Edward Odell Mott

1947 - 2016

Edward Odell Mott

This is dedicated in Loving Tribute to Ed Mott who died December 3, 2015. Ed was born March 27, 1947 as the only child of Lloyd Arthur Mott and Opal Cleous Mott. He grew up in the Green Lake area and attended the Methodist Church with his mother. He was in Cub Scout Den #152. He attended Roosevelt High School and was a team cheer leader, terrific square dancer and he jumped off bridges throughout the Greater Seattle area until his military service in the United States Marine Crop where he served as an Investigator in the Criminal Investigations Division in Vietnam. He said that once he saw death like that, he never wanted to jump off another bridge.

Ed attended Shoreline Community College and graduated with a bachelor of Police Science and Administration from Seattle University. He retired in 2003 as Detective Lieutenant of Major Crimes for the Bellevue Police Department. He served as an instructor of the Bellevue Police Eastside Training Center and was an instructor of Criminal Justice Program / Social Science Division at Bellevue Community College from 1983 to 2010. Ed also served as an instructor at the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Center. Ed served as Interim Chief of Police for the Issaquah Police Department as their youngest police chief in 1977.

Ed was a member of several professional organizations including Major Crimes H.I.T.S., Economic Crime Task Force (Chairman of the Board), City of Bellevue Probation Services Advisory Board and Criminal Justice Program Bellevue Community College Board of Directors. When Ed retired he started his own business that kept him active through 2010 as an Expert Witness and he joined the National Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys and the Washington Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys as an associate member. Ed's business as an Expert Witness took him to cases in Washington, California, Nevada, Colorado and Arizona.

Ed was privileged to receive the Officer of the Year award on four separate occasions. He developed and implemented a program of "Unique Protocol: for conducting murder investigations which was adopted by the FBI and developed the program "Eastside Mutual Aid - Major Crime Task Force" that was adopted by the Bellevue, Kirkland and Redmond Police Departments. Ed also developed a training program for Evidence Technicians.

Ed authored several professional manuals that were adopted by the FBI, Bellevue Police Department, and Bellevue Fire Department and by all Washington State Fire Departments. He assisted in producing a training video used in conjunction with his manual for fire personnel responding to crime scenes.

Ed investigated and/or supervised thirty one murder cases, conducted the first serial murder case in the history of Bellevue, Washington, which was also the first serial murder case to use DNA evidence.

Ed was featured on "Cross Fire" televised in Canada regarding two Canadian Citizens as prime suspects in the Rafay multiple murder investigation airing in 1998. He was featured on the Discovery Channel "New Detectives" filmed and televised re-enactment of George Russell serial murder investigation, segment originally airing in 2002; and re-enactment of Wilson multiple murder investigation, segment originally airing in 2000. Ed was seen regularly on various newscast interviews regarding major crimes.

Ed was a snow ski instructor and owned various sail and fishing boats and told stories of fishing for salmon alongside brown bear on the Alaskan coast. In an adventure, Ed and a sailing friend found themselves in hundred foot waves thinking they would never survive. He liked to cook, bake, can food and flowers. He built a chicken coop for fresh eggs, but hated the roosters. He supervised the building of a cabin in the San Juan Islands and enjoyed time there relaxing with friends. He authored a poem to his dog Lily. He was known as a cop who couldn't be bought off. He was trusted, respected and greatly honored by his friends.