PORT ANGELES — One month after the body of a 15-year-old girl was found strangled to death on a wooded trail, police are still looking for her killer.
Port Angeles Police Chief Tom Riepe said Friday the investigation into Melissa Leigh Carter’s slaying is continuing, and he hopes to make an announcement about the case within a few weeks.
He has said investigators have a “person of interest” in the case, but Riepe won’t say more about the person — nor confirm or deny whether that person is in custody.
No one has been arrested for Carter’s death.
Because of the nature of the case, Riepe said he can’t make any further comments about it.
“But I know how important it is to the public and the community,” he said.
A teddy bear and a red ribbon still hung in a tree along the Port Angeles Waterfront Trail last week marking the area where Carter’s body was discovered a day after Christmas.
She was found wearing only shoes on a wooded path that leads from the paved Waterfront Trail up the bluff, just east of Hollywood Beach.
About two weeks ago, a forensic pathologist determined that Carter had been strangled to death, confirming a homicide.
