SEATTLE — A man has been charged for allegedly intentionally setting a fire outside a Wallingford home that killed a 72-year-old woman.
According to court documents, neighborhood surveillance and a stop at Dick’s Drive-In helped lead investigators to the suspect, 25-year-old Letian Shi.
What happened
On June 4, crews responded to a massive fire at home on Sunnyside Avenue in the early morning hours.
Firefighters were able to pull a 72-year-old woman from the burning home, but she died two days later from smoke inhalation and lack of oxygen.
Through an investigation, detectives learned that the fire at her home had been intentionally started at the front of the house before it quickly spread to the interior and ceiling.
Tracking the suspect
Around 12:50 a.m. on June 4, surveillance footage from a home directly across the street from the victim’s home captured someone walking up to the porch area. Then, flashes of light can be seen in the area near the front yard and porch, which investigators believe was the lighting of the flame before the fire started, court documents said.
According to docs, video shows a person walking away from the home three minutes later as the fire continues to steadily grow.
As investigators reviewed surveillance footage from neighbors, they found the person wearing the same outfit with the same appearance in an area of another fire about 20 minutes before the woman’s house started to burn.
At this time, around 12:28 a.m., Seattle Firefighters got a call for a brush fire at Sun Bear Park at the corner of N 38th St and Eastern Ave N. It appeared someone intentionally set a desk and chair at the park on fire.
Sun Bear Park is about a block away from the 72-year-old woman’s home.
Footage showed the same person walking toward Sun Bear Park. Investigators noticed the person was carrying a white bag and sipping from a drink. Detectives were able to see that it was a bag for Dick’s Drive-In, court documents said.
On June 16, a detective got a warrant for surveillance video and transaction records for that time at the Dick’s location. The footage showed the person with the same clothes, appearance and stature as the suspect.
The video showed that person getting in line at Dick’s around 11:50 p.m. on June 3 and placing an order, court docs said. That person used a credit card to pay for their order.
Records showed the cardholder’s name was listed as ‘Shi Letian’
“I searched the Washington State Department of Licensing database first for only the first name “Shi” and last name “Letian”, receiving no results. I then searched for first name “Letian” and last name “Shi” resulting in only one result," a detective wrote in court documents.
The only result for Letian Shi came back with an address that was about a mile away from the Dick’s location.
“I reviewed Letian Shi’s driver’s license photograph and compared the photograph to images of the suspect in the Dick’s Drive-In security footage. The suspect in the footage is wearing dark framed glasses and Letian Shi is not wearing glasses in the Department of Licensing photograph. However, based upon the shape of the suspect’s nose, mouth, and ears, along with his hair color, skin tone, and age, I believed that it is Letian Shi depicted in the Dick’s Drive-In footage,” the detective wrote in court documents.
Did Shi know the victim?
A neighbor told investigators that about two weeks before the fire, they witnessed the victim and another person interacting.
The neighbor said they found the person “unusual” and saw him talking to the victim outside her home, saying that the victim appeared “irritated” regarding their interaction, according to court documents.
That neighbor said they spoke to the victim while the “unusual” person was present, so they got a good look at him.
“The neighbor stated that because of the location of their home office, the neighbor is regularly looking outside. The neighbor regularly sees the people in the neighborhood but had never seen this subject before. The neighbor also found that the interaction between the subject and the victim to be unusual because the victim did not really have visitors or any other people that would talk to her. The neighbor in fact could not recall the victim ever interacting with anybody,” court documents said.
The description of the stranger matches Shi’s description, according to court documents. However, the documents did not explicitly say that it was Shi.
Shi has been charged with first-degree murder and second-degree arson.
Prosecutors asked that bail be set at $4 million.
©2025 Cox Media Group
