Downtown death remains under investigation

The Spokane Police Department is investigating the death of a man discovered last week in a downtown apartment following an autopsy from which the manner of death remains inconclusive. David M. Spicer, 49, was discovered dead last Wednesday in his apartment, located at 123 N. Bernard St., when officers responded to a man found deceased. Spokane Police spokeswoman Officer Jennifer DeRuwe confirmed today that major crimes detectives are investigating the death as suspicious, but she had no further details. The Spokane County Medical Examiner’s Office has conducted an autopsy but would only say that the cause of Spicer’s death has been listed as a massive internal bleeding “due to laceration of the spleen.” But the manner of death, or how the spleen was severed, remains pending further more investigation. Investigators are “not ready to say homicide yet but we are working on it,” DeRuwe said.