Murder mystery: Blood trail, body found on Beacon Hill



SEATTLE -- It was a trail of blood that led neighbors, including Maria Navariete, to the man's body.

“It starts from around the corner, where some of the cars are, and it comes down here and it looks like steps. We followed the blood around the corner and then we saw the guy lying on the ground so we didn't know if he was sleeping or he was a homeless guy or something,” Navariete said.

The 911 call came in just before noon Monday; a man's body on the side of a home at 2333 15th Ave. South.

"When officers got on scene here, they found the victim lying in the yard. He was face down and obviously DOA,” Seattle police spokeswoman Renee Witt said.

There were signs of trauma to his body.

A gunshot wound perhaps, or knife wound, police don't yet know which.

"Detectives think it was one or the other -- either he was stabbed or he was shot so they're trying to figure out, basically, what happened to this man,” Witt said.

“Obviously it's really unsettling.  I've never heard of anything like this happening here and so it's pretty disturbing,” neighbor Susan Mays said.

Neighbors like Mays and Katie Halse walk the area daily.

They never thought they'd walk past the scene of a violent crime.

"I'm really frightened. Here I am on a walk with two little infants and we really think Beacon Hill is a great and safe place to be, but then you walk outside and there`s a dead body and you think twice about whether it's so safe and nice,” Halse said.

Police have yet to identify the victim. They don't even have an approximate age.

Neighbor suspect the man may be a transient.

"When they disbanded the tent city, people just walk around all day and all night, all kinds of people.”

So you think this guy may have been one of them?

“Oh I'm sure,” neighbor Judie said.

"Detectives are canvassing the area. They're trying to identify him to figure out if he lives here or if maybe he just wandered into the yard right before he died,” Witt said.

The body has been sent to the King County Medical Examiner’s Office for identification and to determine how he died.