Seattle memorial pays tribute to 'Grandma Ruth,' 80-year-old dogwalker killed in 2024 carjacking

It’s been one year since Ruth Dalton, an 80-year-old professional dogwalker, was killed during a carjacking in Seattle’s Madison Valley neighborhood.

Now, Dalton’s community, and their furry companions, have a new spot to remember the woman known as “Grandma Ruth.”

About 100 of Dalton’s friends, family members, and former clients gathered at the edge of Madison Park Beach on Wednesday night to celebrate the unveiling of two new benches dedicated to Dalton, and her dog Prince, who was also killed in the attack.

Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell attended the ceremony, and decried Dalton’s killing as “senseless.”

“When you see a person that has lived such an angelic life as she did, what she stood for, and she gets senselessly murdered, taken away from us, it hurts,” Harrell said.

Harrell said recent statistics show homicide rates, violent crimes, and shots fired are going down across the city, but those stats mean “absolutely nothing” when a community is looking at memorial flowers like the ones left at Dalton’s bench.

The man accused of killing Dalton and her dog, Jahmed Haynes, was found mentally unfit to stand trial in September 2024.

The state Department of Social and Health Services deemed Haynes competent to stand trial in December. Another hearing in the case is scheduled for October.

Laura Bethel was a customer of Dalton’s business “Grandma’s Critter Care” for 27 years. She attended the dedication with her black lab Bella. While Bethel says she’s still waiting for Haynes to be brought to justice, she’s focused on remembering Dalton’s legacy.

Dalton was always there for her clients, Bethel said, even during hard times, like when Bethel’s last dog got sick.

“Ruth would meet me at the emergency vet and sit with me, and if I felt like I needed to go home she would sometimes stay,” Bethel said. “She always was just looking out for us.”

Dalton’s granddaughter, Melanie Roberts, told the crowd that she wasn’t sure what message to put on the plaque beneath the benches now placed at one of her grandmother’s favorite spots on her dog-walking route.

But after bouncing ideas off a coworker one day, Roberts said she walked outside, felt the sun on her face, and heard her grandma’s voice echoing the commands she’d give to the rambunctious dogs she so adored — "come, sit, stay."