Missing radio host Mike Webb's death ruled a homicide (Seattle libtalker)

Seattle Times ^ | 06/29/07 | Jonathan Martin and Sara Jean Green

[raccoonradio]

Weeks worth of unopened mail, missing computers and evidence that someone had entered a Queen Anne rental house where a decomposing body was found Thursday afternoon are adding to the mystery of what happened to Mike Webb, a former radio host who was last seen by family members in mid-April. The King County Medical Examiner identified Webb's remains Friday afternoon, finding that he died of what appears to be stab wounds.

His death was declared a homicide. John McMullen, a longtime friend and former employer, said Webb was last seen April 13, but his family continued to receive text messages from Webb's cellphone for another month. The messages indicated that Webb was leaving town and that he was fine. Webb did not normally use text messaging, and after a month of exchanges, the family responded with a demand that Webb call them, McMullen said. The messages stopped at that point, and Webb's sister filed a missing person's report. Seattle police searched Webb's home about 10 days ago with a cadaver-sniffing dog but didn't find the body, which was in a crawl space. "It's hard to understand how when the police were in the house with a canine unit 10 days ago they didn't find that body," said McMullen.

David Neth, a longtime Seattle real-estate agent who rented the beige house on Third Avenue West to Webb, discovered the body inside a basement crawl space around 3 p.m. Thursday. The body was covered with a blue tarp and placed behind some boxes. According to Seattle police spokesman Jeff Kappel, the body was so badly decomposed that officers who responded to the scene were "unable to determine race, sex, age — anything." The death is being treated as suspicious.

[raccoonradio]

more:
Webb, a onetime KIRO-AM radio personality, was reported missing May 14, about a month after he was last seen by family members. After Webb was reported missing, Kappel said, officers stopped by the house.

McMullen, founder of Gaybc.com, an online gay-themed radio station, said he last talked with Webb in March. Webb had been depressed following his conviction for insurance fraud, and was admitted to a psychiatric treatment facility. But Webb was not suicidal and was optimistic his felony conviction would not end his career.

“I talked with Mike about it, and he swore up and down that in no way was he suicidal,” said McMullen.

In an e-mail sent to The Seattle Times this morning, Neth said he was in California in mid-May when he got a phone call from Seattle police, saying officers had broken through a back kitchen window to enter the house after Webb’s sister reported that her 51-year-old brother was missing.

Officers searched the house, Neth wrote, and then members of the Seattle Fire Department apparently used an old plywood street sign to secure the house.

Webb seemed lonely following the death of his partner about 10 years ago and more recently, his dog. He increasingly let his housekeeping slide and stopped paying rent, though Neth suspects Webb’s sister paid her brother’s rent for several months, slipping cashier’s checks through Neth’s mail slot.

In recent months, the rent was “always on time, which wasn’t necessarily true if Mike was paying it,” Neth wrote, add that he had little contact with Webb over the past six months.

No rent money arrived for June, so Neth went to the rental house on June 12 and posted an eviction notice, letting Webb know he had three days to move out. The front door was unlocked, so Neth went inside.

“Although dirty and disheveled, I did not notice anything unusual,” Neth said in his e-mail. The plywood sign over the kitchen window was “screwed tightly in place,” he wrote, and the deadbolt on the back door was locked. Still, he noticed that three computers were missing from the house, even though computer screens, keyboards and other equipment were still there.

Assuming Webb had abandoned the house, Neth returned on Thursday to begin clearing out Webb’s belongings with the help of a worker he hired from the Millionair Club. Neth said he found weeks’ worth of mail, untouched. There was a strange odor in one corner of the basement, but Neth said he assumed the smell was from Webb’s dog using the basement as a bathroom.

As he was changing the locks on the doors, Neth noticed that the old plywood sign on the kitchen window was bent and the screws holding it in place were only partially screwed in. “... Obviously someone had removed the 3 screws and bent the board up to go into the house and upon leaving had only partially put it back,” Neth said.

At one point, Neth left the house for about three hours, leaving the worker to pack up and move boxes filled with Webb’s things. When Neth returned with new keys for the house’s owner, the Millionair Club worker “had nearly emptied the basement and was removing two shelving units with books,” Neth wrote. The bookcases were partially blocking the opening to a crawl space, and piece of plywood had been wedged between one of the bookcases and the wall.

As Neth was upstairs saying goodbye to the house’s owner, the worker removed several boxes he found inside the crawl space.

When Neth returned to the basement and peeked inside the crawl space, he saw a blue tarp “neatly squared to the wall.” Underneath the tarp, Neth said, “was the absolutely clear outline of a body.”

He and the worker left the house immediately and called police.

“There were two 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,” Neth wrote. “I’ll let the police do their thing and see what direction this goes.”

Neth wrote that he also found it odd that a moisture barrier the homeowner had installed in the crawl space after buying the property in the early 1990s was gone, leaving the dirt floor exposed.

“... It is no easy or desirable thing to remove a plastic vapor barrier from an entire crawl space and given Michael’s lack of cleanliness as a tenant, I cannot fathom him having it removed. May be nothing at all but certainly odd,” his e-mail said.

Though one officer at the scene suggested the possibility of suicide, Neth doesn’t buy it:

“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,” Neth wrote. “One does not cover oneself in a neatly squared out tarp and pile boxes on oneself, all after covering the opening to the crawl space with a loose piece of plywood.”

Webb, a 10-year KIRO employee who hosted a liberal late-night talk show, was fired from the station shortly after he was charged with insurance fraud in December 2005.

Prosecutors said he filed a fraudulent insurance claim after a traffic accident in June 2005. Geico investigators testified that he bought the policy the day after the accident, and then submitted a claim in which he asserted he had purchased it five weeks earlier.

A King County judge declared a mistrial after some jurors saw Webb handcuffed outside the courthouse. Seattle police said that he was acting “irrational and irate.”

A woman told police that Webb had threatened to kill himself if found guilty and that he had access to a gun in his house, the police report stated.

He refused to let officers take the weapon, according to the report. He was taken to Harborview Medical Center for a mental-health evaluation, Kappel said at the time.

Webb was convicted of insurance fraud in February after a second trial and sentenced to 240 hours of community service and fined $1,000.

[raccoonradio]

Webb’s final blog entry:

---

Show Notes
Friday, April 13, 2007

The Mike Webb Show tonight -— 9pm (West Coast)

9pm - WEEKLY STANDARD: Bush Near Dictatorial Power - eh...told ya. (how many years ago?) Is it time to act yet?

HIP - HOP- CRISY — Beyond Imus - How will the FCC, Minority Leaders, and broadcasters screw up the great potential for a true race dialog in this country? You know they’ll sweep the “Imus thing” under the rug. What will they do to answer the issue of the permeating racism in America today? NOTHING? ****ding ding ding**** RIGHT ANSWER!

[Darkwolf377]

a true race dialog in this country?

Good God, how much more "race dialog" do we have to have in this country for these people to be satisfied? It's talked about 24/7 on the networks, and there are literally thousands of books and magazine articles published annually.

I think what they really mean is "for all white people to admit guilt" or something.

Too bad about the guy. He seemed very troubled.

[Navy Patriot]

Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

[WashingtonStateRepublican]

Hmmm... looks like another Kurt Cobain copycat to me.

[raccoonradio]

I'm not from Seattle but I trade tapes of radio shows with someone who is and I check in from time to time to see what's going on up there. Webb's troubles with Geico happened when he decided to go on a 'snack break' during a break in his show

(had to rush to get back to on air studio--see, I guess whatever the station had in its vending machines wasn't enough)

so he gets into an accident with his Lexus (think that was the make of car) when he's out on this snack break and then tries to defraud the insurance company by taking out a policy AFTER the accident (but I have good news: he DIDN'T get away with saving money on his auto insurance by switching to Geico!)

So what happened? Seattle P.I.:

"Former Seattle radio talk show host Mike Webb was convicted Friday of insurance fraud in King County Superior Court. Saying he was "mystified and overwhelmed" by the judge's ruling, Webb, a former late-night host on KIRO radio, claimed he'd been set up by a vindictive listener and vowed to appeal.

"The felony conviction stems from a 2005 car wreck, in which Webb's Lexus suffered about $6,000 in damage. The driver of the other car in the crash -- who didn't have car insurance at the time -- was at fault.

"Hoping to recoup the costs of fixing his car, Webb purchased comprehensive car insurance the day after the crash, prosecutors said. He tried to trick Geico claims investigators into believing he'd purchased the policy prior to the accident, and went so far as to provide them with fake bank records and insurance paperwork.

Geico ultimately denied Webb's claim and contacted authorities. An earlier jury trial was declared a mistrial after jurors saw Webb in the midst of a nervous breakdown outside the Seattle courthouse. Webb later spent 30 days at an inpatient mental health facility.

In a second trial without a jury, Superior Court Judge Julie Spector reviewed the facts of the case, and heard from attorneys for Webb and the state. Spector then found Webb guilty as charged.

Webb was sentenced to 240 hours of community service, fined $1,000 and required to continue mental health treatment. The judge suspended a 30-day jail term. The court will determine how much restitution Webb will have to pay at a hearing later this year.

Spector said the evidence clearly showed that Webb "blatantly and with arrogance" defrauded the insurance company, and that his credibility as a witness in his defense was "completely lacking."

Following the verdict, Webb's attorney, Mark Larranaga, called the crime "an isolated incident" and pointed to his client's 15-year career in Seattle radio as proof that Webb could be a productive member of society. Since the case began, Larranaga said, his client lost his job and has been unable to find work in radio

etc

[SaltyJoe]

If it’s a murder, I hope they catch the criminal(s).

I wonder if the moisture barrier was removed to hasten decay? Homicide investigators have mentioned that murderers are taking extra measures to hide their crimes.

Removed computers? Would the authorities be able to access his internet accounts to see if he’d met someone online that later became his killer? Did the murderer take the bed sheets too?

[60Gunner]

Webb's mouthpiece was a weenie. I would hardly equate his tenure at KIRO with being a "productive member of society."

Anyone who has ever heard Webb would agree that he was a sniveling, ankle-biting, bitchy little worm. Only a loser station like KIRO would employ a chihuahua like Mike Webb.

As for his death, I would hardly expect someone who commits suicide to hide himself in a crawlspace and neatly tuck a tarp around himself. People who commit suicide generally do so in a manner that will ensure that they are discovered. Webb was offed by someone.

It will be interesting to see if the PC weenies at Seattle PD ever find who did it.

[Fresh Wind]

Would the Fairness Doctrine (whatever that is) require that a conservative talker be murdered too?

[Navy Patriot]

Following the verdict, Webb's attorney, Mark Larranaga, called the crime "an isolated incident" and pointed to his client's 15-year career in Seattle radio as proof that Webb could be a productive member of society. Since the case began, Larranaga said, his client lost his job and has been unable to find work in radio.

I'm aware of leftie "Err Amerika" radio.

Webb fits in nicely, and his entire 15 year career is the "isolated incident" of a criminal nature.

I have less than zero sympathy for him, and believe in a just America we would re-legalize dueling to address people like Webb. Webb earned his reward.

[Mark was here]

He just wanted his insurance to cover a preexisting condition.

[Tall_Texan]

"Just because I sound gay doesn't make me a bloody idiot, right?"

[Erasmus]

Webb's mouthpiece was a weenie

Ummm,

ummmm,

ummmmmmmm,

I'm not gonna go there.

I'm not gonna go there!

Ummmmm,

well, OK.

You got the subject and the object reversed.

[GeneralisimoFranciscoFranco]

"He just wanted his insurance to cover a preexisting condition." Heh.

[csvset]

Hey mate, trying to pull a fast one, eh? Let me intoduce you to an associate of mine. He's a real Neanderthal. Cheers!

[hoagy62]

There’s only one thing he ever did that I liked. He did a semi-annual “Radio Hell” night in which he made a list of the worst songs ever recorded. And yes, they were the WORST (songs like “Muskrat Love” and “Never Been To Me”, etc.).

Other than that, he was an anti-American, anti-conservative, Christian-bashing, loudmouthed little fruitcake.

He said on-air once that he didn’t believe in God.

Sadly, I’ll bet he does now....

[Wilhelm Tell]

A woman told police that Webb had threatened to kill himself if found guilty and that he had access to a gun in his house, the police report stated.

I know nothing about this man other than what I read in this article, but I bet if he was a typical liberal he preached about how the peasants should not be allowed to own guns (but guns are okay for leftist celebrities). The leftists are always projecting their mental hang-ups on everyone else. I hope they catch whoever killed this sad, miserable person. I imagine there will be a real sordid story about why this happened.

[OKIEDOC]

Another one bites the dust, so to speak.

[Manic_Episode]

"mystified and overwhelmed"

"in the midst of a nervous breakdown"

"blatantly and with arrogance"

=====================================

Typical liberal.