SNOHOMISH COUNTY, Wash. — David Stodden made his regular trip to the place where his wife and daughter were killed. It's a trip he has been making for nearly 18 years.
Stodden planted yet another sign offering a $1,000 reward, hoping someone will see it and end his nearly two-decade-long nightmare.
"I still think about Mary and Susanna every couple of hours," Stodden says. "I remember when they were first killed, it was every second."
Stodden's wife of 30 years, Mary Cooper, and his 27-year-old daughter Susanna were both shot in the head at close range with a small caliber handgun on July 11, 2006, while hiking Snohomish County's Pinnacle Lake Trail.
Their clothing had been partially removed.
Stodden believes someone tried to sexually assault them and things spiraled from there.
"Mary and Susanna were pretty strong people, so they probably resisted," Stodden says. "He realized he wouldn't get away with it and so he shot them."
With the case now cold and no suspect ever identified, Stodden, recently retired, believes the only way the case will be solved is through the public.
"I would like all the people who reached out to me over the years, especially the first few years, people who were on the trail that day, to reach out to me again now that I have time to keep track of this," he says.
Over the years, Stodden has worked to keep the case in the public eye.
In a tearful 2018 interview with KING 5, Stodden said he believes detectives spent too much time focusing on him as a possible suspect early in the investigation.
He passed a polygraph and, frustrated with the lack of progress, took out an ad in the Everett Herald calling their investigation a failure.
"Since the detectives have told me they are not really gonna work on it unless someone comes in and confesses, if it's gonna be solved, I'm the one who's really gonna have to push for it," Stodden says.
For now, Stodden refuses to give up hope, believing someone out there can help him solve this cruel puzzle.
"Someone out there knows something," he says. "Maybe now that all this time has passed, someone breaks up with their husband or boyfriend, or someone dies, and a person isn't afraid of coming forward anymore, and hopefully, they will come forward. These cases are solved. It just takes the right information, the right tip, the right person coming forward and then we can make some progress on it."
KING 5 reached out to the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office for an update on the case.
A spokesperson told us there are none.
Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers of Puget Sound.