JOYCE — Diane Cunningham died of blunt force trauma to the head, an autopsy confirmed, Clallam County Sheriff’s Office Chief Criminal Deputy Ron Cameron said Thursday.
The body of the 65-year-old woman was found Monday in her small mobile home in Salt Creek RV Park.
A man sought only as a “person of interest” in the beating death turned himself in Thursday.
Joel Kevin Brown, 52, — who reported to the Port Angeles office of the state Department of Corrections at about 8 a.m. — is not a suspect, Cameron said.
He was being sought because he had reportedly stayed with Cunningham from time to time.
“He knew her, and we didn’t know where he was, so we needed to find him,” Cameron said.
The Sheriff’s Office continues to investigate the death.
“The guys are working diligently,” Cameron said.
“They’re chasing down a lot of leads.”
Cunningham’s missing car was found abandoned Tuesday in Malheur County, Ore., near the Oregon-Idaho border.
“How it got there, we don’t know,” Cameron said.
A hunter spotted the car and reported it as suspicious.
Cunningham was found dead by her daughter and son-in-law after the King County couple had not heard from her for more than a week.
Brown was being held in the Clallam County jail Thursday for a state Department of Corrections warrant related to a 2013 third-degree assault charge in which he pleaded guilty to assaulting a Clallam Transit bus driver.
Brown was cooperative in a series of interviews with detectives Thursday, Cameron said.
Anyone with information about the Cunningham case is asked to phone the Sheriff’s Office tip line at 360-417-2305.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
