Woman found dead in Spokane apartment identified; tenant is ‘person of interest’

A body that was found decomposing in a West Central apartment was identified and the tenant listed as a “person of interest” in the investigation, according to Spokane police.

The Spokane County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the decedent as Krystin Pirtle, 34. Her cause and manner of death are pending.

Spokane police Officer Tricia Leming, spokeswoman for the department, said police contacted and interviewed 50-year-old Larry A.A. Walton, who lived in the apartment unit at 1528 W. Gardner Ave., where Pirtle was found dead in a closet.

Pirtle had “severe cranial fractures,” according to search warrant documents.

Leming said police booked Walton on July 9 into jail on an unrelated Washington State Department of Corrections warrant and are still investigating Pirtle’s death. Leming said Walton  is a “person of interest” and “not necessarily a suspect.”

He was transferred the next day to Airway Heights Corrections Center, where he remained Wednesday.

Police were dispatched about 11 a.m. July 8 to the Gardner Avenue apartment for a reported suspicious circumstance. A woman with Servpro cleanup and restoration called 911 saying she inspected the apartment unit with Walton and the landlord. She said the landlord called her to inspect the residence because of multiple complaints of a “rotting, dead body or sewage smell,” court records say.

The Servpro employee said she located the smell in a closet where she observed tarps, black garbage bags, clothing and blankets covered in what she believed was blood. She said the smell was sour, pungent and like rotting meat.

When she asked Walton about the closet, he said the items were dirty clothes and that he placed bleach on them because he couldn’t afford to wash them.

She said the tenant started making excuses and appeared to be very nervous. He started pacing back and forth and sweating. She left the apartment and called law enforcement.

Walton was on community supervision, often known as probation, for a protection order violation and failed to report to his community corrections supervisor in 2020, triggering the warrant he was arrested on last week, according to Rachel Ericson, Washington Department of Corrections spokeswoman.

Editor’s note: This story was updated on July 16, 2026, to indicate Larry Walton is a person of interest, not Krystin Pirtle, as incorrectly written due to a reporter’s error.