Another body

◼ Unidentified man found dead at Mad River bar 12/14/2009
◼ Name of dead man released 12/15/2009
The Humboldt County Sheriff's Office has released the name of a man found dead on a Mad River bar Sunday.

The death of David Earl Sanford, 47, is being treated as suspicious. It is believed Sanford was a transient living in a tent found near his body.

He had some visible injuries, but it is unclear if they contributed to his death, the Sheriff's Office said.

The Sheriff's Office is not releasing any other details about the injuries. An autopsy is tentatively being scheduled for later in the week.

Sanford's body was found around 10 a.m. Sunday near Boyd Road on the south side of the river.

Anyone with information on Sanford can call Detective Troy Garey at 268-3643.

◼ Detectives trying to track down witnesses in homicide case
Detectives investigating the death of a man whose body was found earlier this month on a Mad River bar are following up on leads, but some of the people they want to talk to are seemingly hard to find.

The death of David Earl Sanford, 47, of Fieldbrook, was ruled a homicide Friday after a forensic pathologist examined the body, which was found Dec. 13.

Humboldt County Sheriff's Office Sgt. Wayne Hanson said the detectives working the case have been talking to some people of interest, but others, because they are believed to be transients, have been hard to track down.

When Sanford's body was found it had visible injuries, but it is still unclear if the injuries contributed to his death.

Missing man

◼ Missing Garberville man's truck found near human remains
Technically can't add this to the Humboldt County body count.
Investigators are now trying to identify human skeletal remains that were found in Trinity County on Saturday near a missing Garberville man's truck.

A citizen hunting on private property reported finding a 1998 green camouflage Toyota Tacoma truck approximately two miles south of Island Mountain in Trinity County. The truck belongs to Sam Dunlea Cushman, 36, who was reported missing May 3, according to the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office.

Sheriff's Office deputies were assisted at the site by Sheriff's Posse members, three dogs and their handlers from the California Rescue Dog Association. The team found the human remains a short distance away from the truck, according to the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office.

The Trinity County Sheriff's Office was contacted and took possession of the remains.

The jurisdiction is now technically that of Trinity County, said Brenda Godsey, spokeswoman for the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office. The counties are currently working jointly on the case because the missing person report was out of Garberville.

”If it's considered a suspicious death, at this point it would still be handled in Trinity County,” she said.

The Trinity County Sheriff's Office will handle the identification of the remains and the rest of the investigation.

...The truck's owner is Garberville resident Cushman, who was reported missing by his former girlfriend after he unexpectedly dropped his child off at her home April 28 and disappeared, according to the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office. He did not return phone calls or e-mails from her, which she said was unusual.

A friend of Cushman's had also contacted the woman with concerns because they had seen Cushman on April 29 and he had acted strangely....

the death appears suspicious w/update

◼ 'Serene' spot near Trinidad the site of suspicious death
For the second time in about a week, the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office has found a body and believes the cause of death to be suspicious.

According to a sheriff's press release, rangers with California State Parks responded to a home on Patricks Point Drive north of Trinidad at the request of the Sheriff's Office, to talk to a “resident” there about a vehicle. While there, rangers found a man dead in the home, the release states.

”Humboldt County sheriff's deputies and the Coroner's Office responded to the residence and established that the death appears suspicious,” states the release.

◼ Man found in Trinidad RV park identified
The Humboldt County Sheriff's Office continues to investigate the suspected homicide of a Trinidad man, identified on Tuesday as 59-year-old William John Lundy.

...Investigators are withholding some of the details of the case to “protect the integrity of the investigation,” said Brenda Godsey, spokeswoman for the Sheriff's Office, including where Lundy was wounded and if there were signs of a struggle.

So far, witnesses have reported last seeing Lundy alive on Thursday, Sept. 3, Godsey said.

”No one has reported hearing a gunshot yet,” she said.

The Sheriff's Office is also trying to determine if Lundy lived alone in his fifth wheel travel trailer or if he shared his residence.
An arrest in Kansas started the investigation that led to the body's discovery.

The Kansas Highway Patrol arrested a man for felony evasion in Ellsworth County on Saturday. He was driving a green Buick LeSabre that was registered to Lundy in Trinidad with California plates. KHP determined the circumstances were suspicious and requested that the Sheriff's Office conduct a welfare check on the vehicle's owner, Godsey said.

Lundy's car had not been reported as stolen. The KHP was unable to provide details of its case by deadline.

Godsey said the KHP officers were doing “good police work” by following up on the suspicious circumstances and asking for a welfare check.



◼ Trinidad man remembered by friends as a 'sweetheart'
When Dave Cormack heard about the death of an old co-worker, the possibility of it being a homicide was the last thing on his mind.

”I thought it was a health issue,” Cormack said. “When I first heard that it might be murder, that floored me.”
William John Lundy, 59, was found dead from a gunshot wound in his fifth-wheel travel trailer in a Trinidad RV Park on Sept. 5, according to the Humboldt County Coroner's Office.

Lundy and Cormack had worked together for the city of Escondido for about 10 years. Lundy was a “sweetheart,” Cormack said.

”He'd give you the shirt off his back on a freezing day, if he had it,” Cormack said.

Lundy was often living a “hand-to-mouth” existence without much money, Cormack said. Both had lived in Del Norte County for a while until Lundy had some problems at an RV park in Smith River last year. He moved to Trinidad right before Christmas.

Cormack hadn't seen Lundy since then. He still has an undelivered Christmas present for him, a gift he meant to give last year.

Witnesses last report seeing Lundy alive on Sept. 3, and no one in the area reported hearing a gunshot, according to the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office.

After Cormack read about Lundy's violent death, he tried to think of who could have done this.

”I am absolutely drawing a blank. ... ,” he said. “I don't know anybody who would wish him ill will.”

Another confusing aspect of the case is where Lundy's car was found -- halfway across the country, in the state of Kansas.

Officers with the Kansas Highway Patrol stopped a green Buick LeSabre in Ellsworth County for felony evasion, and the car -- with California plates -- was registered to Lundy, according to the Sheriff's Office. Local investigators are currently in Kansas, interviewing the driver to determine how the car got there.

Cormack said Lundy traded a gas-guzzling Ford truck for that Buick because Lundy said “it costs $4 to get out of the driveway” in the truck.

”He paid $600 for that Buick,” Cormack said. “It wasn't worth getting shot for.”

There also wasn't much of value to steal from Lundy's trailer, Cormack said. Cormack was aware of only two valuables -- unused tickets to the original Woodstock concert, and an automatic rifle.

Although Cormack hadn't seen Lundy in a while, Cormack remembers him as a little rough around the edges but also as a man who wrote poetry and painted.

”He was a big, gentle guy underneath,” he said.

◼ Sheriff's investigation in Kansas leads to warrant for Trinidad death

Remains in Loleta w/UPDATE - Identified

◼ Skeleton found in rural Loleta
Humboldt County Sheriff's Office spokesperson Brenda Godsey said Monday that a man hired by the landowner to do some cleanup on the property had discovered the skeleton in a burned-out building at about 3:30 p.m.
Humboldt County Sheriff's Office deputies responded and confirmed that the bones were human.

Ch. 3 TV News called the building a church that had burned down 6 years ago.

◼ Investigation into Loleta skeleton focuses on identifying the remains

◼ The truth is in the teeth in Loleta case
Two years after her disappearance, the human remains found near Loleta last week have been identified as those of Stephanie Lee Fowler.

The remains were identified by the teeth -- a forensic odontologist compared Fowler's past dental records with the teeth of the skeleton, said Humboldt County Coroner Dave Parris.

Forensic odontologists are often “the only ones who can make positive IDs,” he said.

Fowler was 34 and a mother of six when she was last seen in 2007, getting into a white vehicle on Eel River Drive in Loleta, not far from where the remains were found. Her family reported her missing May 26, 2007, but had last seen her about a month before, according to a Humboldt County Sheriff's Office press release....

...The body has been sent to Redding for evaluation and Quenell expects to know how she died soon....

Two bodies this week

☛ TS Officials investigating death of woman found in river
☛ ER Woman’s body found along Eel River near Fortuna
...Three men who were near the River Lodge and provided information to police spoke to The Eureka Reporter about what they saw on condition of anonymity.

The three men said they talked with the man later questioned by police outside the River Lodge at about 10 a.m. on Tuesday and that he said he was looking for a black-haired woman.

The witnesses said he rode away on his bike down a nearby dirt path behind the lodge and returned later at approximately 4 p.m., his pants covered in dirt and appearing distraught.

The unidentified man told the men that he had found the woman, but that she wouldn’t wake up after he said he attempted to resuscitate her with CPR.

Witnesses also said that the man said he and the woman got “pretty toasted” together the night before and that he had left her there after he couldn’t wake her....

☛ TS Homicide investigation in SoHum
☛ ER Sheriff’s investigating possible murder in SoHum

UPDATES:
☛ TS Suspected homicide victim died of gunshot wound

A suspected homicide victim from San Francisco, whose body was found near Alderpoint last week, died of a gunshot wound, the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office reported Thursday.
Authorities are still working to uncover the details of how 35-year-old Reetpaul Singh Rana died, and are withholding additional information about the investigation.
Rana's body was found Saturday in a wooded area along Dyerville Loop Road, near Alderpoint. The body was found nearly 100 miles from the burned-out remains of his light-blue 1996 SAAB four-door sedan, which was found along the north side of Big Lagoon, Sept. 10.
According to Humboldt County Sheriff's Office Lt. George Cavinta, the body appeared to have been dumped in the area. County Coroner Frank Jager said the man likely died about four or five days before he was discovered.

☛ ER San Francisco man died from gunshot wound
☛ TS Woman's body recovered from Eel River

Authorities are investigating the suspicious death of a 48-year-old Fortuna woman, who was found in the Eel River Tuesday afternoon, Humboldt County Deputy Coroner Charles Comer said Wednesday.
The body of Rosemarie Voyd was found in the water along the bank of the Eel River, near the River Lodge in Fortuna. But Comer said “it's not obviously a drowning. We're considering it a suspicious death.”
According to Comer, a man was said to have been drinking with Voyd along the river bank the night before she was found. Lt. George Cavinta of the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office said that man has been interviewed by law enforcement, but is not being detained at this time.