In the summer of 2001, Dana Laskowski was a 36-year-old divorced mom of three 9-year-old triplets. Dana was born in 1965 in Puyallup, Washington, about 35 miles south of Seattle. As a child, she was described as one of the happiest kids alive & she was someone who loved life & easily made friends. She was described as a born caregiver who had the patience of a saint. She was friendly & outgoing & would open up her home to anyone in need. In 1989, Dana met & fell in love with her husband Sam & they quickly began to try to grow their family, but ran into fertility issues. After undergoing fertility treatments, Dana learned the news that she was pregnant with triplets & gave birth in 1993. Raising three babies put a strain on Dana & Sam’s marriage & after eleven years, they decided to separate & share custody of the children.
Dana had the dream of one day having her own daycare & decided to start a babysitting/nanny business & began working as a nanny for a family in Puyallup, Washington. The family quickly grew to rely upon & adore her.
On August 31, 2001, Dana didn’t show up for her scheduled shift at 8 am which was absolutely unlike her. Her employers unsuccessfully tried to reach her for three hours when they decided to call 911. Police arrived at Dana’s house for a welfare check at about 11 am & were concerned when they found the back door partially ajar. They announced their presence & entered the home.
Once inside, police made their way through the house & found the disturbing sight of Dana positioned unnaturally on the couch, lying on her stomach with one arm under her & the other pulled behind her back. As they checked for a pulse, they found that Dana was deceased & her positioning made officers immediately suspicious that this was not a natural death. On further inspection, there were visible strangulation marks to her neck & abrasions on her knees & elbows & it appeared that she had been dragged across the carpet. On closer inspection, they could see that her mouth was full of blood. Police theorized that Dana had been strangled on her couch & the offender had just left her there.
A team of experts were called to the scene to collect evidence that included fingerprints, blood evidence, hair & fiber samples. The rooms of the house had been ransacked with all the drawers & cabinets left open, but it was possible that the scene had just been staged to look like a robbery gone wrong. Investigators found a broken window in the basement & determined that this was how the murder gained access to the home.
Dana’s autopsy showed that her trachea had been crushed from manual strangulation & defensive wounds could be seen on her hands & arms.
After police spoke with Dana’s devastated employers, they learned that she often helped her 17-year-old niece, Amanda Laskowski, who was a troubled child that had struggled with addiction on & off for years. Dana was the aunt that Amanda turned to when everyone else turned away; she was the safe haven to take her in when she had nowhere else to go. Police began to look for Amanda, hoping they could get some information about Dana’s movements from the night before. Because she led a very unpredictable lifestyle, police had trouble tracking Amanda down.
Police also set out to speak with Dana’s ex-husband Sam but they also had difficulty finding him. Because their urgent messages to him went unanswered, police moved him up on the list of suspects. When Sam finally made contact, he explained that he had been camping with his children in a remote area where he had no access to electronic devices & he only saw the many messages on his answering machine when he arrived home. Sam told investigators that he & Dana had been incompatible as a couple but were absolutely not enemies & he would have never done anything to hurt the mother of his children.
Investigators learned that after Sam & Dana divorced, she relocated three hours away from him. Police wondered if they had argued when he came to pick up the kids for their weekend camping trip. Sam was able to prove his alibi with gas station receipts that confirmed that he had been hours away on the day of the murder. Police knew that it was possible that he could have waited until the kids were sleeping & gone back to Dana’s house, but they had no evidence to prove that this was true. The coroner’s report indicated that Dana had been murdered between midnight & 7 am. Because of the large window of time, it would have been possible that Sam went back to the house & arrived back at the campsite before the kids woke.
Despite Sam maintaining his innocence, he refused to provide investigators with his DNA & fingerprint samples. When it was clear that he was a suspect, Sam lawyered up & refused to speak further.
When police were finally able to locate Dana’s niece Amanda, they brought her in for questioning. She added little information to the investigation & told police she didn’t know anyone who would want to harm her aunt. She described her aunt as a mother figure & friend. She said she hadn’t been at the house on the night Dana was murdered so she was unaware if Dana had been expecting a visitor that night. Dana, being a very social person, frequently had friends coming & going at all hours of the day & night.
Detectives spoke with Dana’s employers who were the first to sound the alarm that something might be wrong since Dana hadn’t shown up to work. The interview was extremely helpful & brought to light a possible new suspect. They also learned that Dana spoke about a stalker in the weeks leading up to her murder. She told some friends that she worried she would end up dead & if she did, the man that had been harassing her would be to blame.
Dana had told her friends that the man was named Patrick & after a brief meeting, he had become obsessed with her. Dana got the feeling that he absolutely wanted to be more than just friends so she quickly told him that she was not interested in starting a relationship with anyone at that time. He refused to take no for an answer & continued to leave messages & flowers on Dan’s doorstep. As she continued to refuse his advances, his persistence turned to anger & he became hostile & even threatening.
Dana was increasingly concerned with Patrick’s behavior & ongoing messages of love. His messages began to indicate that he was watching Dana both day & night. In one note, his message proved that he had been peering in through her windows, detailing the private going-ons within the house. His contact escalated & he began calling & texting her every hour, on the hour. Neighbors told police that on the day of Dana’s murder they noticed a white van driving up & down the street. Patrick was known to drive a white van.
On September 2, police obtained a search warrant for Patrick’s van & house. As police arrived, they found him combative & told them that they were not welcome. While his home was being searched, Patrick was brought in for questioning & despite his initial hostility, he began to cooperate after learning that Dana was dead & that he could be in trouble. His shocked demeanor told police that he was blindsided by the idea that he could be a prime suspect in a murder investigation.
Patrick freely confessed to having stalked Dana before her murder. It was his belief that when officers arrived at his house with the warrant, it was because Dana had issued a complaint against him. He admitted that his behavior had been out of line but would never have ended in violence. Unlike Sam, Patrick readily provided his DNA & fingerprints & any information that would help clear him from the case. His alibi checked out & police were able to cross him off of the suspect list.
As the investigation continued, police learned that Dana had a long-distance relationship with a man from Vancouver, British Columbia, named Michael. The relationship consisted of occasional trips for Dana up north. Police learned that Michael had a party lifestyle that included drug dealing. He was a biker & a filmmaker that was known for being a hot-head. The volatile, on-again, off-again relationship had carried on until her death.
Dana had confided in friends that she recently had a one-night stand but said that she would never tell Michael in fear of how he might react. Detectives wondered if Michael found out & reacted in violent rage. Detectives tracked him down & learned that he had spoken with Dana on the 31st. He said their conversation was concerning so he drove down to Washington State to check on her. He explained that he never made it to her house since he was stopped at the border & denied entry into the U.S. Border agents were able to verify his story & like Patrick, Michael was removed from the list of suspects.
Detectives looked into the man that Dana had a one-night stand with & he also had a solid alibi. In the meantime, Dana’s funeral came & went & she was ultimately cremated. Police reviewed the guestbook from the funeral home, hoping that maybe someone would stand out. One note did stand out & it was from Dana’s niece Amanda that read, “I’m so sorry I wasn’t a better niece for you. 34 days clean & sober. It’s all for you.” The number 34 stood out to police because it had been exactly 34 days since the funeral. Detectives made the decision to speak with Amanda again since it was their belief that she may have known more than she led on to.
Speaking with Amanda was like pulling teeth; it was clear she provided them with as little information as possible. Investigators were able to learn that Dana had not only opened her home to Amanda but also her sketchy crew. This included a man named Blaine who had been known as someone who forced himself upon women. Amanda also said that she had been standing across the street on the afternoon when her aunt’s body was removed from her house, watching from afar & Blaine had been with her. She mentioned that she noticed fresh scratches on Blaine’s arms as they stood there.
When police looked into Blaine’s criminal record, they found that it was extensive & included mostly gun & drug charges. Amanda told them that at the time of Dana’s murder, he had been living on the East Coast. When investigators reached out to him, he did not want to travel to Washington State for an interview. This began an extradition process. In the meantime, detectives spoke with Amanda & Blaine’s friends to get more information. Members of the tight-knit friend group, dubbed the “Park Rats,” told police that Blaine would not have killed Dana. Instead, they suggested a 17-year-old girl named Emily Lauenborg.
Emily was also a Park Rat who happened to be Amanda’s best friend. She was a drug user who was also an accomplished wrestler & weightlifter. Despite her smaller stature, she was known to be able to stand up to a man twice her size which earned her the nickname “mutant.” Her signature move was the chokehold where she would pin her opponent’s arms behind their back, rendering them powerless. Those that knew her walked on eggshells to avoid getting on her bad side.
Police set out to find Emily & when they did, they brought her in for questioning. Her abrasive attitude was immediately apparent & when she learned that her own friends had suggested her name, she called them liars who were trying to get her into trouble. She did not have an alibi on the night of the murder. Police were heavily doubting that she was telling the truth & when they searched the home she had been staying in, they found a blouse that had belonged to Dana. When they reviewed surveillance video, investigators noted that Emily wore Dana’s blouse to her memorial service.
Detectives came across Emily’s journal & when they began to read through the pages, they read a list of things she hoped to do before she died. One of the items was to “kill someone & get away with it.” She had also written, after having a falling out with Amanda, that she wanted to strangle both her & her aunt. With the evidence growing, police were able to take Emily into custody.
On March 13, 2003, Emily was indicted for the first-degree murder of Dana Laskowski & she pleaded not guilty. Despite being only 17-years-old at the time she murdered Dana, she would be tried as an adult. As they awaited the start of the trial, police put their attention back on Amanda, believing that she knew exactly what had happened on the night that her aunt was brutally murdered. They knew that Amanda would be willing to lie at any expense, so they would have to be creative in their questioning.
As they spoke, Amanda went into further detail about how Dana had not only opened her home to her, but also the Park Rats, including Emily. Because Dana was a kind & giving person, she treated the group of outcasts like family, even partying with them on occasion. Dana was a trusting person to a fault & despite associating with drug addicts, she would often leave her downstairs window unlocked so members of the group could enter her home if they had nowhere else to go.
After hours of questioning, police began to get more information from Amanda as she further opened up. On the last night of Dana’s life, Amanda told detectives that she & Emily had entered Dana’s house in search of money for drugs. An argument began when Dana caught the pair rummaging through her belongings. Things escalated very quickly because Emily was allegedly high on PCP & looking for a fight. During the shouting match, Dana demanded that the girls leave her house. Instead, Emily stood her ground & told Dana that she wouldn’t be going anywhere. Dana took Emily by the arm & guided her to the front door & this set Emily into attack mode.
As Amanda stood across the room, she watched as Emily placed her aunt into a chokehold & squeezed until she heard a sickening crack sound, followed by Dana’s body going limp. Despite telling investigators that she was horrified by what happened to her aunt, she then raided the home alongside Emily. She explained that she didn’t call for help in fear that she would be blamed & felt it better to move forward as if nothing had happened.
Prosecutors made the decision to allow Amanda to testify against Emily in exchange for immunity in hopes of a guaranteed guilty verdict. However, as the trial date neared, prosecutors saw that Amanda would not be a reliable witness & instead, would likely do more harm than good. She was unable to keep her story straight & there was no way to predict what she would say once in front of a jury. If she were to lie, the entire case could crumble. At this point, the state decided to offer Emily a plea deal in an effort to avoid going to trial.
Two years after Dana was murdered, Emily agreed to plead guilty to manslaughter & was given a measly seven years in prison despite the brutality of the murder. Despite standing by & watching her aunt die, rather than stepping in to help, Amanda was given no time in prison. In 2006, after serving six years behind bars, Emily was released. Soon after, she married a man named Darren Wickman & had two children before divorcing in 2013. She is said to still be living in Puyallup under the name Emily Seaboch.
Dana had been an adored mother & a kind & compassionate person that lived to provide charitable acts. Her giving nature was taken advantage of by two people that she had extended love for when others turned their backs.
References:
- Medium: No good deed goes unpunished: The horrific slaying of Dana Laskowski
- The Cinemaholic: Dana Laskowski murder: Where is Emily Lauenborg now?
- Thought Catalog: The murderer who wrote ‘kill someone + get away with it’ on her bucket list
- Medium: She wrote, ‘Kill someone & get away with it’ in her journal: The murder of Dana Laskowski
