Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Woman Died From Having Throat Slashed

A woman found murdered in east Spokane on Easter morning died of a slashed throat, an autopsy revealed Monday.

Detectives had no suspects and no motive in the case Monday afternoon and were unable to confirm the woman’s identity, Lt. Jerry Oien said.

But Oien said the victim apparently used several names and had lived at addresses “from Montana to the West Coast.”

He said he did not think the woman was a prostitute but did not offer any explanation for the apparent aliases.

Police came up with one name after checking the 40-year-old victim’s fingerprints, said Dick Cottam, police spokesman.

She had foot-long brown hair with red highlights and several unique scars. Neither Cottam nor Oien would say anything else about about the woman.

The search for her killer is stymied while detectives try to identify her, Oien said.

“We’re kind of at a standstill until we find out her identity,” he said. “Once we do that, we can start running backward from there.”

Oien said he hoped to nail down the woman’s name and contact relatives today.

A train crew spotted the victim’s partially clad body along the railroad tracks near Trent and Fiske about 9:45 a.m.

It appeared she was dragged from a nearby parking lot and rolled down an embankment to the tracks either late Saturday or early Sunday.

Police are still looking for a man who fired several shots near officers investigating the crime scene Sunday.

A man in a red Chevrolet pickup with a distinctive white stripe shot at least six times as police gathered evidence.

It doesn’t appear the shootings were related to the murder.

, DataTimes MEMO: The body was identified as Donna Lynn Harris.

The body was identified as Donna Lynn Harris.