Body Is Found Near Home of Ex-Deputy Suspected in Slaying

The body of a retired Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy accused of killing a fellow officer 14 years ago was found Wednesday in a wooded area of Spokane, Wash., law enforcement officials said.

Los Angeles Deputy Police Chief Martin Pomeroy said FBI agents are satisfied that the body is that of Ted Eugene Kirby, 54. Law enforcement officials in Spokane were more cautious, saying that an autopsy is needed before positive identification can be made. Authorities said the body is fairly decomposed, but it appears that it sustained a head trauma. Pomeroy called it a possible suicide.

A local television reporter found the body about three blocks from Kirby’s house, where reporters had been staked out after it was announced Tuesday that Kirby was wanted in connection with the 1985 death of Sheriff’s Sgt. George Arthur. Kirby retired in 1996.

News of the discovery surprised local police officials and came as Pomeroy was announcing that detectives were seeking an unlawful flight warrant against Kirby in addition to capital murder charges.

“This is a tragic ending,” said Lt. Ray Leyva, a Sheriff’s Department spokesman. “We would have liked to have seen this work its way through the court.”

LAPD Det. Dennis P. Kilcoyne, lead investigator in the case, agreed. “Now there will be some portions of the story or the investigation that will never be answered,” he said.

The long-ago murder mystery--one of the Sheriff’s Department’s most vexing homicides--was solved through DNA technology not available at the time of Arthur’s slaying, police said.

Despite the discovery of the body, police officials remained tight-lipped about many details of the investigation. Detectives would only say that Kirby may have killed Arthur because of his jealously over a woman. Both men were married at the time.

Arthur, 37, was shot in his van on a downtown freeway onramp minutes after he left work at the Men’s Central Jail. Police suspect that Kirby was lying in wait inside the van.

Details of the relationship between the officers remain murky. In fact, Kilcoyne said Arthur may have been unaware that Kirby harbored any hostility toward him.

“He was probably more surprised than anyone that night,” the detective said.

At first, investigators did not suspect foul play, believing that Arthur had been killed when his van crashed into a 12-foot-high retaining wall. A coroner’s investigation, however, revealed that the sergeant had died of a gunshot wound.

Further investigation also determined that Arthur had been engaged in a struggle inside the van before the crash. Police found traces of another person’s hair and blood on the van’s windshield and outside the vehicle. Witnesses reported seeing an injured man--apparently bleeding from the head--crawling from the wreckage.

The investigation, which was headed by the LAPD, stalled for many years. Detectives recently reviewed the file and pursued both new and old leads, re-interviewing witnesses as well as Arthur’s family and friends.

Pomeroy said detectives eliminated about 165 possible suspects before focusing on Kirby, who apparently was not considered a suspect in the initial investigation.

“Mr. Kirby’s name never came up until three weeks ago,” Kilcoyne said. “We focused on a different direction than prior detectives.” He refused to elaborate.

When Kirby did come to their attention, detectives went to his home in Spokane to get a saliva sample from him to compare with other DNA evidence recovered from the crime scene.

At first, police said, Kirby agreed to provide the sample. But when detectives arrived, they were greeted by Kirby’s attorney, who refused to provide a sample without a court order. After obtaining the order, detectives took the sample and left.

“Mr. Kirby was the first one to throw a red flag in our face,” Kilcoyne said of Kirby’s reluctance to cooperate. “Obviously, we didn’t need to be hit in the head with a hammer.”

Although a law enforcement source said Tuesday that the DNA from Kirby matched blood evidence taken from inside the van, authorities said Wednesday that, in fact, the match was made with material taken from outside the vehicle. Tests are continuing on the blood evidence retrieved from the windshield, officials said.

On July 7, after police determined that Kirby’s DNA matched evidence from the crime scene, detectives went back to Spokane. When they arrived, they discovered that Kirby had disappeared a week earlier. One police source said Kirby took off his wedding ring, put it on a table, walked out the door and had not been seen since.

Police did not know whether Kirby fled to avoid being arrested or left to commit suicide.

That question apparently was answered Wednesday when two reporters with the NBC affiliate in Spokane found the body.

“They were just out there marching around,” said Peter Alexander, a reporter for the affiliate. “This is a suspicious area. Three victims of a serial killer were found not far from there.”

He said Kirby’s home was visible from where the body was found.

Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department employees who worked with Kirby said he was nicknamed “Sunshine” because of his sour disposition.

But Sheriff’s Capt. Doyle Campbell said, “This is not something I would have ever imagined from Ted. I’ve talked to a number of guys and they have all said that they just can’t believe it.”