Search renewed for missing Redmond mother; hope DNA evidence will lead to body, killer

REDMOND, Wash. — Ten years after a Redmond mother disappeared without a trace, the search for her and her killer has resumed.

No one has seen Lorill Sinclaire since she disappeared in November of 2011.

Now Redmond police are hoping advances in the use of DNA might help them crack the case at long last.

Sinclaire’s son talked by phone about 20 minutes about his mom but said he didn’t want to talk on camera.

He was just 16 when she disappeared.

Now hoping, he says, that this renewed search will lead to her and bring her killer to justice.

These are among the last images anyone has of 48-year-old Lorill Sinclaire. The professional home designer who worked out of her own Redmond home disappeared without a trace in early November of 2011.

“Homicides are difficult to investigate even when you have all the pieces there,” said Det. Sgt. Jesse Bollerud. “The suspect and victim, the family and the witnesses.”

Bollerud says puzzling out what happened to Sinclaire is especially difficult because they are missing a giant piece, Sinclaire herself.

“When you’re putting that puzzle together and you’ve got a giant piece missing, it’s taxing,” he said.

The mother, sister and daughter was last seen near the Factoria Mall in Bellevue 10 years ago on Nov. 8.

A few days later her car was found, a 1991 burgundy Ford Escort, in the parking lot of this LDS Church on 124th Avenue Southeast.

The next month, about 70 search and rescue volunteers, complete with a dog and horse team, searched a trail in Bellevue’s Coal Creek Park.  But they came up empty.

Investigators told us then they had three persons of interest, including her ex-husband, ex-boyfriend and one of his friends.

Bollerud was asked if one of them remains a person of interest.

“There’s one particular person that we are focusing the majority of our attention on right now,” he said.

They believe better tools will help them ultimately solve this vexing case.

“The advancement in DNA technology has absolutely come leaps and bounds,” said Bollerud. “So, what we’re hoping is if there is some way to be pointed to physical evidence.  Of course, our eventual hope is to find Lorill Sinclaire.”

In the last hour, we received a statement from Sinclaire’s sister. It says, in part, “we are hopeful new leads or information will surface... to give us the long awaited closure to her disappearance.”

Judy Sinclaire describes her sister as “a lovely girl with a huge heart” who is “sorely missed every day.”

Redmond police would not disclose more about the person of interest.

They are hoping someone who knows something will come forward.

They want very much to find Sinclaire’s body believing that could ultimately be the key to solving her case.

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