Man charged with murder of teen after 30-plus years

Friends say James Groth has looked over his shoulder for nearly 33 years, worried that yet another detective would step forward with a question about the killing of his childhood neighbor.

Groth, then 16, was interviewed hours after Diana Peterson's father found his 16-year-old daughter stabbed to death in the backyard of their Innis Arden home in February 1975. He failed a polygraph test shortly thereafter, and another in May 2006.

On Friday, after continued investigation by cold-case detectives, Groth, 49, was charged with first-degree murder. The Seattle fisherman was just three days away from walking out of the King County Jail after serving eight months for domestic violence, according to his girlfriend.

"It's a relief," Peterson's brother, John, said of Friday's charge. "We all think about her a lot."

King County sheriff's spokesman John Urquhart attributes the charge to more than a year of work by a new batch of detectives and prosecutors.

He said there is no DNA link that led them to believe Groth is responsible for the slaying.

Groth and Peterson were classmates at the former Shoreline High School. Investigators say he was infatuated with her and made lewd comments about her behind her back. Peterson had also accused him of peeping into her window, according to charging documents.

On the night of Feb. 14, 1975, Peterson, a friend and Groth sat in the basement of the Peterson home watching TV. Peterson's mother agreed to let the girl join a group of friends for pizza as long as she returned home within an hour, court papers said.

For some reason, Groth stayed behind.

Shortly after Peterson arrived home, her mother heard two screams from the backyard, court papers said. Leanne Peterson looked outside and saw what appeared to be two shadows "wrestling." She opened the door and yelled her daughter's name five times, but when she heard no response, she closed the door.

"The yard light went on and I heard a scream," Leanne Peterson said in a 2002 interview with The Seattle Times. "I yelled out the window and told her to be quiet."

Leanne Peterson said she thought her daughter was "just fooling around."

The girl's bedroom was empty when her mother checked it at 12:20 a.m., court papers said.

About 6 the next morning, George Peterson found his daughter dead in the yard.

Family members recall Peterson, known as "Dinah," as fiercely independent and sometimes rebellious. The middle of the Petersons' nine children, she excelled in her high-school cooking class. On the night she died, she baked two pie crusts, pricking patterns that spelled "Welcome all strangers" and "Smile, God loves you." The second phrase is on her headstone, her family said.

Soon after the slaying, the Petersons moved to what is now the Richmond Beach neighborhood of Shoreline.

After failing his first polygraph test, court papers said, Groth told detectives that he saw Peterson's body in the backyard that night, with a knife in her back. Groth said he recognized the knife as belonging to Peterson's boyfriend.

King County sheriff's detectives also interviewed other teens in the neighborhood, including Peterson's boyfriend, but the trail ended.

When cold-case detectives picked the case up in 2006, Groth was a key person of interest, Urquhart said. Groth denied any involvement until detectives spoke with him again Tuesday.

During this most recent interview, he didn't deny any connection with Peterson's death. He said that he and Peterson fought physically just before her death but said it wasn't unusual since they would often "tussle," court papers said.

Kathryn Wetzler, who has dated Groth for more than four years, said he told her that he didn't kill Peterson. After talking to detectives in 2006, she said, Groth thought he was finally cleared as a suspect.

"He wouldn't do something like this," she said. "He said they were just good friends."

Wetzler said Groth is in jail for being verbally abusive toward her. But she blames herself for his arrest and said she never wanted him locked up.

"He is the nicest person in the world," she said.

Seattle Times Assistant Metro Editor Ian Ith, a former Times reporter, contributed to this story.

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