Task Force Investigating Another Body Remains Found In Same Area As Three Other Murder Victims

Human remains were discovered Tuesday in a remote area near Mount Spokane where the bodies of three women have been dumped since 1992.

Investigators were called to a location near the intersection of Elliot and Wallis roads early Tuesday afternoon, Sheriff’s Capt. Doug Silver said. Investigators could not determine the gender of the body, which was discovered by an unidentified person, Silver said.

The body was removed Tuesday, but sheriff’s deputies remained to guard the site overnight.

Investigators from the joint city/county Homicide Task Force as well as the sheriff’s department’s major crimes unit are expected to return to the area this morning, Silver said.

An autopsy has not been scheduled because forensic pathologist Dr. George Lindholm is out of town, Silver said.

The location of the body found Tuesday was less than four miles from the intersection of Mount Spokane Park Drive and Holcomb Road, where the remains of Sherry Palmer and Shannon Zielinski were found in 1992 and 1996, respectively.

The body of Jennifer Joseph was found near the intersection of Forker and Judkins roads last summer.

Silver would not say if the discovery Tuesday is connected to the investigation of a serial killer, suspected of murdering at least six Spokane women and one woman in Tacoma.

The murders of Palmer, Zielinski and Joseph are not officially linked to the serial killings. But they remain on the task force’s master list, which includes the names of 20 women murdered in Spokane since 1984.

“Anything in the Mount Spokane area we’re going to look at, obviously,” Silver said, because the three previously discovered bodies remain part of the larger investigation.

The task force is now routinely responding to homicides in which a body has been dumped, he said.

“If it is connected, we want them to be on the scene from the beginning,” Silver said. “This isn’t unusual.”

Lorna Bryans has lived at the corner of Elliot and Wallis for 18 years. The remote stretch of Elliot has become very busy in recent years, she said.

But few people end up on Wallis, a road that dead ends after three miles and is home to only three families.

“When anyone goes up that road, they’re either visiting or they’re lost,” Bryans said. She and her husband often alert neighbors about strangers.

Workers recently have been surveying land above an abandoned uranium mine near where the body was found, she said.

But Bryans does not recall any other signs of unusual activity along Wallis.

“We really do watch,” she said. “We’ve got so many strangers going through the woods.”