Lents man’s death: ‘Self-inflicted knife wounds’

This death wasn’t the murder it originally appeared to be. Here’s what’s been learned …

Officers close off SE 98th Avenue, after a dead man has been reported found outside a house.

Story and photos by David F. Ashton

Since it is a quiet, dead-end street, Portland Police Bureau (PPB) East Precinct officers are seldom summoned to SE 98th Avenue, where it runs north of Mt. Scott Boulevard.

But, on Friday evening, February 10, officers were dispatched there at 7:04 p.m. – to a spot midway up the hill in the 7600 block to check out a reports of a body.

“Officers found a deceased man outside a home, with apparent stab wounds,” was the terse information provided by a PPB official at the time, about this: Incident No. 23-38314.

PPB Homicide Unit detectives come to investigate this incident.
PPB Homicide Unit Detective William Winters and Detective Jason Koenig responded dispatched to the scene, the Bureau’s Forensics Division.

On February 12, a PPB spokesperson announced, “After analysis of evidence, interviews with witnesses, and an autopsy, it was determined that the [man’s] injuries were self-inflicted. The medical examiner determined that the manner and cause of death was ‘suicide by knife’.”

“No further information will be released in this case,” the statement concluded.

Comments are closed.