‘Can’t move on.’ Tri-Cities man still seeking justice for mom’s murder 20 years later

Cliff Ray never got justice for his mother’s brutal murder.

The Richland man was 26 years old when police busted in to Cassandra Ray’s Kennewick home and found her bludgeoned to death.

He’d known something was wrong.

He had not heard from his mom in almost a week, she’d missed her shifts at a fast-food restaurant and, on that Saturday, she was a no-show at her granddaughter’s sixth birthday party and belated family Christmas celebration.

Cliff Ray used a neighbor’s phone to call 911 and tried to help break down her apartment door. But after learning there had been foul play, he was forced to stay outside — unable to see his mom one last time.

Cassandra Ray was 51 when she was found on Feb. 10, 2001. She had been dead for several days.

Twenty years later, Cliff Ray is still hoping for some form of closure.

Unsolved homicide

He doesn’t want people to feel sorry for him, he just wants them to understand what it is like in his shoes. For the killer to know the domino effect such actions can have on loved ones.

“The fact that you’re losing somebody from a murder or a shooting not just affects that person, but it affects their whole family. And it’s just wrong and a messed up situation,” Cliff Ray recently told the Tri-City Herald.

“People ought to be appreciative of the people — the mothers, the families — the people that support (them) that they take for granted every day,” he added. “All of a sudden you lose that and you’re all alone. It’s lonely. It hurts, and at one point you get angry and take it out on other people, you get snappy.”

Cassandra Ray’s case remains one of the Kennewick Police Department’s unsolved homicides.

In 2005, then-Detective Sgt. Randy Maynard told the Herald that police need “one piece of evidence or statement or both that puts us over the edge in terms of charges.”

Investigators will not say if they have an identified suspect or suspects, but the department has forwarded its reports to the Benton County Prosecutor’s Office for review. The case has stalled at that point.

Cliff Ray wonders if the killer has led a horrible life over the past two decades and, now that they’re older, may be ready to atone for their sins.

“I know that somebody could easily lead them to justice, or somebody could say, ‘Hey, it’s been 20 years. I did it,’” he said.

‘Golden heart’

Cassandra Ray was a former Navy nurse who continued in that profession after leaving the military. She later lost her job due to problems with alcohol and painkillers, but “cleaned up” and was living a happy life just before her death, said her son.

His mom “found her golden heart” in her final years and tried to help and care for people in any way possible.

The mother-and-son themselves had a strained relationship but were working on it and getting closer, he said. She would supervise her two young granddaughters during visits with their dad before he later got custody.

Cliff Ray said it was during one of those supervised visitations that he last saw her on Feb. 3, 2001, before she had to be at her fast-food job. He called his mom four days later but could not reach her.

On Feb. 10, family and friends gathered at Chuck E. Cheese for her oldest granddaughter’s birthday. The grandmother didn’t show up.

“You kind of get that sick feeling in your stomach that something was very, very wrong,” he said. It was confirmed when he stopped by Taco Bell and was told she’d been a no-show for work.

Police found Cassandra Ray’s body on the bathroom floor of her 1107 W. Fifth Ave. apartment.

An autopsy showed she died from several blows to her head with a blunt object.

Kennewick detectives chased several leads and arrested two acquaintances for burglarizing Ray’s home at some point after her death and trying to sell some of the stolen property.

But no arrests ever were made in connection with the homicide. The crime scene was disturbed in the burglary.

Cliff Ray says he believes he was considered a suspect in the early days because he may have been the last person to see his mother alive. Police have said he was ruled out.

Social media help

He tries to avoid that area of Kennewick, especially around the anniversary, and admits still struggling with feelings about his mom’s death.

“Helplessness. Emptiness. There’s no closure, you can’t move on,” he said. “All of a sudden, you’ll be talking normal and then you can break out in tears. It’s that bad.”

Now a pipefitter raising five boys between the ages of 2 and 14 with his wife, he says his new hope all these years later is social media — a tool that didn’t really exist at the time of the murder.

Ray would love to see the message shared through platforms like Facebook and Twitter and go viral with renewed interest in solving his mother’s cold case or others in the Tri-Cities.

“Even if you don’t know anything, put it on there because social media is something. Get it out there so maybe somebody will care and hopefully come forth with something,” he said.

“It makes me feel better that I’m actually talking about it and trying to do something to solve it.”