When a welfare check on Sherry Harlan led the Snohomish County police to her tattered and bloody apartment, they knew something much more sinister had happened. But an investigation would soon uncover a murder twisted up in pagan magic.
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Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence and is not intended for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised.
It's almost like he would rather live in his car and spend his money on stupid things like games and stuff like that instead of reality. Thank you.
We have this saying we throw around here a lot. The worst monsters are real. It's not something we came up with in a focus group or that someone threw around in a water cooler discussion. Something that would be great for a t-shirt. No, it's something that developed a lot more organically than that.
When you get hit over the head with an idea over and over and over again, even for the dumbest of us, something eventually sticks. What happened on New Year's Day in Everett, Washington, is a great example of that. The misty city of Everett was boasting its typical winter colors of gray and green.
Nestled in Puget Sound, it's your typical Pacific Northwest port town, where the drab rainy skies are offset by the endless green shrubbery and towering Douglas fir trees. Beautiful, but super depressing. Outside the Cedar Creek apartments, two officers arrived to do a welfare check on 35-year-old Sherry Harlan.
She had grown up until she was a teenager in Oregon, had moved to Washington with her mother. She was working at JCPenney and had just moved to a new apartment.
This is former Deputy District Attorney Craig Matheson.
My name is Craig Matheson. I was a deputy prosecuting attorney for Snohomish County. I did that for 35 years and retired in June of 2024.
Shelly hadn't shown up for the last few shifts at JCPenney. One of my first jobs worked in the men's underwear department. More suit and everything. It's crazy. Imagine young Mike Boudet in a suit at JCPenney selling you underwear. Neither can I. Anyway, Sherry's coworkers grew more and more concerned every time they tried to call her because they weren't getting an answer.
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