Bremerton stabbing deaths may be connected, police say

Bremerton police and the FBI are investigating whether two stabbings last year and the fatal stabbing of a woman last Friday could be connected, the Bremerton Police Department said.

Melody Brannon, 61, was found dead at about 6:22 p.m. last Friday in the 1300 block of High Avenue.

Police have not specified how Brannon was killed, but said her death might be somehow connected to the stabbing death of Sara Burke on May 3, 2011, and the stabbing of Kenny Cobb on June 20.

“We are working with the FBI, the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit, the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office and the Port Orchard Police Department,” Bremerton police said in a news release. “We are utilizing all available resources to solve each of these cases and to determine if they are linked.”

Bremerton police previously noted a possible link between Burke's death and the assault on Cobb. Cobb, who survived, said he believed his attacker had struck before.

"You could tell by looking in the guy's eyes; this was not his first time, not even close. And it wasn't going to be his last," Cobb told KIRO 7 last year.

Police released a sketch of a person of interest in Brannon’s death earlier this week and and updated sketch Friday. The person they’re looking for is described as a light-skinned or mixed-race black man in his late teens or 20s, and about 6 feet tall with a slender build. The man has a blemish of some kind near his nose or lip. Police said he was wearing a black or navy blue watch cap with hair sticking out around the bottom, a white T-shirt and a jacket.

The man was last seen Friday between 5 and 7 p.m. in the 1300 block of High Avenue, a block from Bremerton High School.

Anyone with information is encouraged to call the Bremerton police tip line at 360-473-5481.