New information released on Kingston body
Photo by IDAHO STATE POLICE/ Shoshone County Sheriff Mike Gunderson (left) supervises the recovery effort of the remains by Idaho State Police detectives last year in Kingston.
Photo courtesy/ A picture of a similar hat to that of the deceased. The picture shows an orange hat with a deer, rather then a camouflage hat with a turkey, but the grass on the bill and the word LeTourneau is the same.
WALLACE – New information has recently been released regarding the unidentified human remains that were found in Kingston in June of 2018.
A joint investigation conducted by the Shoshone County Sheriff’s Office and Idaho State Police has revealed that the remains are that of an overweight white male, 45-65 years old, approximately 5’ 10”, that smoked Signal brand cigarettes.
It is believed that these cigarettes were purchased from the Coeur d’Alene tribe– either at the casino or at one of the tribe stores.
An inspection of the remains showed that the male wore dentures (had no teeth for a long time) and showed multiple long-healed broken bones including broken ribs in a pattern suggesting a crush injury, fused vertebrae, broken fingers and clavicle.
His likely date of death was June or July of 2014.
As for clothing, the male wore size 9.5 Ariat brand cowboy boots and a unique camouflage baseball cap with an embroidered quail on one side and the word “LeTourneau” across the front.
LeTourneau is a company that manufactured heavy equipment and their log lifters are still used by local mills. These LeTourneau hats were custom made by the local LeTourneau company, who gave them out at training events they would hold for the log lift operators from these mills. Only a few (less than ten) of this particular hat with the quail and in camouflage were made.
The remains were discovered on the morning of June 7, 2018, by DG&S Construction crews, who were working on the Interstate-90 bridge project in Kingston.
The discovery was made in a swampy area off Coeur d’Alene River Road adjacent to the I-90 westbound off-ramp.
Law enforcement worked for 24-hours to recover the remains.
“We had to drain essentially a swamp, dam it up and slowly but surely dig around this thing to try and do the best we can to bring it out as a whole piece,” ISP Cpt. John Kempf said in a previous interview.
Detectives have been fighting an uphill battle since the discovery, due to the degraded condition of the remains and a lack of evidence found at the scene.
“The most obvious (challenge) is the condition the body was found it in,” Kempf said. “It was subjected to probably not only rain, but ice and snow and runoff, and all the things that would come with a body being exposed to the elements for any length of time.”
While SCSO and the ISP Investigations Division continue to follow investigatory work on this case, both agencies are asking the public to help identify this individual and share information they may have regarding his death.
Any information can be relayed to the Shoshone County Sheriff’s Office at 208-556-1114 #1 or the Idaho State Police at 208-209-8670.
A cause of death and whether or not foul play is suspected is unknown at this time.