Police seek to tie other cases to girl's death

The man suspected of abducting and killing a 12-year-old Tacoma girl is also being investigated for at least five similar crimes against children across the country.

Terapon Dang Adhahn, a 42 -year-old construction worker, was identified Friday by police as the suspect in the July 4 kidnapping and slaying of Zina Linnik.

Police said information provided by Adhahn through his attorney led them to Zina's body Thursday near Silver Lake, west of Eatonville in eastern Pierce County.

An exact cause of death was not disclosed, but Tacoma police Detective Gretchen Ellis said Zina's death was a homicide.

Murder charges haven't been filed against Adhahn, but Tacoma Police Chief Don Ramsdell said they are "anticipated."

Outside the family's Tacoma home on Friday, Zina's 18-year-old brother, Stan Linnik, said the girl's parents and seven siblings are "hurt, not angry. We still had hope, and now the hope is gone."

Because of the circumstances surrounding the girl's disappearance, Ramsdell said during a news conference Friday that police are looking into whether Adhahn may be responsible for similar unsolved crimes.

The cases include:

• Michella Welch, 12, a Tacoma girl who disappeared from Puget Park on March 26, 1986. Her body was found hours later.

• Jennifer Bastian, 13, whose body was found in Point Defiance Park on Aug. 28, 1986.

• Lenoria Jones, 4, of Tacoma, who disappeared July 20, 1995. • Teekah Lewis, 2, who disappeared from a Tacoma bowling alley on Jan. 23, 1999.

• Adre'Anna Jackson, 10, of Tillicum, Pierce County, who disappeared in December 2005 while walking to school. Her remains were found in a vacant lot in Lakewood, on April 4, 2006.

FBI Special Agent David Gomez said profilers are also looking into other unsolved homicides and child abductions across the country.

Gomez said Adhahn "was in the military and he traveled around other places."

Taken near home

Zina was abducted from an alley behind her home the night of July 4, police said. Witnesses provided police with a partial license-plate number of a gray van seen leaving the area. Armed with the number and the tip that the possible abductor was driving a gray van, a Tacoma police detective tracked down Adhahn after a computer search, said Ramsdell.

During a search of Adhahn's home on Monday, detectives seized several items, including "girl's undergarments," according to court documents.

Tacoma investigators then notified the U.S. Department of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, who took Adhahn into federal custody on suspicion of an immigration violation.

Immigration officials plan to seek the removal of Adhahn, a permanent legal U.S. resident from Thailand, whose two previous criminal convictions could qualify him for deportation. He was also charged Monday with failing to register as a convicted sex offender after an earlier conviction on an incest charge.

Voicing sympathy

"I'm kind of out of my mind, too, now. I just feel sorry for the girl's family, that beautiful girl," said a woman who identified herself as Adhahn's mother, when reached by telephone Friday.

Adhahn has long been a deeply troubled man who endured numerous hardships as a youth, and then transformed them into rage as an adult, according to court-ordered evaluations after the 1990 incest conviction. According to the reports, he was born in Bangkok, Thailand, and described his father as an angry alcoholic who was much feared. His parents divorced when he was 3 or 4.

Adhahn said he was continually sexually assaulted by an older brother between the ages of 7 and 9.

The brother's assaults stopped only when the family moved to America, after his mother married a member of the U.S. Army's Special Forces in 1975, according to court records.

In 1983, they moved to a military base in Germany, where Adhahn graduated from high school. Shortly thereafter, he enlisted in the Army, signing up a second time when his first stint was up.

At some point, he gained permanent legal residency status, but never became a U.S. citizen.

In 1986, Adhahn married and the couple had at least two children, court records state. He filed for divorce in 1998.

Tacoma police said their records show that Adhahn moved to the area around 1989, but may have spent time there earlier.

Over the years, he developed a serious drinking problem, according to court records.

"He is an angry and poorly controlled man with a plethora of psychological, emotional and behavioral problems," an evaluator concluded.

In March 1990, he was charged with raping a 16-year-old relative, according to court records. Adhahn ultimately pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of incest. He was sentenced to 60 days in jail, along with community supervision and extensive sex-offender treatment.

An evaluator concluded he showed signs of pedophilia and sadism, and recommended long-term therapy.

After his conviction, Adhahn became a production worker at American Nicheri Food in Fife and delivered pizza for a Lakewood Pizza Hut for a time.

In 1992, he was convicted in Tacoma Municipal Court of intimidation with a deadly weapon. Records of that case were not immediately available.

A judge found that Adhahn had completed sexual-deviancy treatment in 1997, after a counselor wrote that he showed "significant improvement in sexual arousal and can control his deviant thoughts."

Under the radar

Considering the two criminal convictions, Adhahn might have been deported. But he wasn't.

The Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement attributes that to the vagaries of immigration law, combined with a lack of a clear mechanism for bringing certain convictions to the attention of federal authorities.

Contrary to some reports, Adhahn is not an "illegal immigrant," said Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for the bureau. He was a legal permanent resident of the U.S. with a green card. The incest conviction isn't grounds for deportation because it's not an aggravated felony, which would have allowed authorities to immediately pursue removal, Kice said.

Instead, incest is considered a "crime of moral turpitude." Immigrants who have been in the country legally for more than five years can't be deported based solely on one conviction for such a crime, she said.

A second conviction for such a crime would have allowed authorities to pursue Adhahn's removal from the country.

Kice also said federal authorities were unaware of his 1992 intimidation conviction until recently, when Adhahn became a suspect in the Zina Linnik case.

The bureau assigns agents to check jails and prisons for unlawful immigrants and to follow many serious criminal cases, Kice said. But since this was in municipal court, it fell below the agency's radar.

Federal authorities detained Adhahn for immigration violations Monday, based on the two convictions. But it's unclear whether the municipal court charge would be considered serious enough to count as a second strike. That decision would come from an immigration judge.

Jennifer Sullivan: 206-464-8294 or jensullivan@seattletimes.com

Maureen O'Hagan: 206-464-2562 or mohagan@seattletimes.com

Information from Seattle Times staff reporters Roxana Popescu, Christine Clarridge and news researcher Miyoko Wolf is included in this report.