Kent Reporter’s most viewed website stories of 2022

A article about a missing disabled Kent woman found safe after spending nine days inside a vehicle topped the most viewed stories on the Kent Reporter website in 2022.

A convicted teen murderer caught in Kent came in second on the list. He had escaped from a juvenile detention center in Snohomish County.

Here are the top 10 most viewed stories on the Kent Reporter’s website for 2022, with the number of pageviews, according to Google Analytics:

■ 1: Missing disabled Kent woman found safe after spending 9 days inside vehicle

25,786 pageviews/Feb. 22

Summary: A severely disabled Kent woman spent nine days inside a vehicle in a tow yard after the vehicle had been towed from a Kent gas station with her inside. An officer took a missing person report on Feb. 14 from a woman who said her 28-year-old severely disabled sister had not been seen since Feb. 5 when her mother, a 45-year-old Kent resident, parked her vehicle at a gas station and walked off, leaving her disabled daughter inside, according to the Feb. 22 police statement. Officers determined the vehicle had been privately towed at the request of gas station personnel to a lot in Burien. Police contacted the tow company, who then located the woman inside the vehicle. She had been inside the car for nine days alone during near freezing temperatures.

■ 2: Convicted teen murderer caught at a Kent McDonald’s parking lot

19,633 pageviews/Jan. 22

Summary: Kent Police helped the King County Sheriff’s Office catch a 15-year-old convicted murderer at a McDonald’s parking lot on the East Hill. The teen had escaped about 18 hours earlier from a juvenile detention center in Snoqualmie. Timothy Hernandez-Ebanks was taken into custody without incident at about 1:30 a.m. Jan. 27 at a parking lot near the McDonald’s and the Chevron in the 10700 block of Southeast 240th Street.

■ 3: Federal Way officer receives suspension for posting controversial TikTok video

16,875 pageviews/Aug. 12

Summary: A Federal Way officer who posted a controversial TikTok video received a suspension after the department found two conduct violations, according to the Federal Way Police Department. Officer Breanna Straus is seen sitting inside a vehicle while in uniform in the video. Straus urges people to move out of the way when officers are driving behind them. “If we’re driving on the freeway in our police car, get the f—- out of the way,” she says in the TikTok video. “I can go 90 miles an hour, you can’t. You can’t do that. So get the f—- out of the way. If us officers stay behind you long enough, we can find a reason to pull you over.”

■ 4: Kent Police assistant chief suspended for displaying Nazi insignia

12,202 pageviews/Jan. 3

Summary: Derek Kammerzell, an assistant chief with the Kent Police Department, received a two-week suspension in July 2021 after displaying a Nazi symbol on the office door above his name. Kammerzell, a 27-year veteran of the department, was suspended by Police Chief Rafael Padilla for violating city policy prohibiting harassment and discrimination and for unbecoming conduct in violation of police policy. Padilla took the action after Kammerzell posted the insignia attributed to a Nazi military rank, according to a July 14, 2021, Notice of Discipline document issued by Padilla to Kammerzell. Update: Kammerzell was put on paid administrative leave in December 2021 after news broke about the July suspension and asked to resign. He declined to resign and then left the force in June after the city paid him a $1.5 million settlement.

■ 5: Ravensdale author pens update on Judith Mawson, ex-wife of the Green River Killer

11,262 pageviews/May 17, 2021

Summary: This story was published in 2021 and made the top-10 most viewed list for the second consecutive year. King County deputies in 2001 arrested Gary Ridgway, the man who would go on to receive 49 life sentences after confessing to killing dozens of women and girls in the Puget Sound area. Since then, many of the lawyers who prosecuted and defended the Green River Killer have died. Ridgway, 73, has spent the last 21 years of his life behind bars. New victims have been identified, bringing some measure of relief to their families. But few have changed as much as Judith Mawson, the woman wed to Ridgway for 14 years – a time in which he led a double life, playing the role of the hardworking, stable husband while continuing his killing streak.

■ 6: Kent mother, 19, charged with killing her 2-year-old son

8,272 pageviews/Aug. 2

Summary: A 19-year-old Kent woman faces a second-degree murder charge for allegedly striking her 2-year-old son more than once in the abdomen and slamming him down on a hardwood floor after he wouldn’t go back to sleep. Kent Police arrested Sandy Noemi Fernandez July 28 at her West Hill residence. Update: Fernandez is on electronic home detention and awaiting trial, according to King County jail records.

■ 7: Seattle Police make large drug bust in downtown Kent

7,051 pageviews/March 31

Summary: After tracking a suspected Seattle narcotics trafficker for months, Seattle Police Department officers found and arrested the 55-year-old man in downtown Kent in the 200 block of West Meeker Street on March 29, according to Seattle Police Blotter online report. Officers arrested the man and searched his vehicle where they reportedly found 890 grams of methamphetamine, 863 grams of heroin, 577 grams of fentanyl pills, 14 grams of cocaine, two handguns and more than $20,000 in cash.

■ 8: Body found in Kent along Canyon Drive

6,721 pageviews/Jan. 13

Summary: A body was found Jan. 13 in the 25200 block of Canyon Drive in Kent. Police reported the next day it was the body of a woman. No other details were released.

■ 9: Kent woman, 40, dies after reportedly walking in front of a train

6,291 pageviews/Feb. 17

Summary: A 40-year-old Kent woman was killed when she reportedly stepped in front of a northbound Sounder commuter train at about 7:11 a.m. Feb. 17. The incident occurred just south of East Willis Street near West Crow Street and Railroad Avenue South, according to an email from Kent Police Assistant Chief Jarod Kasner. “Initial information is that the female pedestrian walked in front of the train,” Kasner said.

■ 10: Auburn Police jail a Kent man after major drug bust

6,167 pageviews/April 27

Summary: The Auburn Police Department reports that it seized 82,400 fentanyl pills, 1.8 pounds of heroin, 3.8 pounds of methamphetamine, $173,138 in U.S. currency and two firearms from a Kent man’s apartment after serving two residential search-arrest warrants on the afternoon of April 20.