Body Found In Abandoned Truck Dead Man Buried Under Boxes; Police Investigate As Homicide

A man’s partially unclad body was found here Wednesday night buried face down under cardboard boxes in the bed of an abandoned pickup truck.

Kootenai County sheriff’s deputies are investigating the death as a homicide.

A Spokane man and his mother, who own the truck, discovered the unidentified man’s body about 6 p.m. when they went to retrieve the boxes, said Sheriff’s Lt. Jeff Thomas.

The truck was parked in a wooded area about 40 yards off Chilco Road, west of U.S. Highway 95.

The Spokane residents own a moving company and only recently realized their newly acquired truck was gone. The Sheriff’s Department notified them about a week ago that it had been abandoned north of Coeur d’Alene, Thomas said.

On Wednesday, the man and his mother were removing boxes stored under the truck’s camper shell when they found the middle-aged white man’s body. He was naked from at least the waist up, Thomas said.

By late evening, deputies hadn’t removed the body and couldn’t say what killed the man.

Neighbors said they first noticed the truck at least a month ago, when it was surrounded by heavy snow. They didn’t see a body inside at the time, although it likely would have been concealed by the stacks of boxes.

“My husband walked up to it, and the dogs wanted in the back,” said a woman who asked not to be identified.

She said she reported the abandoned truck to the Sheriff’s Department, but it wasn’t removed.

The woman said she called a second time about two weeks ago. That’s when deputies tracked down the owners by checking the license plate numbers. , DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

The following fields overflowed: BYLINE = Winda Benedetti Staff writer Staff writer Craig Welch contributed to this report.