Thread: Police looking at Zina Linnik suspect for similar crimes

Police looking at Zina Linnik suspect for similar crimes
Charges to be filed in death of girl adored by family

Saturday, July 14, 2007
Last updated 4:11 p.m. PT

By HECTOR CASTRO AND CAROL SMITH
P-I REPORTERS

TACOMA -- Investigators on Saturday wrapped up their examination of the field where the body of 12-year-old Zina Linnik was discovered earlier this week, but have yet to say how she died.

Detective Chris Taylor said Tacoma police and the FBI have cleared the site near Silver Lake in rural East Pierce County where the missing girl's body was found Thursday.

But, he said, there is still much work to do.

"We'll have detectives working over the weekend," Taylor said.

The convicted sex offender whose information led police to Zina's body is now being investigated for possible links to other unsolved disappearances of girls in the Tacoma area and nationally, police and FBI officials said Friday.


Linnik
Terapon Adhahn, 42, will be charged with the kidnapping and death of Linnik, said Tacoma police Chief Don Ramsdell. The FBI, which has been working with Tacoma police on the case, is also checking its national database for similar crimes.

A psychological profile of Adhahn indicated he is a "disturbed individual" with a tendency toward pedophilia, particularly toward young girls, and an excessive need to control others.

Adhahn is also a legal immigrant with a criminal history who has avoided deportation.


Police are investigating whether Terapon Adhahn has any connection to the cases of, from top, Lenoria Jones, 3; Michella Welch, 12; Adre'Anna Jackson, 10; and Teekah Lewis, 2.
Zina disappeared the night of July 4 from her family's home in Tacoma's Hilltop neighborhood. She was a shy, petite student at Jason Lee Middle School, where family and neighbors said she had graduated from the sixth grade, was academically inclined and liked to read. She dreamed of working at a spa one day. She was one of eight children, relatives said, and her younger brothers and sisters adored her.

Just before her disappearance, Zina had gone to watch fireworks with five of her brothers and sisters.

"She looked very happy that day," said her sister Nina Linnik, 16. "She went out with my brothers and sisters, but she decided to come back as she was scared of fireworks."

Nina and her parents were inside their house when they heard a scream and knew instantly it was Zina.

Her father ran outside and was able to give police a description of a gray van driven by an Asian man and which had a partial license plate.

The break in the case came on July 6, when a Tacoma police detective searching databases with the description of the van and the partial license plate came up with Adhhan's name, Ramsdell said.

Police found Linnik's body Thursday night near Silver Lake in Eastern Pierce County.

"It's very, very hard for the family," said Anatoly Kalchik, Zina's uncle. "But they are strong believers, they believe in God."

Zina's parents, who intermittently attend a Russian-speaking Pentecostal church, emigrated from Ukraine to the United States about 10 years ago. Her father, Mikhail Linnik, works as an appliance repairman. Her mother stays home with their children.

According to Nina, their house is full of relatives but many other relatives live in Ukraine, and her father told them about the tragedy by phone.

"I think the hardest it is for my mom; she cries all the time," Nina Linnik said.

"In one way it's better," said Stan Linnik, Zina's 18-year-old brother. "In one way it's worse. At least we know what happened to her. It's not the end we all wanted."

Detectives now plan to comb the case files of recent Tacoma children who have vanished -- one found dead, and two still missing -- for potential links to Adhahn.

On Dec. 2, 2005, Adre'Anna Jackson, a 10-year-old Lakewood girl, disappeared after walking to school on a snowy day. Her remains were found several months later in a field near her home. Adhahn lived in Parkland, which is just across Interstate 5 from Lakewood.

Jackson's mother, Yvette Gervais, said she's been following the Linnik case on television.

"It took me a while; it took me until last night to cry," Gervais said from her Lakewood home Friday. "All I want to say is that we send condolences out from the Jackson family that we're sorry."

Two small children from Tacoma are also still missing.

Teekah Lewis, 2, disappeared Jan. 23, 1999, from the New Frontier Lanes, a Tacoma bowling alley. Lenoria Jones, 3, disappeared from a Tacoma Target Store in July 1995.

And the investigations may go back further. Some earlier unsolved Tacoma disappearances bear an eerie resemblance to Linnik's.

Michella Welch, 12, disappeared on March 26, 1986, while playing with her younger sisters at Puget Park in Tacoma. Her body, which was found that evening, showed signs that she had been sexually assaulted and killed.

Jennifer Bastian, 13, disappeared a few months later in August while riding her bike in Point Defiance Park in Tacoma. She had also been sexually assaulted and killed. Both girls had long, blond hair and slight builds, as did Zina.

Detectives are trying to establish a timeline of Adhahn's whereabouts during these disappearances, which may lead them to eliminate him as a suspect, Ramsdell said. They also plan to take a DNA sample from him, which can be used in Zina's death and other cases.


Gilbert W. Arias / P-I
A framed photo of Zina Linnik sits amid the growing memorial at the Linniks' home. Zina's body was found late Thursday, more than a week after she disappeared from the alley behind her house.
Adhahn is now being held in an immigration detention facility in Tacoma while authorities determine whether his criminal history makes him deportable.

He also faces a criminal charge in Pierce County of failing to register as a sex offender.

Court documents paint a bleak picture of Adhahn's childhood.

He was born in Bangkok, Thailand, where his father worked at a hotel. His parents divorced when he was 3.

When he was 7, according to these documents, Adhahn was sexually assaulted regularly by one of his older brothers. The abuse continued for two years.

In 1975, his mother married an American soldier and the family moved to the U.S. two years later.

In 1983, Adhahn enlisted in the Army, eventually becoming an Airborne Ranger, according to the documents.

Married in 1986, Adhahn and his wife had a daughter.

At some point, it appears that Adhahn was stationed in Pierce County. That's where he was living with his wife and daughter when he was arrested for a drunken attack during which he raped his 16-year-old half-sister.

Initially charged with second-degree rape in 1990, Adhahn agreed to plead guilty and the charge was reduced to first-degree incest. He was sentenced to 60 days in jail and ordered to undergo five years of sex-offender treatment, which he completed in 1997. At the time, Adhahn was diagnosed with personality disorder that included paranoia and was found to have been depressed most of his life, due in part to his own sexual abuse.

In 1992, Adhahn was convicted of intimidation with a weapon. So far, police have questioned him, and searched his home in the 1200 block of 117th Street South in Parkland, not far from Pacific Lutheran University. They found a pair of girl's underwear there.

Adhahn's neighbor Beverly Cole said she barely knew him and that he kept mostly to himself, though he had occasional visitors. But on Sunday night, Adhahn suddenly exhibited some bizarre behavior, Cole said.

About 7:30 p.m., Adhahn vaulted over Cole's backyard fence, breaking a couple of boards. He ran to a corner of the yard and appeared to want to climb over the rear fence when Cole's daughter confronted him, asking him what he wanted.

Adhahn said something about looking for a cat, Cole said, then ran to the front yard. There, he jumped over the front fence, looked down the street and took off running.

Then the police came to search Adhahn's home.

"I woke up at 2:30 in the morning, and they were all here," she said.

Adhahn has yet to give investigators a "full and complete statement," Ramsdell said. He has been cooperating through his attorney.

Despite his history, Adhahn has managed to evade deportation because his prior criminal convictions didn't rise to the level that would have gotten him automatically deported.

Zina's uncle was angry that the suspect had not been deported after being convicted in a sex crime.

"We are all immigrants, but we come legally," Kalchik said of his family. He added that the adults all cleared a criminal background check.

"If someone is a sex offender, or any kind of offender, he has no business being in America," he said.

A permanent legal resident can be deported for a single aggravated felony conviction, but not for a crime of moral turpitude. If a permanent resident is convicted of two crimes involving moral turpitude, however, that immigrant could be deported, said Virginia Kice, spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Adhahn's incest conviction was not an aggravated felony. That's why it wouldn't have triggered deportation proceedings, Kice said.

His second conviction of intimidation with a weapon also would not have triggered deportation unless it could be considered a crime of moral turpitude. Such convictions are judged on a case-by-case basis.

When Adhahn was brought to the attention of immigration authorities earlier this week as a person of interest in Zina's disappearance, the immigration service took him into custody to determine whether he is deportable.



HOW TO HELP

The Tacoma Police Department. has set up an account for Zina Linnik's family at TAPCO Credit Union.

For more information, www.tapcocu.org or 253-565-9895.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/323 ... ped14.html

Wow...I hope all the OBL's are reading this post and I hope they and the govener have nightmares.......