Twenty-eight-year-old Julie Weflen was a woman working in a man’s field. She was one of the few female power operators for the Bonneville Power Administration in Spokane, Washington. Almost everyone did a double take when they saw the petite and attractive brunette working with the power equipment.

Julie’s male coworkers often teased her, but it did not bother her because she knew the “guy talk” was all in good nature. She had the men’s respect and they had her back. The men felt guilty that they were not there for Julie when she apparently needed them the most.

On September 16, 1987, a transformer at Spokane’s Springhill substation was registering low nitrogen levels. Julie said she would check it out. Her supervisor, Owen Berrio, told her it was nothing urgent, but diligent Julie said it was no bother. She left for the plant at approximately 2:00 p.m. and signed in at the Springhill substation half an hour later.

Julie is believed to have completed her work at approximately 3:30 p.m. Something, likely sinister, happened to her afterwards.

Julie Weflen 

Julie had not returned by nightfall, nor had she contacted anyone. Two colleagues went to the station to check on her, thinking the problem with the transformer may have been greater than thought. When the BPA officials arrived at the plant, they found the nitrogen levels had been restored to normal. They then, however, came upon an ominous sight.

The driver-side door and back hatch to Julie’s truck was open and her personal items were strewn on the ground next to her truck. These items included her hard hat, toolbox, sunglasses, and a bottle of water. There was no sign of Julie.

The police were called and found telltale signs of a struggle. Drag marks in the gravel led away from the truck to where a fresh tire pattern was found. The tire tracks did not match those of Julie’s truck.

Perilous Findings

As the Springhill substation was not on Julie’s normal route, her going to the plant had been a spur-of-the-moment decision.

Investigators believe Julie’s apparent abduction was a crime of opportunity, although they do not dismiss the possibility that someone was following her and saw her visiting the remote location as an opportunity to abduct her.

Random Crime or Targeted?

Julie grew up in Portland, Oregon, and had been married to Mike Weflen for four years. The couple resided in Deer Park, twenty-two miles north of Spokane. By all accounts, the pair had a great relationship.

Mike was cleared of involvement in Julie’s disappearance as he was painting a house fifty miles from Spokane at the time. Julie’s ex-husband was also investigated and cleared on any involvement.

Mike and Julie

Thousands of missing person flyers of Julie Weflen were distributed nationwide. Her disappearance received extensive national coverage, including being profiled on America’s Most Wanted, Good Morning America, and West 57^th ,  but no solid leads were produced.

National Publicity 

Some investigators believe Julie Weflen’s apparent abduction may be related to the disappearances of two other women from Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, thirty-five miles east of Spokane, Washington.

Thirty-one-year-old Deborah Swanson, a special education teacher at Coeur d’Alene’s Sorensen Elementary School, disappeared on March 29, 1986, one-and-a-half years before Julie vanished.  Deborah was last seen hiking near the entrance of Tubbs Trail along Lake Coeur D’Alene. The circumstances of her disappearance are somewhat similar to Julie’s in that her car was found locked and abandoned along an isolated section of Tubbs Trail. Deborah’s purse was found inside her car and a K-Mart shopping bag was in the trunk. Police believe she was kidnapped while jogging along the trail.

Deborah, in addition, knew a man who lived near the Spokane substation from which Julie was abducted. The man refused to answer any questions when police attempted to ask him about the women’s disappearances. He is also believed to have mailed a threatening letter to Mike Weflen a few months after Julie’s disappearance.

A member of my Facebook group told me she recalled reading that this man knew both Deborah Swanson and Julie Weflen through the Spokane Mountaineering Club. For many years he has been considered a person of interest in both women’s disappearances.

Deborah Swanson

The case of another Coeur d’Alene woman may also be related to the disappearances of Julie Weflen and Deborah Swanson.

On May 16, 1986, seven weeks after Deborah’s disappearance and sixteen months before Julie’s vanishing, twenty-year-old Sally Stone visited her physical therapist for treatment of an injured knee. However, she did not arrive for her follow-up appointment three days later, nor did she visit her husband, in jail at the time after jumping bail on an auto theft charge.

Sally’s 1974 Chevrolet Nova was found in her apartment parking lot and all of her clothing and suitcases were found undisturbed in her apartment, although her purse was missing. Three days of newspapers had accumulated on her front porch, and a sizable insurance check lay unopened in her mailbox.

Sally had only lived in Coeur d’Alene for two months. She was an exotic dancer at the State Line’s Kon Tiki Night Club prior to her knee injury.

Like Julie Weflen and Deborah Swanson, Sally Stone is still missing.

Sally Stone

Three young women disappeared from a thirty-five-mile radius within fourteen months of one another. Nothing concretely links the disappearances of Deborah Swanson, Sally Stone, and Julie Weflen, but many investigators believe the cases could be linked.

No connection has been found that the women knew each other.

                       Are the Disappearances Related?

Gary Ridgway, also known as the Green River Killer, murdered at least forty-nine women from 1982-98. Robert Yates, the Spokane Killer confessed in 2000 to murdering thirteen Spokane women and five other Washington women from 1975-98.

Police have ruled out the two infamous serial killers of the Pacific Northwest as suspects in the women’s disappearances.

 

                                   Gary Ridgway                                    Robert Yates 

In a 2007 article in the Spokesman-Review, the Spokane Sheriff’s Department said they had received a tip regarding a person of interest in Julie Weflen’s disappearance.

A department spokesman said the man, now deceased, was interviewed and failed a polygraph test.

A Person of Interest 

Authorities say Julie’s locker at the Springhill Substation from where she had disappeared was cleaned out after her disappearance and nothing pertinent to her presumed abduction was found.

In 2011, twenty-four years after Julie’s disappearance, however, employees at the Bell Substation discovered that her locker there was still padlocked shut. The items retrieved from the locker were put into a storage container for investigators to search. Police have not released any information relating to the contents; it is unlikely they revealed anything substantive to her disappearance.

Locked Secrets?

Now remarried, Mike Weflen continues searching for answers to Julie’s disappearance.

With his current wife’s support, he keeps in contact with investigators and continues to push for publicity of Julie’s case.

Julie’s friends and family raised $80,000 as a reward for information leading to her whereabouts or remains.

The reward is still offered as is a separate $25,000 reward by the Bonneville Power Administration.

 

Rewards Still Offered

In 2020, John Polos, a co-worker of Julie’s at the Bonneville Power Plant who has investigated her disappearance on his own, said he believes the former person of interest in Julie and Deborah’s cases is responsible for both women’s disappearances.

The person of interest has never been publicly identified by police, but Polos says it is this man, Will Parks, who died in January 2020.

Will Parks

Also in 2020, a man came forward claiming to have witnessed Julie’s abduction, saying he saw her arguing with a man. The alleged witness, thirteen-years-old at the time, said he believed it was a domestic dispute because Julie and the man called each other by name.

Investigators have not commented on this information.

Did Julie Know Her Abductor?

Julie Ann Weflen has been missing since September 16, 1987.

At the time of her disappearance, she was twenty-eight-years-old, five-feet-two-inches tall and weighed one-hundred to one-hundred-ten pounds. She had brown hair, brown eyes, and both of her ears were pierced. Julie also had a scar on her back and a metal rod inserted in her spine. She enjoyed horseback riding.

Julie With Her Horse

Julie Weflen would today be sixty-four-years-old.

If you believe you have information relating to her disappearance, please contact the Spokane County, Washington, Sheriff’s Office at 509-477-4760.

Still Seeking Answers

Deborah Swanson and Sally Stone were both last seen in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, in 1986. Deborah disappeared on March 29; Sally on May 16.

At the time of her disappearance Deborah Jean Swanson was thirty-years-old, five-feet-four-inches tall and weighed one-hundred-thirty pounds. She had blonde hair, green eyes, and both her ears were pierced. She worked as a special education teacher and would today be sixty-nine-years-old.

Sally Anne Stone was twenty-one-years-old when she disappeared. She stood five-feet-one-inches tall and weighed one-hundred-fifteen pounds. She had brown hair, hazel eyes, and a five-to six-inch scar on her abdomen, possibly the result of a Cesarean section. Sally had a tattoo on her right shoulder of a parrot standing on a branch in front of a half-moon. Under the parrot is a ribbon with the word “Teko’s.” She also had another tattoo on her back.

Sally’s right knee was injured at the time of her disappearance and had recently been operated on. She worked as an exotic dancer under the stage name “Satania.” She would today be fifty-nine-years-old.

If you believe you have information regarding the disappearances of Deborah Swanson or Sally Stone, please contact the Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, Police Department 208-769-2320.

Authorities have not found any evidence that the disappearances of Deborah Swanson and Sally Stone are connected to each other or to the disappearance of Julie Weflen, but they also have not ruled out the possibility.

Three Missing Women 

SOURCES:

• Charley Project
• Doe Network
• Idaho Spokesman-Review
• KXLY TC, ABC Affiliate, Spokane Washington