John Polos, a Battle Ground resident, had a connection to the Julie Weflen missing persons case as Polos was a former co-worker of Weflen’s during his time with the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA).
Weflen vanished from a BPA substation in a rural area near Spokane on Sept. 16, 1987. To this day, her body has never been found, but Polos sniffed out clues and developed a hypothesis that her abduction may have been connected to other similar-looking women who vanished around a similar time in the Spokane-Coeur d’Alene area.
Polos’ efforts have been highlighted in the book by Doug Eastwood, “Vanished in the Pacific Northwest,” and on the podcast, “The Unfound.”
In 2010, while Polos, previously a Clark County Sheriff’s Office reserve deputy, later became a Clark County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue volunteer. While working as a search and rescue volunteer, he assisted in locating a body in the area 20 years after a suicide note was left near Lake Merwin. After that experience, Polos felt confident and empowered to try to help find the answer to the Weflen case. Polos also gave a lot of credit to the book “Breaking Blue” by Timothy Egan, a true story about Pend Oreille County Sheriff Tony Bamonte solving a 55-year-old case of a murdered town marshal, George Coniff.
With the help of others, Polos embarked on his independent investigation and traveled to the Spokane area in early spring of 2011 to find clues and gain leads by passing out flyers and giving media presentations to reach as many people as possible who may remember seeing something that day in 1987.
Polos’ highlighted that his investigation was a combined team effort, which included help from Bob Windus, Kirk Robinson, Pat Fox, Ken Westby, Charlie Feris, Dale Hubbard, Bill Morlan, Bonnie Gow, Ed Denzel, several Spokane County Sheriff’s Office deputies and Gerald McBurney.
Since the substation where Weflen disappeared was in a rural area, Polos and his investigative partner, Jake Hockett, figured that in 2011, the road had a traffic flow of one car per minute; it was probably similar back in 1987, since no new development occurred in that area.
“We figured, well, there was almost a car a minute back then so somebody saw something,” Polos said. “I always believed that, turned out in 2011, I was right.”
To date, Polos had received 70 tips regarding Weflen’s disappearance.
“I knew within two or three days I was focusing on this guy, Will Parks,” Polos said. “It turns out I was right. He’s a serial killer … he died of an accident in 2020 just a week before COVID hit.”
Polos found similarities and connections through tips he received with Weflen’s disappearance and a few others, including Kathryn Gregory — Polos described her looking almost like Weflen’s twin sister.
Polos said one of his best and most convincing leads was when he received a call from someone who was biking in the area with his two friends at 11 years old in 1987, when they saw someone who fit Parks’ description abducting Weflen from the substation as the two called each other by name. Polos questioned why they didn’t call it in, and they said they didn’t have a phone to do so.
“[Parks] had a grudge against her because he’d been hitting on her and she’s married,” Polos said. “She didn’t want anything to do with him.”
Polos added that he once received a call from one of Parks’ acquaintances who told him that if it were Parks who did it, they would never find a body.
“What would Will Parks have done?” Polos questioned, wondering if Parks could have driven a body to Idaho to bury or even dismember and dispose of a body in the Spokane River.
Despite Polos’ efforts and detailed hypothesis on the connection between Weflen and Parks, his theory has not been confirmed by law enforcement, who have ruled out serial killers Robert Lee Yates and Gary Ridgway as suspects.
