Drug dealer gets 21 years for Belltown murder
Oct 26, 2012, 1:34 PM | Updated: 1:53 pm
A drug felon from Utah is sentenced to 21 years in prison for the strangulation murder of a woman in her Belltown apartment.
The body of Michelle Thornton was found in the closet of her home on Jan. 6, 2011, about one week after she was last seen.
Checking surveillance video, Seattle police identified Gary Wade, 42, as a man seen coming and going from the building multiple times over several weeks, including right before and after she disappeared. Detectives think Wade was selling crack cocaine.
D.N.A. and fingerprint evidence also linked Wade to the murder. He was arrested in February, 2011 and admitted putting Thornton’s body in the closet while denying he killed her. A jury convicted Wade of second degree murder last month.
Thornton was reported missing after she failed to show up for work at the Queen Anne Safeway store on Dec. 30, 2011.
