Four may have details on homicide
Homicide suspect Kevin Newland spent the day Jamie Drake died drinking with three men and a woman who may be able to tell detectives more about the 19-year-old woman’s last moments alive, a Spokane County sheriff’s spokesman said.
Newland was hanging out with the foursome on June 22 when he apparently got into an argument and asked one of them for a ride, detectives said.
A man – known only as John – was driving a dark blue Ford F-150 pickup and took Newland to Drake’s apartment to talk to her roommate, his ex-girlfriend.
But the roommate, Jordan Sheffield, said in a previous interview that she was in Canada.
Sheriff’s detectives began investigating Drake’s disappearance on June 23.
Newland, 20, was found in Maple Valley on June 27 with Drake’s 1993 silverMustang and was arrested on suspicion of possession of stolen property.
Newland was brought back to Spokane on June 29.
The man led detectives to his mother’s cabin in Addy, Wash., where Drake’s body was found, wrapped in a blue tarp underneath the cabin’s floor.
The Spokane County medical examiner has not released Drake’s cause of death but determined that the manner of death was homicide, officials said Wednesday.
As of Wednesday, Newland was being held in Spokane County Jail on $750,000 bail.
He has not been charged with murder.
Newland told detectives he was living a transient lifestyle and spending nights in city and county parks when he met the foursome, sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. Dave Reagan said.
Newland was at Chief Garry Park with the man named John, and the three others – Louis, Boo and an unidentified man.
Detectives want to speak to the four who drank with Newland on June 22 and anyone else who had contact with him that day, Reagan said.
Investigators have now determined that a previous timeline in which Drake was thought to have stayed overnight at a man’s apartment in the 2300 block of East Sanson on June 22 was incorrect, Reagan said.
Investigators now think Drake was killed that night in her apartment.