Police Decide Woman’s Death Was A Homicide Pullman Investigators Say Victim Was Asphyxiated

Investigators have concluded 89-year-old Dorothy Martin was murdered, probably by an intruder who stole keys from the office of her condominium manager.

Pullman police reached their conclusion after a Tuesday morning autopsy in Spokane.

Sgt. Sam Sorem said Martin was asphyxiated.

Sorem said it was still unclear whether Martin’s killer went into her 1220 NW State St. apartment intending to commit a robbery or murder.

Martin was killed in her bed and was possibly asleep at the time, Sorem said. There were no apparent signs of an assault or struggle, he said. Family members began looking through the apartment Tuesday to see if anything was missing.

The keys to about nine of the Statesman Condominiums’ 52 units were taken by an intruder who entered through the manager’s ground-floor window over the weekend, Sorem said.

Evidence at the scene suggests the intruder then used one of the keys to enter Martin’s apartment, which is next door to the manager’s unit.

The locks to the units with missing keys have since been changed.

, DataTimes