The following is an email to KING 5.com sent to KING5 News reporter Chris Daniels from David Neth, the property manager for the Seattle home in which a body was found and that was rented by missing radio host Mike Webb:
I am a 30 year Seattle Realtor with The Landmark Group and I sold this house (as agent) to the owner in the early 1990's as a rental and have managed it for her since then.
I met Michael when he moved into the house with his then partner, Steve Ligino. This was in July of 1992. Back then Mike worked for KIXI.
I had been a gay activist in Seattle in the mid 70's and I am pretty left wing so we had a certain comfort talking with each other though we didn't talk much hardcore politics. My main relationship had mostly had to do with his tenancy although, after he lost his partner to Aids (several years after they had moved into the house), he would sometimes talk about wanting to meet anew partner. We had a few heart to heart discussions about that in the past three years especially more recently, after his longtime dog died. He asked what I was doing (newly single myself after a 20 year relationship) to meet potential long term partners and what advice I had for him in finding someone. He often seemed lonely in the last couple of years but otherwise energized.
Over the years, his housekeeping became worse and worse so I had given him several written notices about the condition of the interior. This also had discouraged the owner from doing much work on the house as Mike didn't want the rent to go up and was frantic at any suggestion that he might have to move.
In mid-May while I was out of town I got a call from the police department that they had broken into the back kitchen door window to gain access to the house because his sister reported him missing. I told them I couldn't fix the window as I was in California and they said the fire department would secure it, which they apparently did with an old ¾” plywood road sign screwed on four corners to the top half of the door. It was upon returning to Seattle that I found out he had been reported missing and that there had been a lot of speculation about it. His sister I believe was paying his rent for many months - it always came through my mail slot at odd times of the day in the form of a cashiers check, but always on time, which wasn’t necessarily true if Mike was paying it.
On June 12th, not having received any rent I went to the house to post a 3-day notice to vacate. Upon arriving I found the front door unlocked (but closed) and entered the house. Although dirty and disheveled I did not notice anything to unusual. It was my first trip over there since the police 'break-in' in May so I went around back to see if the kitchen door was secured. I noticed the sign screwed tightly into place and the deadbolt was locked. I locked the front door, posted the notice and left.
Upon going back today to begin clearing out the residence which I determined to be 'abandoned' (the mail is delivered through a slot and drops into a basket in the basement … it hadn't been touched in 2 or 3 weeks, layers of mail in a timeline). I hired a worker from the Millionaires Club and informed him of the tenant being missing but that I had been through the house and there was no body, although there was an odor in the half basement and lots of flies. I didn’t think much of the odor because Mike had let his dog deficate and urinate in the basement in her final months and we had given him a firm warning about the permanent odor problem it had caused. Also, the odor wasn’t that strong and was only in a corner of the basement. I left the worker to do his job and told him to pack and carry the basement contents out onto the rear patio for future removal to the dump. I left to conduct other business and returned 3 hours later to the house.
When I returned he was nearly done and the owner of the house stopped by briefly to get the key for the new locks I had installed. She came into the 1/2 basement. The worker had nearly emptied the basement and was removing 2 shelving units with books. At the end of the shelves was a 4X4 piece of plywood covering the opening to the 3 foot high 'crawl space' under the other half of the house. The plywood was unsecured but one end was wedged between the bookshelf and the wall and upon removing it we all noted piles of boxes along the wall just inside the space. When the owner bought the house 15 years ago, we required the crawl space be covered with black vapor barrier plastic. This was missing and it was all dirt floor. I think this is a little odd because even though I can't say how long it has been gone, it is no easy or desirable thing to remove a plastic vapor barrier from an entire crawl space and given Michaels lack of cleanliness as a tenant I cannot fathom him having it removed. Maybe nothing at all but certainly odd.
While I was upstairs saying goodbye to the owner, the Millionaires Club worker removed the boxes from the crawl space (I didn't expect him to go in there and do that but he was a hard worker and did it on his own). When I came back downstairs he had the boxes all out and underneath where they were was a blue tarp, neatly squared to the wall and what to me looking into the space was the absolutely clear outline of a body under the tarp...I told him to leave the house with me and once outside I immediately phoned the police.
I earlier mentioned the sign screwed to secure the back door because today, in changing the locks, I noticed that it had obviously been used for access to the house since my visit on June 12th when I noted it was secured.
Today, the bottom two screws and upper left screw were only partially screwed back in. The upper right corner was crunched and the screw in the upper right corner was severely bent so obviously someone had removed the 3 screws and bent the board up to go into the house and then upon leaving had only partially put it back.
When I entered the house on June 12th I noticed that all 3 computer stations Mike had were still intact - screen, mouse, printer, keyboards...but the 3 computers themselves were gone. The house didn't look like it had been ransacked, folded clothes were still in drawers in the bedrooms, the dresser drawers were nearly all closed, kitchen cabinets closed, etc.
There were 2 other unusual items in the crawl space where the body was that seemed very strange to me but I do not want to talk about them at this point. I'll let the police do their thing and see what direction this goes from here. I am pretty certain that the body will be determined to be Mike's. And although only one officer talked about ‘suicide’ I find suicide to be a pretty hard sell unless it was an ‘assisted suicide’ and he had a person 'helping him' who didn't really like him. One does not cover oneself in a neatly squared out tarp and pile boxes on oneself, all after covering over the opening to the crawl space with a loose piece of plywood.
David Neth
Looks like the Police have a first-class mystery on their hands. Hope those unnamed items in the crawl space lead to the killer.
Missing computers...now that's a wrinkle. I don't imagine even a fairly new computer fetches much on the stolen-goods market, since they obsolesce so quickly.
More like they were suspected to have been info on them the killer didn't want found.
What a damned sad story the last few years of his life were.
Posted by: Emphyrio | June 29, 2007 at 04:17 PM
wow, looks like Mike Hood didn't drive him to suicide. I suppose the assholes around here will now try to say Hood killed him.
Posted by: mac | June 29, 2007 at 04:28 PM
"wow, looks like Mike Hood didn't drive him to suicide. I suppose the assholes around here will now try to say Hood killed him."
Well, based off the number of comments it is generating on this site, it does give him motive...
Posted by: trickydick | June 29, 2007 at 05:36 PM
Makes one wonder what kept the cadaver dogs from finding the body sooner . . . time is important when killers are on the loose.
Just such an unexpected ending here . . . you never know.
Posted by: joanie | June 29, 2007 at 06:06 PM
this story is going to give me nightmares tonight.
Posted by: Seattle Girl | June 29, 2007 at 07:52 PM
It seems obvious to me that he was murdered in the house and that the killer didn't want to risk carrying a body outside for neighbors to see and whatever else. The crawlspace is the next best thing, the most remote part of the house, and sure enough it bought the killer a nearly three month head start, enough time to actualy go back to the house and screw with stuff.
The cadavar dogs didn't find him because he was in a boarded up crawl space under a tarp and cadaver dogs aren't perfect, a safe assumption.
That he was probably murdered in the house means there was also a lot of blood that had to be cleaned up in one room or another. Maybe the blue tarp allowed them to move the body to the basement without dripping blood along their path. You'd think if a lot of blood was spilled anywhere besides the kitchen or the bathroom then the extensive cleanup job required would have been evident to subsequent visitors who walked through the house.
They most likely stole the computers to hide saved emails, given that they left the peripherals, which suggests that they were acquaintances, maybe they met on the internet.
The property manager mentioned Webb was looking for someone, and maybe this person was a potential partner. The murder might have resulted from Webb rejecting the potential partner he met on the internet, who obviously has mental problems given that they later killed him. He might have said "you're weird, i don't think we should see eachother, please leave" and then the guy got enraged and stabbed him a few times.
I know this is a lot of speculation but in my mind it's the most plausible path of probabilities.
Posted by: Andrew | June 30, 2007 at 03:44 AM
Property manager's story sounds fishy to me.
So, we are to believe that Mike befriended some sort of shady drug user and this drug user killed Mike and then wrapped his body in a tarp, removed the ground cover in the crawl space and boarded it up and moved bookcases in front of it??? Then took the computers but unhooked and left behind the keyboards and mice???
And left behind no signs of a struggle or blood or disarray???
And if you're the property manager why would you send those long detailed emails to the media? Shouldn't you clam up and give that info to the police so as not to comprpmise the case???
Is it possible that some sort of argument or behavior escalated and led to death? And then someone with the knowledge and wherewithall to clean up, cover up and misdirect sprang into action?
Posted by: tink | June 30, 2007 at 12:28 PM
His story isn't fishy at all. The likelyhood of a property manager mustering enough anger to do somone in must be a thousands times less likely than it having been done by an angry rejected gay partner.
In my experiance, people who meet in eachother in person communicate with cell-phones and text messages whereas people you know primarily from the internet you exchange emails with or instant message. I think the odds favor the killer being an internet acquaintance.
If I were to property manager I'd want to tell the media also, because I know there are a lot of curious people out there who want what I have to give, and hey, maybe he's just a giving kind of guy. Plus the person who took the computers broke in whereas the property manager could have simply unlocked the door.
Posted by: Andrew | June 30, 2007 at 01:35 PM
Minor correction to Seattle Times Mike Webb coverage: King County Superior Court records show that a temporary Order of Protection was granted to Hood against Webb, but there is no record of an order filed against Hood.
Posted by: FREMONT | June 30, 2007 at 02:42 PM
But, Freemont..it makes such DRAMA dontchaknow...I thought the tone of the Seattle Times article was very different than the other papers..
Posted by: sparky | June 30, 2007 at 02:49 PM
Right-o, Sparks! The P-I has been on this story to its finish (thanks to Finnish reporter Pulkkininem...). Drama rules at The Times!
Posted by: FREMONT | June 30, 2007 at 08:57 PM
so, in life, mike webb was the target of the witch hunt by mike hood and this blog. in death, mike webb will be the subject of mike hood and this blog in using his name for further fame and glory. hood, i think you owe mike webb a apology. as well as his friends,family and fans. i don't expect it, but i think it would be nice. you were very mean and hard on mike. and from what we have seen from the bush crime family and corrupt republicans, mike was right on the money about these people. amen, mike webb, you were right.
Posted by: matt | June 30, 2007 at 10:47 PM
Yes, Mike Webb was right about Bush and the evil people around Bush! That's one of the main reasons some people hated Mike so much.
I learned from Mike and enjoyed listening to his shows. It was a breath of fresh intellectual liberal air in a swamp of moronic conservative lies.
Posted by: jt | July 01, 2007 at 12:07 AM
David Neth, the property manager, I have seen recently, 2 of his post removed. One here and one over on Mike's site.
He strikes me as creepy and someone who likes to hear himself talk (write) and someone who seeks some face time.
Posted by: Gregory | July 20, 2007 at 02:03 PM