Suspect accused of killing Coeur d’Alene woman found dead

The man accused of killing a Coeur d’Alene resident Wednesday was found dead in a car on Bruss Road near Highway 53 Thursday afternoon.

Police had been searching for 61-year-old Steven T. Denson after his former fiance, 37-year-old Kelly A. Pease, was found shot dead in her car in a parking lot outside Kootenai Health Wednesday afternoon.

Someone spotted Denson’s vehicle Thursday and deputies located it parked on Bruss Road shortly after 4 p.m. Denson was found dead inside of an apparent self inflicted gunshot wound, said Det. Dennis Stinebaugh of the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office.

Pease, a Bonners Ferry native and nursing student at North Idaho College, died of a gunshot wound to her head. A hospital employee found Pease in her car in the north parking lot on the hospital campus and attempted CPR.

Denson was also accused of violently assaulting Pease earlier this year.

Court documents show that Denson was arrested in January and charged with attempted strangulation and domestic violence battery for attacking Pease. A no-contact order was filed prohibiting Denson from contacting her and he was arrested in early February for violating that order.

After the January incident Pease told police that she and Denson were breaking up and that he assaulted her while he was there to pick up his things, according to court documents. She said he tried to strangle her and punched her in the stomach repeatedly. She also reported being stabbed in the side by an unknown object as she struggled to fight him off, court documents state.

The police officer who interviewed Pease wrote in court documents that he could see marks on Pease’s wrists, chest, stomach and neck.

After his arrest for domestic violence battery Denson told police it was “possible” he had put his hands on Pease, according to court documents. He was released the next day on a $10,000 bond.

Recent Facebook posts by Pease appear to relate to the end of her relationship with Denson. On March 6 she wrote: “I refuse to perpetuate the cycle of domestic violence by exposing my children to it. I do not abuse….therefore I will not submit myself to abuse.”

North Idaho College has activated its Crisis Response Unit to assist students who are grieving, according to a statement by college president Rick MacLennan.

“Several of our students and staff were on the Kootenai Health campus when yesterday’s events unfolded,” MacLennan said. “NIC is a very close knit family and the loss of Kelly, who had dedicated herself to the nursing profession to care and provide comfort for others, is devastating.”

Pease’s brother, Dustin Spain, has set up a Go Fund Me page to pay for her funeral expenses. She was the mother of five children, he said. Pease was a native of Bonners Ferry.

“She was a real go-getter, an amazing woman with such strong direction,” Spain wrote. “A genuine one in a million. She will be greatly missed by so many.”

Staff reporter Jonathan Glover contributed to this story.