Tag Archives: interlaken

Sunday: Seattle Marathon 2024 winds way through Interlaken Park

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The pedestrian and bicycling-only curves of E Interlaken Blvd will be filled with thousands of runners, rollers, joggers, and don’t give up you can do it walkers as the Seattle Marathon passes across the north slope of Capitol Hill Sunday morning.

The Seattle Department of Transportation says there will be trail and street closures across the route including SR-99, the Burke-Gilman, and I-5 Express lanes. Streets should reopen by 2:30 PM. Be prepared for delays along 24th Ave E where the route crosses the artery.

The full marathon’s official start time is 7 AM. Many participants won’t arrive in Interlaken until noon.

Around 15,000 participants are expected across the day’s events including the half and full marathon. In 2023, there were more than 1.700 runners and walkers who finished. Times ranged up to 18 minutes per mile for the slowest having the most fun-est runners.

In 2019, marathon organizers re-routed the course away from Interlaken as part of moves needed to avoid light rail construction on the I-90 bridge and flatten the course. After the pandemic forced the cancellation of the 2020 race, organizers finally restored the Interlaken portion of the run for the race’s 2022 edition.

Crowds gather on the northern fringes of Capitol Hill to mark mile 22.5 of the race with an annual final boost of cheering and enthusiasm.

More information on the race is at seattlemarathon.org.

 

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That viral ‘Seattle serial killer’ video about Capitol Hill’s Interlaken Park is full of beans

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A Tik Tok account producing a series of “Seattle serial killer on the loose” videos has lucked into a viral hit with a clip about two bodies found in 2016 and 2021 in Capitol Hill’s Interlaken Park.

The information in the 16-second video is out of date, embellished for dramatic effect, and ignores key findings and facts reported years ago by CHS.

The video centers on two unsolved deaths in the park and claims to tie the cases together.

The first is the 2021 murder of Necia McKendrick whose body was found along a small creek below the North Capitol Hill park. CHS reported this summer on the Seattle Police Department’s lack of progress in the case and worries from her family that the 45-year-old had been the victim of domestic violence.

The King County Medical Examiner says McKendrick was killed about a week before her body was found on the afternoon of Sunday, May 30th in a small stream below the park by a homeowner who called 911 about the sad discovery. It is not clear where McKendrick was killed. Police say the on-scene investigation yielded “no obvious information about the circumstance that led to the death” due to the condition of the body and the location in the area of the small, muddy stream. The site is near E Interlaken Blvd that winds through the park — a popular route for walkers and bicyclists that is closed to motor vehicles.

Her murder remains unsolved.

The video spreading on Seattle social media this week claims a second woman’s body was found in mysterious circumstances in the park but leaves most of the details vague while including a photograph from CHS coverage of the story from eight years ago.

There was no woman’s body. Continue reading →

‘Q’: The case of a murdered Broadway street artist is going cold

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(Image: SPD)

It has been three years since Necia “Q” McKendrick-Mendez was murdered and her body left to rot hidden in a Capitol Hill park for a week. The killing was a street crime and will likely stay that way.

Seattle Police provided no updates to CHS on its investigation despite multiple inquiries to the department’s public information office over recent weeks on the three-year anniversary of the discovery of McKendrick-Mendez’s body next to a stream in Interlaken Park. At the time, police say the on-scene investigation yielded “no obvious information about the circumstances that led to the death” due to the condition of the body and the location in the area of the small, muddy stream.

Investigators determined the woman died of “multiple blunt force injuries” around May 23rd. She was 45.

McKendrick-Mendez’s family says they, too, stopped hearing from SPD long ago. Continue reading →

Murder: New information on woman found dead below Interlaken Park — UPDATE

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Seattle Police are continuing to investigate the murder of a woman found dead in the wooded area below Interlaken Park behind a Montlake home last week.

Investigators have identified the woman as Necia Mckendrick. The King County Medical Examiner says the 45-year-old was killed about a week before her body was found on the afternoon of Sunday, May 30th in a small stream below the park by a homeowner who called 911 about the sad discovery.

Investigators have determined McKendrick died of “multiple blunt force injuries” around May 23rd. Continue reading →

Homicide investigation after woman’s body found in wooded area of Interlaken Park

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Seattle Police say homicide detectives are investigating after a woman was found dead Sunday in a small stream below the wooded Interlaken Park.

SPD reports a resident called 911 about the woman’s body found Sunday afternoon lying in the stream in a wooded area behind a house in the 1900 block of E Eaton Place in the Montlake neighborhood. Continue reading →

Big ticket items in *possibly* softer Capitol Hill real estate market: Rocker’s mansion, playwright’s E Aloha home

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(Image: Sotheby’s International Realty Affiliates LLC)

With the neighborhood’s Millionaire’s Row and Harvard-Belmont Landmark District, it’s not unusual to see spectacular Capitol Hill real estate listings. It’s no Neighbours, but a 1912-built Interlaken Dr. E home is worthy of note.

For one, it’s owned by a trust associated with Seattle rocker Ann Wilson. For two, its $4.7 million price tag might provide further evidence of softening home prices in Seattle. Continue reading →

Seattle Parks ready to cut ribbon on new Interlaken staircase and bike runnel

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Seattle has found it a major challenge to create much of its planned bike infrastructure but one important new feature for riders headed for Capitol Hill via Interlaken Blvd will be celebrated with a ribbon cutting Saturday.

The celebration for the newly completed Interlaken Park Path and Stair Upgrade will begin this Saturday at 9:30 AM (PDF) at the corner of Boyer and Howe. Continue reading →

With new, flatter course, Seattle Marathon no longer crossing Capitol Hill

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Sunday, the Seattle Marathon will once again circle the city. But this year, the runners, joggers, and walkers won’t be crossing Capitol Hill.

Race organizers are rolling out a new route in 2018 that leans heavily on the Burke Gilman Trail but will no longer include the old course’s path through Capitol Hill via Interlaken. Continue reading →

With small slide below Interlaken, soggy March brings landslide concerns

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An unbelievably soggy March has neighbors in the sloping areas on the north of Capitol Hill worried about landslides.

A small slide closed 14th Ave E between Boyer and Lynn to through traffic Saturday morning. With continuing rains, you can expect to see more mud.

March has already reached its average rainfall totals following weeks of even wetter than usual weather around Seattle.

CHS has reported on small slides over the years and concerns about the slopes of northern Capitol Hill and around Interlaken Park. Our nature writer documented the landslide risk of the area in 2014 including the Hill’s geologic past of glacial till and water-pooling clay:

Then we come in. The grade is altered, creating new faults. Hills are denuded of trees, which hold slopes and mitigate flooding. Barriers to natural water flow diverts it toward unforeseen consequences. People understandably want views and build on cliffs, changing the loads on hills. Generally things more even more unstable. West Capitol Hill, Interlaken, North Capitol Hill. Slides every decade going back in our modern record. I won’t tally the slides in Hill history — that would take too long.

For the most part, recent slides have been mostly limited in damage. In 2011, cracks from the sliding hillside forced an indefinite closure of Interlaken Drive. It reopened after repairs five months later.

Sunday, give 2016 Seattle Marathoners a boost as they pass through Interlaken Park

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Around 10 AM Sunday, thousands of runners — and more than a few walkers — will be passing through Interlaken Park on their way to completing the 2016 Seattle Marathon.

The northern fringes of Capitol Hill will once again mark mile 22.5 of the race so it’s an important area for providing one final boost of cheering and enthusiasm.

The course nearly encircles Central Seattle with lots of street closures and detours. So, basically, the day for runners is also a good day for walking.

More information on the 2016 race is at seattlemarathon.org.