Body found near Long Lake related to kidnapping

Kidnappers left a corpse on a sparse hillside near Long Lake last week, the latest twist in a series of crimes Spokane Police are racing to solve. Investigators, who found the body Friday, are not releasing much information, but they have arrested suspects, interviewed a woman who was freed and fled from her kidnappers, and searched homes Thursday in Spokane and Coeur d’Alene. “Clearly someone didn’t just die here,” Police Capt. Brad Arleth said as detectives picked through the hillside where the body was found about 100 yards from rural Corkscrew Canyon Road. “Obviously they were kidnapped and brought here.” Police think they know the identity of the body, but they are awaiting autopsy results before releasing more details such as how the person died. On Thursday police searched a home with help from SWAT team members at 1523 W. Knox Ave. in Spokane. Investigators believe this home is where the kidnapping began about a week ago. “We know that location was being used for the sale of drugs,” Arleth said. On Friday police arrested Domingo Valdovinos Navarro, 26, on one count of aggravated first-degree murder and two counts of first-degree kidnapping and Joseph W. Gillespie, 33, on two counts of first-degree kidnapping. Dillon L. Casteel, 23, was arrested in Coeur d’Alene Thursday and faces a charge of first-degree kidnapping. The sheer numbers of witnesses and suspects have complicated the case, Arleth said. “So much of it has been ongoing and fast moving,” he said.