Transient’S Body Found In Valley Sheriff’S Detectives Suspect Death May Be A Homicide

A homeless man was found dead in a Spokane Valley field Monday, and sheriff’s detectives suspect he is the victim of a homicide.

Investigators were looking for the victim’s traveling companion late Monday. Sheriff’s Inspector David Wiyrick said the scruffy, thin man is a person of interest in the case.

Valley resident Dave King discovered the corpse about 6 p.m. in a field behind his blue house in the 15300 block of East Valleyway, just off busy Sullivan Road.

King said he had allowed the pair to use an old travel trailer in the field for shelter from last week’s cold, rainy weather.

One of the men had been seen panhandling on Sullivan and told King he had a job splitting wood for a nearby resident.

“I was just trying to help them out for a couple of nights,” King said. The men were supposed to be off his property by Saturday, he said.

King said he went out Monday evening to make sure the transients had locked up the trailer, then discovered the victim lying between the camper and an old stock car.

“He was twisted up in kind of an unnatural position,” said King, who declined to provide any other description of the body.

The other man was gone, King said. Neighbors said they saw the man walking toward Interstate 90 about 4 p.m.

King said he checked for a pulse. He called 911 when he couldn’t find one, he said.

Wiyrick said the victim had suffered trauma to his body, and that there was physical evidence at the scene suggesting he died violently.

The person of interest was described as a white man in his 40s, about 6 feet 1 and 145 to 160 pounds.

When last seen, he was wearing tattered blue jeans, a red-and-black checkered coat and a ball cap with a logo on the front. He was carrying a dark-colored backpack and hadn’t shaved in four or five days.

Anyone with information on his whereabouts is asked to call Crime Check at 456-2233.

Staff writer Carol MacPherson contributed to this report.