Police identify fourth suspect in kidnapping, murder

Police have identified the fourth suspect arrested in a case involving a drug-debt murder and kidnapping as Benito Baldovinos-Mendoza, 40. Police have released few details about the case, which is tied to a search warrant served by the SWAT team at a home in north Spokane Thursday and a body found next to a rural road north of Tum Tum in Stevens County on Friday. Neighbors who live next to the home at 1523 W. Knox Avenue described it as a drug house with a lot of traffic, which police have acknowledged. “This is the residence where we believe the crime occurred,” said Spokane Police Capt. Brad Arleth on Thursday. Sometime last week a man was killed and woman kidnapped. The woman was later freed and is cooperating with investigators, authorities said. The identity and cause of death of the man found dead will be released by the Stevens County Coroner after an autopsy. Baldovinos-Mendoza, who was arrested yesterday in Pasco, has been booked into the Spokane County Jail on two charges of kidnapping. He joins Domingo Valdovinos Navarro, 26, and Joseph W. Gillespie, 33, who are also facing two kidnapping charges. Navarro has also been charged with murder. Dillon L. Casteel, 23, was arrested on two charges of kidnapping in Coeur d’Alene on Thursday and will be extradited to Spokane, police said.