Three arrests made in north Spokane drug-debt killing

Homicide investigators have arrested three men allegedly tied to drug-debt kidnappings and a killing in north Spokane.

Spokane police recovered a man’s body Friday from a sparse hillside along Long Lake in Stevens County following two days of raids.

“Clearly, someone didn’t just die here,” police Capt. Brad Arleth said as detectives picked through the brush and trees where the body was found about 100 yards from rural Corkscrew Canyon Road. “Obviously, they were kidnapped and brought here.”

The name of the victim, whose body was apparently dumped last week, has not been released.

On Friday police arrested Domingo Valdovinos Navarro, 26, on suspicion of murder and kidnapping, and Joseph W. Gillespie, 33, suspected of kidnapping.

Dillon L. Casteel, 23, was jailed Thursday in Coeur d’Alene on suspicion of kidnapping.

He will be extradited to Spokane, said police spokeswoman Monique Cotton. A fourth man has been jailed in Pasco, but police haven’t identified him.

Police searched a home with help from SWAT team members at 1523 W. Knox Ave. in Spokane on Thursday.

Investigators received a tip that the home is where a kidnapping and killing occurred last month. The kidnapping victim was freed, and she cooperated with police, authorities said.

“We know that location was being used for the sale of drugs,” Arleth said.

The large number of witnesses and suspects have complicated the case, Arleth said, and investigators are still working to confirm information. “So much of it has been ongoing and fast-moving,” he said.