In Tacoma, a mystery that has lingered for more than three years may finally have an answer. Authorities in Thurston County announced this week that they have arrested a suspect in the 2021 disappearance and presumed murder of Amanda Green, a pregnant woman whose case haunted her family and community.

Green vanished in 2021. She was last seen in Tacoma, and while investigators quickly suspected foul play, her body was never found. For years, her name circulated on missing persons’ boards and Facebook posts that reminded the public she had been pregnant at the time she disappeared.

The case gained new momentum earlier this year, when the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office began investigating a person of interest in March. That line of inquiry led detectives to an interview over the weekend—one that broke the case open. According to authorities, the suspect eventually directed investigators to a shallow grave in Lewis County, near the shadow of Mount Rainier. There, they uncovered human remains believed to be Green’s.

Though investigators are confident they have found her, the county medical examiner will need to formally identify the remains. Still, the discovery marks the closest the case has come to resolution since Green was first reported missing. Deputies say they had received information as far back as 2022 that she had likely been killed in the Yelm area. The site where the remains were found appeared consistent with that information.

The suspect, whose name has not yet been publicly released, was booked into the Thurston County Jail on charges of second-degree murder, unlawful disposal of human remains, and unlawful possession of a firearm. For Amanda Green’s family, the arrest offers a measure of vindication after years of uncertainty, though not yet closure.

One factor that helped bring the case forward was staffing. KOMO News reports that the department’s detective unit is fully staffed for the first time in decades. Green’s case, once stuck in limbo, is now one of the unit’s top priorities.

For Tacoma and for Amanda Green’s loved ones, the hope now is that the process moves toward full accountability—and that the story of her disappearance can finally be given its tragic but necessary conclusion.