Murder Suspected In Death

Thu., May 4, 2000

Carlos Acevedo The Associated Press Contributed To Staff writer

Police suspect that a longtime Cheney resident found dead last week in Idaho was murdered.

Passing motorists found Adrian Louis Black’s body lying along a desolate stretch of highway three miles south of Spencer, Idaho, on April 23.

The 21-year old appeared to have suffered lethal injuries, said Clark County Sheriff Craig King.

“There were signs of him falling, or being thrown, off a vehicle,” he said. The body had only been there only a short while, perhaps overnight, King said.

Results from an autopsy, available in two weeks, will confirm a cause of death, King said.

Investigators had no suspects or leads as of Tuesday and are trying to reconstruct Black’s whereabouts before he died.

Black was last seen alive in Rock Springs, Wyo., the day before his body was found. Rock Springs is in the southwest area of the state, six to seven hours of freeway driving from Spencer.

Black apparently got off a bus in Rock Springs after traveling from New Mexico, where his mother lives. He seems to have been on his way back to Cheney, according to sheriff’s investigators.

Black, who lived in Cheney most of his life, had a warrant out for his arrest for allegedly helping two other men steal and pawn $10,000 worth of music instruments from Eastern Washington University in April 1999. The other two men pleaded guilty, according to EWU police. Investigators do not think there is a connection between Black’s death and the theft case.

Black attended EWU in 1997 and 1998 as a Running Start student from Cheney High School. He enrolled in the university for the 1999 school year but never attended.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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