PIERCE COUNTY, Wash. — Authorities have identified the man whose body was found dumped off a narrow country road in Pierce County.
Leon Baucham, Jr., 33, died of a gunshot wound to the torso, the sheriff's office said.
A couple out walking their dogs found Baucham's body near the small town of Wauna Thursday.
Deputies had to use machetes to chop their way through the high marsh grass to get access to where the body had been dumped, about 15 feet off the road.
"We have a male, we don't have an age or ID or anything yet, but the obvious signs that we're seeing, we know it's a homicide,” said Ed Troyer with the Pierce County Sheriff's Office.
Investigators think the man was killed somewhere else and then dumped at the location.
A neighbor said he can't remember there being a slaying anywhere close to the area.
Ben Simon, who works late at night at a restaurant nearby, said the slaying may change his routine.
“Definitely, (I’m going to be) a lot more cautious around here, coming home this late and everything, because I close (the restaurant),” said Simon.