits for answers 5/17/09 • Cold Case: Unsolved shootings ended mother-daughter trail hike 5/10/09   CONTACT THE HERALD Robert Frank, City Editor frank@heraldnet.com   Published: Sunday, March 15, 2009 Cold Case: Victim of fatal beating was just 13 By Diana Hefley Herald Writer STANWOOD -- Yee Lu is the youngest in the collage of stolen lives. Yee's broken body was left inside her Stanwood-area home. She'd been beaten and choked to death. She was just 13. The 1983 killing has never been solved. Yee is part of the state's first deck of cold-case playing cards. The deck features unsolved homicides and missing persons cases stretching back to the 1970s. Snohomish County sheriff's detectives have provided the cards to the state's prisons and jails in hopes of soliciting new tips. Inmates are offered a reward for information that helps detectives track down killers and locate people who have vanished. Yee is featured on the four of spades. Only a few details about her death are included on the card. Detectives weren't able to find a picture of the teenager. Yee and her family had hoped to finally escape violence. They had fled war-torn Cambodia and settled in Stanwood to start over in peace. Violence found the teenager. Yee had returned home after she walked her brother to a bus stop. Detectives believe she may have interrupted a break-in and caught the burglar by surprise. Yee was savagely attacked. "It's a good possibility the burglary was the motive," sheriff's detective Dave Heitzman said. Detectives aren't giving up on finding who took the young life. Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463, hefley@heraldnet.com. About this series Snohomish County sheriff's detectives created the state's first deck of cold-case playing cards. Each Sunday for a year, The Herald is publishing a story about a case featured on one of the cards. To see the 52 cards, go to www.heraldnet.com. Anyone with information about unsolved homicides or missing persons cases is asked to call 800-222-TIPS (8477). A reward of up to $1,000 is offered. Tips also can be left on the sheriff's tip line at 425-388-3845. Callers may remain anonymous, although tips have been more successful when callers speak with detectives, police said. READER COMMENTS Be the first to comment. You must be a registered user and verify your e-mail address to post comments to blogs or articles on HeraldNet. To register, click here. To read other terms and conditions, click here. Log out

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