Investigators await toxicology results to help solve death of Dr. Rex Porter

Spokane County Sheriff’s detectives are awaiting toxicology results as they investigate the death of a Spokane doctor whose body was found dismembered and burned outside his Dishman Hills-area home in early April.

Friends and family of Dr. Rex Porter have been left without answers.

It’s the same for those close to Loc Nguyen, whose decomposed body was found Jan. 30 in the Spokane River after she went missing under suspicious circumstances in December.

Nguyen was 24 and was last seen Dec. 3.

The cases are among those in limbo as the Washington State Crime Lab works through a backlog of cases as toxicology testing is used more and more to help medical examiners establish a manner of death.

No arrests have been made in either case, said Sheriff’s Deputy Mark Gregory.

Investigators have searched the Porter property to gather evidence as they attempt to piece together what happened to the 61-year-old anesthesiologist.

Search warrants on file with Spokane Superior Court indicate investigators have seized video surveillance equipment from the home, and have taken swabs of Porter’s son, Derek.

Gregory noted that Derek Porter is not an official suspect, even though investigators labeled Porter’s death a homicide case on their search warrant request to a judge and described the son in the investigative procedure as a suspect.

Investigators have declined to discuss whether the surveillance footage showed Porter’s death.

Gregory said he didn’t know the whereabouts of Derek Porter, who according to court documents is an autistic man who lived in the family home and was under the care of Dr. Porter.

Dr. Michael Dudley was a best friend of Rex Porter.

“We went through our residencies like brothers,” said Dudley.

Dudley lived in Spokane for a stint and visited Porter regularly. He said Porter was an enjoyable, loving father to his two sons and one daughter.

Porter was also an avid skier who regularly visited Mount Spokane and Schweitzer Mountain Resort.

“He was pretty good at that,” Dudley said. “He was a great guy.”