Another man was discovered dead in Montesano last week as a body was found on Wednesday, June 1, in a basement under the business office of Price & Price Real Estate located on 120 W. Pioneer Ave.
The discovery comes on the heels of 74-year-old Gerald R. Fuller being found dead on the outskirts of the Lake Sylvia State Park two days earlier. While Fuller’s cause of death is currently being classified as natural causes, this case is still being sorted out.
Robert Kegel, who serves as the coroner for Grays Harbor County, said there is currently no positive identification of the victim, but they are zeroing in on some possible matches.
“We believe we have a tentative identification on the individual, but we are awaiting test results back from fingerprints that we collected and will contact family as more info comes in,” Kegel explained. “So far, all we know is that our victim is a male in his early 40s.”
Kegel went on to say while he doesn’t suspect foul play, the autopsy will place the cause of death in a clearer light. He said that his office has contracted the autopsy through the King County Medical Examiner and the hope is a result will come back sometime early next week.
Brett Vance, the Montesano Police Department Chief of Police , said that a call by a Price & Price Real Estate employee went through to 911 at 3:45 p.m. to make a report of “suspicious activity” due to finding abandoned clothes in the alleyway between Price & Price Real Estate and Whitney Auto Detail.
When officers arrived, it led them to finding the body in the basement.
“Obviously it looks a little suspicious to have a dead body under someone’s business, but it looks like there is a crawl space that’s accessible from the alleyway to the basement where he was found,” Vance said. “We don’t believe foul play is in question, but we called in Grays Harbor detectives to help with the investigation and will let them and the coroner’s office to determine that.”
The alleyway is currently blocked off to the public by police tape, as the area is still under investigation.
Multiple calls were made by The Daily World to Price & Price Real Estate to seek information on how or why the victim was underneath the business, but no other information was available as of press time.
