Elderly Valley Man’s Death Being Investigated As Homicide

The death of a 75-year-old man whose body was found Wednesday in an outbuilding on an Otis Orchards farm is being investigated as a homicide, sheriff’s deputies said.

The victim, identified as Henry R. Heid, was bleeding from a head wound, sheriff’s spokesman Dave Reagan said.

The call came to dispatchers as an apparent suicide, Reagan said. Spokane Valley firefighters, the first to arrive, found the body and waited for deputies.

“We don’t know how he died. We’re still sifting through what we have,” Reagan said.

Heid’s brother found him lying in a garage behind the farmhouse at his home at 4009 N. Harvard about 3 p.m., according to Reagan.

Detectives questioned three men who were at the house when deputies arrived, all of whom knew the dead man. None is believed to be a suspect.

Several hours after the body was found, detectives combed the brush surrounding the outbuilding, looking for clues.

Friends and relatives of the victim came to the house seeking an explanation. Some embraced. Others sought shelter in a white Suburban from a brisk wind that whipped across the open fields.

One neighbor said Heid lived alone in the house.

“He was just out this weekend,” said Raoul Lambert. “He had the tractor out. That’s a shame. I liked the old guy.”

, DataTimes