On March 11, 1995, 35-year-old Rodney Gochanour’s body was discovered on the Burke-Gilman Trail in Washington State. Just four days later, then 16-year-old Ian Simmers and his 14-year-old friend were arrested for vandalism, which included shooting a flare gun they had stolen from a boat, which caught fire during the teens’ crimes.
The teens were questioned about several fires in the area and said that during questioning, Simmers’ younger friend implicated him in the murder of Gochanour, reported The National Registry of Exonerations, a website maintained by the University of Michigan’s Law School. By March 20, just nine days after Gochanour’s body was found, Simmers was charged with first-degree murder. Detectives claimed Simmers confessed to the murder, saying he was looking to rob someone the night Gochanour died and stabbed the victim six times with a knife.
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