Did gold digger kill her elderly boyfriend? 1
Top 5 Police Blunders of the Week! 2
Moron shoots up house trying to kill bat 3

Seattle Serial Murder Suspect Glenn Bagley Tracked Down In Manila

Monday, Nov. 9 2009 @ 9:47AM
Glenn Allan Bagley.jpg
Glenn Bagley is the lead suspect in three 1970s murder cases
​It was around Easter time, 1973, when Althea Blankenship and her son Jeffrey were on their way from their home in the Seattle area to a getaway in Greece. The only problem was that they never made their flight. And no one ever heard from them again. 

Then, three years later -- and less than one hundred miles away -- Esther Mae Gesler also went missing. She told her five children that she was going away for the weekend. Gesler also never returned... 

Esther Gelser.jpg
Esther Mae Gesler left behind five children. Her disappearance remains a mystery
​The disappearances of Blankenship and Gesler weren't random -- nor were they unrelated. Both women happened to be involved with a man named Glenn Bagley. Blankenship and her son lived with Bagley when they disappeared. And Gesler was his ex-wife. It was a connection that caught the attention of the Kent Police Department, who interviewed Bagley shortly after Gesler went missing. 

Bagley claimed he was in his garage building a cat house the weekend his ex disappeared. He even had an alibi to prove it -- his girlfriend at the time, Cecilia Knoph. She confirmed Bagley's story and soon the missing persons cases of Althea Blankenship, her son, and Esther Mae Gesler went cold.

Then, in 2004 -- almost thirty years later -- Knoph had a different story for police. She said she'd lied when they'd interviewed her about Bagley because she was scared for her life. "He said he had made a mistake," she told the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department. "I knew more about him than any other female, and if I ever repeated anything he had ever told me about him, I would end up in the same culvert in Quilcene as Esther."   

Police felt like they might finally have enough evidence to charge Bagley. The only problem was that Bagley was nowhere to be found -- until this year, thanks to the investigative work of a local news channel.

Apparently reporters at KIRO 7 Seattle's newsroom know how to do their homework. Investigative reporter Chris Halsne not only tracked Bagley down 8,000 miles away in the Phillippines -- but also flew to Manila just to question Bagley about the reopened cases. 

After a few uncomfortable encounters with local law enforcement, Halsne was finally able to gain access to Bagley, who agreed to be interviewed on the roof of his condo complex. Bagley's nonchalance about the disappearances is startling to say the least -- and cocky at best. 

When Halsne mentions that Bagley was the last to see Blankenship and her son, Bagley 
Jeffery Blankenship2.jpg
Bagley was the last to see Jeffrey (above) and his mother, Althea Blankenship, alive.
​replies sarcastically: "You've got me worried a little bit now. That would put me as the last person to see them alive. You're right."

And as for his ex-wife? After Halsne asks if he was upset by her disappearance, Bagley says "No. Not really. We're talking about Esther right? No, not really."

When told he was the prime suspect in all three murders, Bagley simply rolls his eyes and says: "Yeah."

Little does Bagley know that police have been combing all the culverts in Jefferson County -- where Bagley once worked as a roads project manager and where Knoph claims the bodies were hidden. Or that the Channel 7 interview is now being dissected by King County prosecutors in the hopes of finally bringing charges against Bagley. 

You can read more of Channel 7's Bagley interview here.

Tags: Washington