A suspect has been identified in the murder of a 2003 murder of Tamara “Tammy” Mattson, but he cannot be prosecuted because he now suffers from advanced dementia.
Island County authorities in Washington state recently announced that investigators believe Carl D. Schlobom, 69, is the one who killed Mattson two decades ago. Schlobom is currently serving a sentence of life without parole in Arizona for a 2005 murder.
Mattson, a 39-year-old mother-of-seven, was found dead on December 9, 2003, at Camano Island State Park, according to the Island County Sheriff’s Office.
For nearly six years, detectives pursued leads and interviewed multiple acquaintances but they kept running into dead ends and the case went cold.
DNA technology was limited at the time, but then in the summer of 2009, the Washington State Patrol Crime Lab was able to develop DNA profiles from minute amounts of human biological material, according to a release issued jointly by Island County Prosecutor Greg Banks and Island County Sheriff Rick Felici.
A DNA profile was then developed from cellular material found on a cigarette butt that was found in the parking lot near Mattson’s body.
The DNA from the cigarette butt matched that of Schlobom, whose DNA had been added to the national CODIS database when he was convicted in Arizona.
But while this placed Schlobom at the crime scene, officials did not have any other evidence to prove that he was in the park when Mattson was killed.
Detectives continued their investigation into Schlobom, and tried to learn everything they could about him and his connection to Mattson, while ruling out other individuals as potential suspects whose DNA was also found in the area.
In 2019, former Detective (now Lieutenant) Shawn Warwick and Detective Ed Wallace interviewed Schlobom in the Arizona prison, but he refused to answer questions.
The COVID-19 pandemic started just months later and for over a year, the investigation was stalled.
In April 2021, Schlobom wrote a letter to Island County detectives, stating that he had information about Mattson’s death and that, in exchange for a long list of demands, he would provide information about the murder.
“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,” Banks said, according to the release.
Banks ultimately arranged for a “free talk” with Schlobom, where they could question him under a temporary grant of immunity.
“Without his confession, we were stuck,” Banks said. “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 detectives were confident they had Mattson’s killer.
“He knew things that only the killer and detectives knew,” Detective Wallace said, adding that Schlobom had filled in gaps and explained his motive – that he had killed Mattson over a dispute about a drug deal, the release stated.
Schlobom agreed that, once prison transfer arrangements were finalized with Arizona and Washington Departments of Corrections, he would sign a sworn confession and then be charged in Island County with premeditated murder in the first degree and kidnapping in the first degree.
But the plan went awry when detectives could not agree to a deal allowing Schlobom to serve his sentence in Washington rather than being transferred back to Arizona after pleading guilty.
At the time, the Department of Corrections was releasing prisoners who were most at risk from COVID.
Without a guarantee that he could stay in Washington, Schlobom would not sign the confession. And without Schlobom’s confession, there was no proof he was the murderer, and he could not be charged, the release stated.
Then in 2024, Banks tried to rekindle negotiations with Schlobom, but his attempts to contact him were met with silence. A family member of the suspect reached out to Banks in October 2024 and informed him that Schlobom had suffered a series of debilitating strokes and had advanced dementia. She doubted Schlobom could read or understand the content of the letters that Banks had been sending.
Two months later, officials in Arizona confirmed Schlobom was suffering from advanced dementia and that he is confined to a Special Needs Unit due to his need for round-the-clock care and monitoring.
Banks said it was frustrating that they could not make a legal record of Schlobom’s crimes, but at least he and detectives were able to give some measure of closure to Mattson’s family and know that he will spend the rest of his life in prison.
