Followup: New details about the death outside Roxbury Safeway

Just talked with King County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Sgt. John Urquhart to get the latest on the case of a woman brought, dead, to the sidewalk outside Roxbury Safeway yesterday afternoon (original WSB story here). First: We don’t know her name, but we know the woman was 46 years old. Investigators have concluded that she was not brought from any sort of “homeless camp” after all – instead, it turns out, she had been in a trailer parked on the street nearby. She is believed to have been a transient, as are the two men who carried her to the store, one of whom stayed to wait for authorities, while, according to Sgt. Urquhart, the other one “ran off.” He says they specifically brought her to the area outside the store where there’s a pay phone, so they could call 911. There is no evidence of foul play, though the cause of death hasn’t been announced yet, pending autopsy results, so unless the autopsy reveals something unexpected, Sgt. Urquhart says, KCSO is not investigating further.

Sage May 7, 2009 (10:26 am)

Thanks to West Seattle Blog for being on the case as always. So the homeless scare story from the traditional media turns out to be almost entirely false in its implications. There’s not even an encampment anywhere in the actual story now.

Just amazing how KING-5’s story about crazy homeless ruffians from an implicitly Dickensian encampment turns out to actually be a story about a homeless woman living in a trailer brought to a payphone so that 911 could be called. Thanks to WSB for following up on what turns out to be a very different story than originally advertised.

WSB May 7, 2009 (1:09 pm)

Putting in a shameless note of self-promotion … that’s what you can count on us to do (and if you ever catch us falling down on the followup job, please let us know). Although I have to say, the conventional media wouldn’t have had the story at all except for us reporting it in the first place … when we first called Sgt. Urquhart, he hadn’t heard about the incident (we called because of a WSB’er tip); we published it, the other guys read us, they then called him, and off they all went. We try to attribute as much as possible, “possibly,” “reportedly,” “said to have been,” etc., because as you know, police don’t always get the complete story in the first wave of investigating, because all THEY have to start with is what somebody called in … TR

Sage May 7, 2009 (2:14 pm)

WSB: you’ve earned the shameless self-promotion — go for it! I for one have noticed (and appreciate) the caveats and careful attributions when details are fuzzy. Interesting to hear that the traditional media originally got the story from this site, but managed to strip out the journalism and replace it with rank sensationalism. The quotes from the police always sounded measured — it was the story from the “reporters” that were less caerful. Anyway, glad to have you in the neighborhood, WSB!

Dave May 7, 2009 (8:23 pm)

I agree I piled on the homless squating in our parks, so I am sorry about that comment. However the city needs to crack down on camping and sex acts like what goes on up at “Larry Craig Park” aka Dog Park.

seattlegirl May 8, 2009 (9:31 pm)

I find it interesting that the Sgt hadn’t even heard of the story until you contacted him. Who wants to guess how fast this would have been reported if it had happened in Ballard or Greenlake? It’s frustrating that when things like this happen in the south end, no one seems to care, and when the news get a hold of it, they blow it all out of proportion and just plain get it wrong. Thanks WSB!

WSB May 8, 2009 (9:39 pm)

Unfortunately deaths happen in many places at many times. The PIO’s don’t often initiate the calls to the media unless it’s something they need to get the word out about (suspect being sought, etc.) and they rely on being flagged by the field officers – often if I check with my Southwest Precinct contacts about something, while it might have been a notable event for a certain neighborhood, they might not have gotten a “significant incident report” about something that we heard about from multiple sources … it’s all relative Just so happens that because, thanks to thousands of WSBers, we have a strong network of potential tipsters here, and in this case, because of the person who sent us a note, I was the first call to KCSO’s media sgt. (who is an EXCELLENT public information officer – very popular in my ex-profession, TV, as well) rather than a tv station – citywide media doesn’t have as close a connection with neighborhoods as it did back when it had more of a monopoly … TR

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