Nude Body In Lake Is Victim Of Murder

The nude body found Wednesday in Red Lake near Tum Tum was that of a young woman who was suffocated by an object stuffed in her mouth.

The homicide victim, believed to have been in her late teens or early 20s, still has not been identified.

Stevens County Undersheriff Gilbert Geer said Spokane city and county officers attended an autopsy Friday, but were unable to identify the woman as one of several people reported missing in the Spokane area.

Geer declined to identify the object found in the victim’s mouth, but said swimmers found her inside a wicker, clothes hamper-type basket. Her clothing was not found.

The autopsy failed to determine whether the woman died at the lake or elsewhere, but she died before entering the water. Geer had no medical report yet on whether the victim had been raped.

She is believed to have been in the lake about a week, which may have caused her skin to darken. Authorities initially thought the victim may have been black, but now believe she was Caucasian,

There are no suspects. Geer appealed for anyone who saw anything unusual in the area from about June 21 until Wednesday to call the Stevens County Sheriff’s Department at (800) 572-0947.

The brown-eyed victim stood about 5 feet 3 inches tall and weighed about 110 pounds. She had tightly braided, dark brown hair and no identifying marks.

, DataTimes