Andy & Anita Anderson

On the evening of 17 May 1995, the relatives of Andy and Anita Anderson discovered their bodies in the living room of their Puyallup, Washington home. The elderly couple had been mysteriously killed, the motive for which remains unknown decades later…

Growing up, I had this friend named Robert.

Robert was an interesting kid; he was very funny and very smart, but also very... boisterous. That's a good word to describe Robert. Often times, he would just say things to say them, and often ended up repeating the same stories and the same jokes over and over again just to fill the silence. Surprisingly, this was one of his positive characteristics... Robert was a natural storyteller, whose ability to spin a yarn with his immature (and often-inappropriate) humor made him insanely likeable. He was one of those people that was friends with everyone in school, and thrived in social environments.

In a small coincidence, Robert lived just down the street from my grandparents - who I've always been incredibly close with. Without going into too much detail, my grandparents helped raise me, and I love them with all of my heart. Growing up, I would spend weeks at their home every summer, and I'm still very close with them today.

So, of course, every time I would go over and visit, Robert would be there. He would become a mainstay around my family's house, and he is still very close to some of my family members. Even though we've both since moved away from our hometown - which is Puyallup, WA - Robert still stops by to say hi to my family when he's in-town.

I wouldn't say that Robert and I are like brothers or anything like that. We were never that close, but I'd say that he almost feels like a cousin... if that makes sense.

Anyhow, the very first time that Robert came over to my grandparent's house - back when we were both teenagers - he made an odd remark about a house just two doors down from my grandparent's. He called it a "murder house," which - as you can imagine - made teenage me incredibly suspicious. So I asked him what he meant, and he explained that when he was younger - around 4 or 5 years old - that house had been the scene of a murder.

Of course, I didn't believe him. This was Robert - he often told stories, and had a tendency to believe any rumor as true. He was known to embellish things, so I just stored that comment in the back of my mind. There it just kinda sat for... years, with me not really thinking about it.

Over time, I noticed some odd happenings at that house. Like I said, I spent a lot of time over at my grandparent's home, and I even lived there for bit after high school. I would notice neighbors constantly coming and going from the home that my friend Robert described as "the murder house," and I even made note of some families lasting mere months; in at least one case, just weeks. That was when I noticed a family seeming to move out in the dead of night, packing up their moving truck at around midnight. By the morning, they were gone.

To me and some of my other friends, this was proof that the house was haunted. Of course, with this train of thought, the comment that Robert had told me once upon a time ago came back to my recollection. Yet... I still didn't believe him. Not really.

Those that have listened to these podcasts for a while know that I have always been interested in true crime and unsolved mysteries. I started this podcast - Unresolved - way back in 2015, and it was shortly after that that my buddy Robert sent me a message. He reminded me of the "murder house" and told me to look into it.

At this point, I still didn't believe him... until I started looking into it. Lo and behold... Robert had been telling me the truth the entire time. There HAD been a murder in that house, which is just two doors down from my grandparents' home. It is a murder that is still unsolved to this day.

This is the story of Andy and Anita Anderson.

Graig Anderson was a retired fighter pilot, who often went by his given nickname - "Andy." In his youth, he found the love of his life - Anita - whom he would remain married to for decades.

Andy and Anita Anderson split their time living in both Washington state and Texas, choosing to spend their Springs and Summers in Washington, where the weather was much more temperate. There, they managed a real estate business named ERA Pacific Realty, which was based out of neighboring Tacoma. They would then spent their Falls and Winters in Texas, where they managed a 55-acre RV park the other half of the year.

According to those that knew the couple, neither were even considering retirement as they approached typical retirement age. Despite being rather well-off, they seemed to enjoy their work, and it kept them happily occupied in the daytime hours.

Both Andy and Anita seemed to enjoy their lives and the balance they had found, enjoying the best parts of both states - Washington and Texas - as well as having access to a wide array of family and friends, who were seemingly spread all through the country.

Andy and Anita had four children - three daughters and one son - all of whom were of adult age when they purchased their home in Puyallup, WA. You see, all of their children lived in Washington, and at this point in time, had started having children of their own. Andy and Anita wanted to be close to their grandchildren; who numbered seven in total as of 1995.

At the time, Puyallup was little more than a suburb of Tacoma: a much larger city that's roughly halfway between Seattle and the state's capital, Olympia. Puyallup wasn't nearly as populated or as congested as it is now, with a population of around 25,000 when Andy and Anita moved there in the early 1990's.

Andy and Anita Anderson purchased a home in Puyallup, WA in 1992, which they lived in part-time. The home was a cute little two-door home which is in a quiet little neighborhood nestled away in a heavily-forested region of town. The neighborhood in question - Manorwood - is conveniently placed between an elementary school and a junior high school, making it perfect for families.

In fact, the street that Andy and Anita lived on had been given a nickname: the "Street of Dreams," which was noted for having several beautiful homes that gave the neighborhood the air of affluence. Of course, many of the people that lived there were just normal families and retirees, but the street itself was very scenic, and in 1986, it was featured in the county's first "Street of Dreams" home show, which is how it earned this nickname... a nickname that has seemed to stick in the decades since.

In the Spring of 1995, Andy and Anita Anderson were preparing themselves for another beautiful Washington summer. They had just returned from Texas in April, and were already making plans to spend time with their multiple children and grandchildren that lived in the area. Neighbors recall them having their grandkids over all of the time, and - from the outside - they just seemed to be normal, loving grandparents.

On May 16th, 1995 - a Tuesday - things seemed to be normal for the Anderson clan.

That evening, Andy and Anita visited with their children and grandchildren, and attended a concert at their granddaughter's school: a nearby private school named Cascade Christian. It was the school's Spring Concert, and kids were getting increasingly excited for the pending summer break.

The concert finished up, and at around 8:30 PM, Andy and Anita said goodbye to their family members. Their children planned to speak to them soon, and promised to call the very next day to figure out some plans for the weekend that they had been talking about.

The very next day - May 17th, a Wednesday - Andy and Anita's children tried calling their home multiple times. Each call would go straight to voicemail, and soon, the hours began to pass without a single call going through. This would raise suspicions, as Andy and Anita were both very punctual people who rarely missed a call - let alone ignore their own children for hours. It just wasn't heard of.

Andy and Anita's daughter, Deborah - who lived nearby with her family - had been planning on heading out of town with her husband that weekend. Because of that, Andy and Anita were going to babysit for them, and they had planned on calling on Wednesday to nail down their plans. Yet, Andy and Anita were nowhere to be found, and hadn't answered any of their phones - work or home - all day long.

So, that evening, Deborah and her husband decided to stop in (along with their children, who they had been planning on dropping off that night). They arrived at the Anderson's home - which was located on the corners of 21st Street and 38th Avenue SE - shortly after 8:00 PM. It appeared like the elder Andersons were at-home, since Andy's Cadillac was in the driveway. When Deborah and her husband peered in through the front blinds, they could see figures resembling Andy and Anita sitting on the living room couch, but they seemingly made no attempt to answer the front door, even after repeated attempts at knocking.

Fearing something was terribly wrong, Deborah and her husband circled around to the backyard to get a better view inside. When they got to the backyard, they discovered that the back door was ajar... and they made their way inside, hoping to see if their parents were in there.

Inside the family's living room, they discovered the bodies of both Andy and Anita, who had been left resting on the couple's living room couch. It was evident that the two were indeed deceased, and likely had been for at least a day or two - having been left there to be discovered by their own children, who called police just before 9:00 PM that night.

Police arrived at the scene that evening, and quickly surmised that both Andy and Anita Anderson had been shot to death in what was an apparent double-homicide.

Each of the victims had been shot in the head multiple times, in what has been described in some reports as "execution-style." It was not believed to be a murder-suicide, since there was no weapon found near the couple, and they were not believed to own a firearm matching the murder weapon. In addition, both Andy and Anita had been shot in the head multiple times, seeming to rule out any kind of suicide.

It was estimated that the two had been killed at least a day prior, with police believing that Andy and Anita might have been killed on Tuesday night, after returning from their granddaughter's school concert.

This was not believed to be a burglary or a burglary-gone-wrong, as nothing in the home seemed to be missing. Likewise, there was no sign of forced entry whatsoever, and - other than the carnage in the living room - nothing else in the house seemed to be astray. There wasn't even a sign of any struggle having taken place, and - as far as police could tell - not a single door or window had been forced open.

Police indicated to family members that the killer might have been someone known to Andy and/or Anita: perhaps someone they knew from work, an old friend or acquaintance, etc. Because of this, it was possible that there was some personal motive at-play here, but - if so - police had no idea what it was. They could find no motive whatsoever for anyone to target either of the Andersons, and their investigation would almost immediately hit a brick wall, with the Andersons having a pretty inocuous past free of any turmoil or drama.

The only real lead that would arise over the course of the investigation was the possibility that this had been a professional hit. And that idea only arose when the Medical Examiner for Pierce County stated that this was his belief, due to the type of shooting that had killed both Andy and Anita, as well as the circumstances with which this crime had been carried out. The killer had left behind no kind of calling card or evidence of any kind. They had simply gone in and killed 62-year-old Andy and 60-year-old Anita Anderson, but their M.O. was a complete mystery to investigators as they struggled to figure out why someone would carry out this crime.

Following this brutal double-murder, the neighborhood itself was pretty shocked. This was the first multiple-killing in Puyallup in more than 20 years, and it had happened to a couple approaching typical retirement age; who, as far as anyone know, had no real demons or enemies of any kind. Additionally, it had happened just a stone's throw away from both an elementary school and a junior high school, which seemed to add to the urgency of the case.

Speaking to local newspaper The News Tribune, Puyallup Mayor Mike Deal stated:

"People in Puyallup feel relatively safe. Then something like this happens. It makes us question how safe are we."

The day after the bodies were discovered - on Thursday evening: May 18th, 1995 - an informational hearing was held at Ferruci Junior High School, which was just down the road from the Anderson's home. At this hearing, police spoke about the crime itself, but seemed less-than-optimistic about their own investigation, which was still in its infancy. This did little to ease the fears of those in the community, who had come out to this meeting in droves, vastly exceeding the auditorium's 200 or so seats to the point that the hearing was now standing room only.

Police reiterated that they were stepping up patrols in the region, but tried to cement their position that this was an isolated incident... in no way was it, they believed, the beginning of a spree.

Puyallup Police Commander Rodger Cool told reporters and the public that night:

"The victims could have been deceased for 24 hours. That's why we want to backtrack and find out what happened to them.

"We have no motive and no suspects at this time. We have no way of knowing it was random. But at this point we think it's an isolated incident."

Police were hoping to encourage those with information to come forward; specifying that they were looking to hear from those that had spoken to or seen the Andersons between their time of their discovery - roughly 8:00 PM on the evening of May 17th - and the last time they had been seen by family - the same time the night prior, May 16th. This gave police a roughly 24-hour window in which this crime had been carried out, in which the killer had somehow gained entry to the Anderson's two-story home and shot them to death.

It was theorized that the killer might have somehow gained entry the night of the school concert - Tuesday, May 16th, 1995 - and had possibly been lying in wait when they returned home. Surprisingly, Andy and Anita's neighbors had not seen or heard anything suspicious; not even the gunshots, of which there had been several. This seemed to add to the mystique of the case itself, as it seemed to many that a ghost had committed these crimes.

It is unknown if police received any valuable information from friends, family, neighbors, coworkers, or other acquaintances, but they would receive numerous tips over the next several days. These were tips that police described as "little" at the time, and contained - as they described - "nothing concrete."

In the coming weeks, investigaotrs would begin to narrow the scope of their investigation, eventually ruling out burglary or other related crimes entirely. They believed that the killer - or killers - had intentionally targeted the Andersons and planned to do them harm, but their motivation for doing so continued to elude police.

In a statement released about a week after the crime, police would disclose:

"After careful examination of the information and the evidence available so far, we now feel very confident that the homicide was probably not a random act. We also believe that the crime was probably not the result of an 'interrupted burglary.'"

Puyallup Police Commander Rodger Cool added:

"We definitely don't have any suspects and are looking in a lot of different directions. But we're pretty confident it wasn't random and thought it was fair we told everyone that."

Eventually, a reward of $50,000 would be offered up by a private citizen who chose to remain anonymous in the press. This reward would later be doubled - to $100,000 - but that would only happen after years had passed without any resolution. At the time, decades had gone by with the case remaining unsolved, and that is unfortunately its current status.

Police are still no closer to solving this case than they were back in May of 1995, having made repeated attempts to gather information from the public. This had happened sporadically - with the case being featured sparsely in newspaper articles and the random TV spot over the years, including a 2012 appearance on regional program Washington's Most Wanted. Yet, the case remains a pretty obscure one, with not many media outlets reporting on it. In fact - other than a few mentions - it hasn't really received much attention since the mid-2000's, which is when the newspaper articles seemed to dry up and the leads stopped circulating.

I have been back to visit my grandparents a few times since I learned about this story, and it's given me a new perspective on the house the Andersons once lived in; their home, which my buddy Robert once referred to as the "murder house." I've walked by it knowing that a couple spent their final moments in there, likely unaware that their unfortunate and tragic death would remain a mystery for decades afterwards.

I personally don't believe in ghosts or hauntings or anything like that, but with everything I've heard and seen from that house in the years since.... it can make me stop and think sometimes. Who knows: maybe there is something to the paranormal, and maybe the Andersons are as desperate for justice now as they were 24 years ago.

Last year, I attempted to reach out to Puyallup Police and the Pierce County Sheriff's Office to learn more about the case, but - due to it still being an active and unsolved case - there was no information to be obtained. Police seem to be hoping that a new piece of information will reveal itself in this case, but - until such time - the stories of Graig "Andy" Anderson and his wife, Anita Anderson, remain unresolved.

Episode Information

Episode Information

Writing, research, hosting, and production by Micheal Whelan

Originally published on Patreon on August 1st, 2019

Published on April 10th, 2021

Producers: Roberta Janson, Ben Krokum, Gabriella Bromley, Steven Wilson, Quil Carter, Travis Scsepko, Laura Hannan, Bryan Hall, Damion Moore, Scott Meesey, Amy Hampton, Scott Patzold, Marie Vanglund, Astrid Kneier, Aimee McGregor, Jo Wong, Sara Moscaritolo, Sydney Scotton, Thomas Ahearn, Marion Welsh, Patrick Laakso, Rebecca O'Sullivan, Meadow Landry, Tatum Bautista, Sally Ranford, Kevin McCracken, Ruth Durbin, Michele Watson, Jared Midwood, Teunia Elzinga, Ryan Green, Jacinda C., Stephanie Joyner, Cherish Brady, and Lauren

Music Credits

Original music created by Micheal Whelan through Amper Music

Theme music created and composed by Ailsa Traves

Sources and other reading

Tacoma Pierce-County Crime Stoppers - “Unsolved Homicides - 1995 - Victims Anita & Graig Anderson”

253crimestoppers - “WMW Andy and Anita Anderson homicide” (Video)

The Seattle Times - “Puyallup Police Talk Safety Following Double Slaying”

And a bunch of old Tacoma News Tribune articles I can no longer access online for whatever reason, but will look into linking ASAP