Victim of South Hill slaying identified
The victim of Sunday’s South Hill slaying was an executive for a series of businesses in Spokane and Grant counties, including a small trucking company that had its headquarters in the home where he was killed.
Douglas J. Carlile listed his home at 2505 S. Garfield Road in Spokane as the business address for Bridgewater Energy LLC, when it was registered earlier this year with Washington and North Dakota state business agencies.
While investigators offered no new information Tuesday on their probe into Carlile’s death, they did ask anyone who had business dealings with him to contact Crime Check at (509) 456-2233 and file a report.
Carlile’s business dealings stretch from Seattle to West Des Moines, Iowa, according to filings in his name.
Washington state Department of Transportation records list Bridgewater as a small trucking company with two vehicles and two drivers, certified to carry general freight. North Dakota business records show Bridgewater involved in trucking, oil field services, development and contracting, with an agent’s office in an accounting firm in Watford City, a small but growing municipality in the booming Dakota oil fields.
The city and surrounding McKenzie County is home to hundreds of small businesses that serve the oil fields, said Gene Veeder, executive director of the county’s Job Development Authority. Bridgewater didn’t strike a chord that made it stand out, he added.
Before starting Bridgewater, Carlile operated DC Trucking and Oasis Development Inc., in Moses Lake. Like Bridgewater, the addresses for DC and Oasis were his home address in an area outside of Moses Lake. DC was registered to haul general freight, building materials and machinery, and listed a single truck and driver. Oasis was rated to carry machinery and large objects with a pair of drivers. All three companies have clean records for their drivers in records compiled by the U.S. Department of Transportation.
At various times he was listed as president of All Wood Recyclers in Issaquah, Wash.; president of KLD Inc., of Seattle; and a principal of Rucon Inc., in West Des Moines, Iowa. Carlile was also a manager for Dovehaven LLC, which is likely connected to the Dove Haven housing development in the Moses Lake area, a spokeswoman for the local chamber of commerce said. Dove Haven is built on lots near the Carliles’ former home east of Moses Lake.
Family members indicated Tuesday they will break their silence on the homicide soon. Reached by phone Tuesday, one of Carlile’s sons said the family was working to release a joint statement but would not comment on his father’s business dealings.
Carlile and his wife, Elberta, purchased the South Garfield home in 2012, but neighbors said they kept a low profile in the neighborhood near Hutton Elementary School.
“No one seemed to really know them. They did sort of keep to themselves,” said one neighbor who asked that her name not be used.
Dean Lynch, a former Spokane city councilman who is chairman of the Rockwood Neighborhood Council, said he didn’t know the Carlile family personally.
Police believe the person who killed Carlile fled through neighbors’ lawns, across the area in front of Hutton Elementary School and down a pathway near Lynch’s house that connects the area near the school yard to Rockwood Boulevard.
A white extended-cab Dodge van is still considered a vehicle of interest in the case.