Woman Found Dead In Alley; Police Say Death Suspicious

Spokane’s first homicide of 1997 may have occurred only three days into the new year.

A delivery driver found a woman’s body behind a building on the city’s east side about noon Friday. Detectives said the death is suspicious.

Investigators cordoned off a deadend alley behind Liu’s International Co., an import-export business at 714 E. Pacific and began looking for clues.

They did not make public the woman’s age or a cause of death. Police spokesman Dick Cottam said that information, and the woman’s name, would not be released until an autopsy is performed and family notified.

“We’re just getting started,” said police Lt. Jerry Oien.

The woman, who was white, was face down under an abandoned semi-truck trailer.

The man who discovered the body said he found it about 11:45 a.m. when he went into the alley to dispose of some used motor oil.

The man, who works as a driver for Liu’s, said he saw the woman in the alley Thursday morning and she appeared all right then.

“It just looked like (she was) looking at the sky, sitting up, just looking around,” said the 27-year-old man.

People who work in the mostly commercial district said it’s not unusual to see homeless people and drug addicts in alleys and vacant lots in the area.

The driver said he saw the woman again Friday morning and spotted her a third time just before noon. He said it was then he noticed something was wrong - the woman was lying on her face and not moving.

He said he walked over toward the body and watched for signs of life but saw none. “I was watching the back, to see if it was going up and down like (she was) breathing,” he said.

There was no blood visible and no obvious signs of violence, he said.

The man said he ran into Liu’s and asked a colleague to go out and check on the woman. Someone at the business then called for an ambulance, he said.

Paramedics declared the woman dead when they arrived, then called police.

It was the second time in the past two months someone has discovered the body of a woman in a Spokane alley.

On Nov. 7, a woman who works downtown found 32-year-old Joann Flores dead behind the former Mother’s Pub, 230 W. Riverside.

No arrests have been made in Flores’ murder.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Map of area.

MEMO: The body was identified as Margaret M. Anselmo.