In the second incident in just 11 days, another missing man has been found dead in Flathead County.

The body of 18-year-old Levi Schneider of Marion was found Wednesday night in the woods outside Marion near Gopher Lane with a single gunshot wound to the head.

“He was discovered by family members who had been out looking,” Flathead County Sheriff Chuck Curry said.

According to Curry, Schneider had likely been dead since he was last seen on July 7. His body has been transported to the state crime lab and the scene has been processed, although an investigation continues.

“As with any case of this nature, we treat it as a homicide until we confirm otherwise,” Curry said, “but all the evidence so far points toward it being a suicide.”

Curry added that Schneider had made a suicidal statement to someone the day before he went missing.

It was previously thought, although briefly, that Schneider was still alive after a sighting that turned out to be false.

A second false sighting of Schneider was reported just 30 minutes before his body was found, and in the same area — Gopher Lane.  

Less than two weeks ago, the body of a Kalispell man, 25-year-old Cody Johnson, who went missing the same day as Schneider, was found at the base of a cliff in Glacier National Park.

In addition, 18-year-old Kalispell resident Lukas Leigh was found dead at the base of an 80-foot cliff near Lakeside, where he was believed to have been attending an underage drinking party before falling from the top.

“We’ve had a very busy summer,” Curry said. “Usually we peak around the Fourth of July and things slow down a little bit, but that has not occurred this summer. A lot of them have been thoroughly time-consuming cases that take a lot of resources.”

He said some of the cases, such as the water rescues, may be a result of the weather: If the weather hadn’t been so hot, more people would be staying home and inside.

Despite the high number of intensive cases, Curry said his department has been doing well.

“We’ve certainly been spread a little thin, but we’re managing, we’re covering it and there’s — at least as of right now — no big budget concerns,” Curry said. “We always anticipate the bulk of our work in the summer months.”

Reporter Jesse Davis may be reached at 758-4441 or by email at [email protected].