Man died violently, witnesses say
Published 9:00 pm Sunday, August 6, 2006
A man found dead in the back yard of a condominium complex south of Everett on Saturday appeared to be a victim of some form of violence, neighbors said.
The man was bleeding when he was found beneath a tree about 4:30 p.m. in the Ancora Village complex in the 700 block of 124th Street SW.
The Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office has not released the man’s name or an official cause of death. Police have said only that they believe the man’s death is “suspicious.”
The man appeared to be in his early 20s, said Robert Bischoff, who approached him after a woman in the complex where both are residents spotted the man’s body from her balcony.
The man was lying face down, Bischoff said.
“I pushed on him and said, ‘Are you all right?’ and got no answer,” he said. “He had blood on his back.”
The woman then called 911, Bischoff said.
The complex is a retirement community where most of the residents know each other. They felt certain the man did not live there.
“We’re a close group, really, here,” Leroy Cotterill said.
Cotterill said a trail of blood, much of it cleaned up later by police, led from a fence facing Eighth Avenue W. The blood trail crossed a couple of porches before reaching the area beneath the tree where the man was found.
Cotterill pointed to splatters of blood on his back porch, about 30 yards from where the man was found. He was not home when police first arrived.
Paramedics summoned to the complex Saturday determined the man had died, police said. Officers cordoned off the area and continued their investigation until past 10 p.m. Saturday, neighbors said.
There have been a few car thefts at the complex, and Cotterill said a couple of RVs have been vandalized, but people living there have not experienced anything like this before. Residents said they are troubled.
“We want to work on more security here,” Cotterill said. “We care about each other. So this really disturbs us.”
Anyone with information about the case may contact the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office Major Crimes Unit at 425-388-3845.
