Police Hesitate To Rule Death Suicide Cops Suspicious In Shooting Death Of Colville Woman

A shooting death that Colville police initially considered a suicide now is being investigated as a possible homicide.

Diane E. Parrish, 37, was found dead in her Colville apartment on Nov. 6 by her caretaker.

The disabled woman died of a single gunshot wound in the abdomen, fired at close range from her own pistol. No suicide note was found.

“I heard she had some court cases in Ferry County, and the nature of those concerned me, so I asked the police to do a little more checking,” Stevens County Prosecutor Jerry Wetle said.

Parrish was suffering from depression, “so it is very possible that the gunshot wound was self-inflicted,” Colville Police Chief Damond Meshishnek said. “But I don’t feel I can say it was a clear-cut suicide.”

It seems suspicious, he said, that her door was unlocked when the caregiver arrived. Witnesses said she usually kept her doors locked.

Meshishnek said he wants to question several people, but has no suspect.

Parrish died before Ward F. Cromwell Jr., of Republic, Wash., could be tried for allegedly assaulting her on June 9. Cromwell faces a Dec. 18 trial in Ferry County Superior Court for fourth-degree assault.

Cromwell is accused of pummeling Stuart L. Almquist and Parrish when he found them together at a stock car racetrack near Republic. Cromwell was not immediately available for comment.

In a complaint filed against Cromwell, Ferry County Prosecutor Al Nielson said Parrish told him Cromwell had keys to her apartment in Colville and she was “scared to death of him.”

“She stated that Cromwell has threatened her life, and has said that he will get her sooner or later,” Nielson wrote.

But Parrish said much the same thing about another Ferry County man, Luther Anderson, when she got a restraining order against him in May. She said Anderson threatened to kill her and her mother.

Court documents indicate a former husband, Shoshone County sheriff’s Lt. Charles “Spike” Angle, obtained a protection order against Parrish in 1990.

The order was issued after she allegedly broke into a home and assaulted the stepmother of one of her sons. She was arrested for drunken driving, assault, unlawful entry and malicious injury to property.

Parrish later was convicted of drunken driving in Ferry County.

, DataTimes