Puyallup couple found shot dead 30 years ago. Who killed the Andersons?
Thirty years ago this month, Graig and Anita Anderson returned to their Puyallup home from a school concert and would not be heard from by their loved ones again.
The next day, the Andersons were found shot to death on their living-room couch in what authorities said resembled a professional hit.
“They both had been shot multiple times. There was no sign of forced entry. Nothing appeared to be missing from the residence. Cash and other valuable items were still in the home,” Puyallup Police Department Capt. Kevin Gill told The News Tribune recently.
Their murders remained unsolved, taking on cold-case status.
Graig and Anita Anderson
Graig, also known as Andy, 62, served as an F-4 combat fighter pilot during the Vietnam War and retired from the U.S. Air Force, according to an online obituary.
He and Anita were married on Oct. 10, 1953, and had one son and three daughters, the obituary said.
They moved to the Puyallup area in 1992 and were owners of ERA Pacific Realty Inc. in Tacoma. They also owned a mobile home park in Texas.
The obituary said that though Anita would be busy with business affairs, she would find time to devote to her adult children and seven grandchildren.
The Andersons lived in a two-story home the Manorwood West neighborhood in Puyallup. The upscale neighborhood was showcased in 1986 as Pierce County’s first “Street of Dreams,” according to a 1995 News Tribune report.
Neighbors told The News Tribune at the time that the Manorwood was a quiet neighborhood, “the perfect place.”
‘An execution style murder’
Graig and Anita went to a concert at Cascade Christian School at 8:30 p.m. on May 16, 1995. They returned home that night, and the next day their friends and family noticed the couple were not answering their phones, Gill told The News Tribune.
That prompted some family members to go to the Anderson’s home at 8:48 p.m. in the 3700 block of 21st Street Southeast where Andy and Anita were found shot in the head on the living room couch.
“They both had been shot multiple times. There was no sign of forced entry. Nothing appeared to be missing from the residence. Cash and other valuable items were still in the home,” Gill said.
The Pierce County Medical Examiner’s Office noted the murders resembled a professional hit, he said.
“That’s certainly something that the detectives looked at,” Gill said. “But we don’t have any theory saying that it was truly like a professional hit, but it was kind of an execution style murder.”
Somebody had been in the home and somehow got in to kill the Andersons, he said.
There are a couple working theories on why someone might have wanted to kill the couple, but Gill could not comment on them as it is part of the active investigation.
After Anita and Graig’s bodies were found, Puyallup police dedicated their available resources to solving the murders. At the time, there was a low homicide rate in the city, The News Tribune report said.
“It was a pretty shocking homicide for the Puyallup community,” Gill said.
Where does the case stand now?
Gill said when it comes to cold cases, detectives look for how today’s advanced technology could help with any forensic evidence and also tips from people who might have valuable information.
“People age people over the years have time to reflect, and somebody out there might be sitting on information that they, for whatever reason, have chosen not to share,” he said.
Gill said it is important to continue bringing attention with cold cases because a whole lifetime has passed of police officers, a generation of neighbors, family and friends.
“So keeping this out there, letting people know what’s happening, that this is still an open case and a case we very much want to solve, that’s a big help to us,” he said.
Information about the shooting can go the PPD’s Tip Line at 253-770-3343 or tips@puyallupwa.gov.
“We know that there’s people out there that have to have some kind of information, and anything, any tips, any insight, however seemingly small, could be very important to the case,” Gill said.
