Detectives seek help in homicide investigation
CHARLES H. FEATHERSTONE | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 3 years, 7 months AGO
Detectives with the Grant County Sheriff’s Office are seeking information or video footage to help their investigation of a man whose body was found Wednesday morning on the side of Airway Drive, near Cochran Road Northeast.
According to GCSO Spokesman Kyle Foreman, a passing motorist reported the body at around 4:30 a.m. Detectives were at the scene until around 10:30 a.m. and are investigating the matter “as a homicide.”
In a social media post, Foreman said they believe the death occurred sometime between 2:30 a.m. and 3 a.m. Foreman said detectives hope someone who lives along Airway Drive might have captured “something of interest” in surveillance video, rather than any video of a particular act.
Foreman said he had no details about the cause of death or the man’s identity, which would be released following an autopsy and notification of the man’s next of kin, expected to take place on Thursday.
He also said GCSO investigators do not know if the homicide is related to a drive-by shooting in the Larson community early Wednesday, which damaged a home and parked vehicle in the 1400 block of Arnold Drive, but injured no one.
Deputies at the Larson sheriff’s substation and residents heard four or five gunshots around 2 a.m., according to a GCSO social media post. It was suspected the shots were fired from a vehicle.
Anyone with information on either crime can call 509-762-1160 or send information to crimetips@grantcountywa.gov. Tipsters can remain anonymous.
Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at chfeatherstone@columbiabasinherald.com.
ARTICLES BY CHARLES H. FEATHERSTONE
Potato prices up, sales down for first quarter 2023
DENVER — The value of grocery store potato sales rose 16% during the first three months of 2023 as the total volume of sales fell by 4.4%, according to a press release from PotatoesUSA, the national marketing board representing U.S. potato growers. The dollar value of all categories of U.S. potato products for the first quarter of 2023 was $4.2 billion, up from $3.6 billion for the first three months of 2022. However, the total volume of potato sales fell to 1.77 billion pounds in the first quarter of 2023 compared with 1.85 billion pounds during the same period of 2022, the press release noted. However, total grocery store potato sales for the first quarter of 2023 are still above the 1.74 billion pounds sold during the first three months of 2019 – a year before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the press release said.
WSU Lind Dryland Research Station welcomes new director
LIND — Washington State University soil scientist and wheat breeder Mike Pumphrey was a bit dejected as he stood in front of some thin test squares of stunted, somewhat scraggly spring wheat at the university’s Lind Dryland Research Station. “As you can see, the spring wheat is having a pretty tough go of it this year,” he said. “It’s a little discouraging to stand in front of plots that are going to yield maybe about seven bushels per acre. Or something like that.” Barely two inches of rain have fallen at the station since the beginning of March, according to station records. Pumphrey, speaking to a crowd of wheat farmers, researchers, seed company representatives and students during the Lind Dryland Research Station’s annual field day on Thursday, June 15, said years like 2023 are a reminder that dryland farming is a gamble.
Wilson Creek hosts bluegrass gathering
WILSON CREEK — Bluegrass in the Park is set to start today at Wilson Creek City Park. The inaugural event is set to bring music and visitors to one of Grant County’s smallest towns. “I've been listening to bluegrass my whole life,” said the event’s organizer Shirley Billings, whose family band plays on their porch every year for the crowd at the Little Big Show. “My whole family plays bluegrass. And I just wanted to kind of get something for the community going. So I just invited all the people that I know and they’ll come and camp and jam.” ...