Our streets, sidewalks and trails have turned violent, bloody, even deadly in recent days and months.

Just ask Pamela Andrews.

Her son was stabbed to death in Auburn on July 8. Now the grieving mother is determined to find answers to this despicable, inexplicable crime.

Michael Bippes. a second-generation ironworker and the divorced father of four sons, all of whom live in the Auburn area, was found dead of multiple stab wounds around 5 a.m. Wednesday, July 8 on the Interurban Trail, south of West Main Street.

Auburn Police have determined that Bippes, three weeks shy of his 51st birthday, was attacked sometime after midnight.

As of this week, the official investigation has turned up neither suspects nor motives.

So Andrews, a retired U.S. Postal Service worker from Covington, and her friends have launched a campaign to turn up any bit of information, however small, that could lead to the capture and conviction of whoever is responsible. They began distributing fliers to the community, urging anyone with information about Bippes’ death to call Auburn Police (253-931-3080).

“I want justice,” said Andrews, 71, her voice resolute. “This has been such a shock, an absolute shock, a horrific shock. It’s awful. I can only sleep so many hours at night. … I’m trying not to focus on the horror of it to keep myself sane.

“But how can someone do something like this? I don’t know. … I just hope that person is found.”

The homicide is the latest in a rash of local murders.

A man and a woman were gunned down at Les Gove Park three days before the stabbing. Investigators say the two crimes are not connected.

An Auburn man was beaten to death just after attending a Kenny Chesney concert in Seattle on June 27. Benito “Benny” Enriquez, a 31-year-old father of two young girls, and a public health nurse in Auburn, sustained fatal head injuries during a fight with another man. There have been no arrests.

In June, police found step siblings dead in a murder-suicide at an Auburn home.

In June, prosecutors charged an Auburn woman and her boyfriend with second-degree murder for the alleged fatal beating of the woman’s 3-year-old daughter.

Auburn is not alone.

Unsolved, killing sprees have also rocked the cities of Kent and Renton.

One incident was especially disturbing – a drive-by shooting that killed a 1-year-old baby girl on April 16 in Kent. Somebody shot Malijah Grant in the head while she was riding in a carseat in the backseat of her parents car, with her mother at the wheel and her father in the front passenger seat.

Two men recently were involved in shooting death on the West Hill.

A Kent man faces a charge of first-degree murder in an East Hill car theft death.

A 24-year-old Kent man faces charges of two counts of first-degree murder for the alleged shooting of his grandmother in Skyway and the shooting of a 21-year-old woman in Renton. Both killings were on July 7.

Next month, Aug. 20 to be precise, marks the one-year anniversary of two shooting deaths at a Shell service station in Kent. The alleged shooter remains in county jail, awaiting trial.

It just doesn’t seem to end.

On a national scale, deadly shootings and senseless murders have become all too commonplace. The first 10 minutes of your nightly TV newscast are predominately “death and destruction.”

Several major American cities have seen a dramatic surge in homicides during the first half of this year.

And why? Weak gun laws? Tighter budgets for police and investigations? Gang and transient problems?

Do we really know?

Where does it all end?

“I don’t know,” Andrews said. “It’s become crazy. The violence. Too much violence, right here.”

Andrews is all too familiar with sorrow.

Her other, younger son died in a one-vehicle accident in 1988, leaving “a hole in (Michael’s) soul.”

And now the Auburn mother has been left to cope with the loss of two sons – buried side-by-side.

“I just saw him on Monday (before his death),” Andrews recalled. “We had a good visit, then he got up and said, ‘OK, see ya.” And that was it.

“All I want is justice,” Andrews continued. “I do not want my son to be forgotten.”