Seattle Talk Show Host Mike Webb Found Dead in Homicide

SEATTLE – The death of former Seattle radio talk show host Mike Webb was a homicide, the King County medical examiner's office said Friday.

Webb, 51, died sometime after April 13 from multiple sharp force injuries, the medical examiner's office said.

His body was found Thursday by workers cleaning out his rental home. The remains, stuffed in a basement crawl space and covered by boxes and a tarp, were so decomposed that police initially could not determine "race, sex, age — anything," police spokesman Jeff Kappel said.

Longtime friend John McMullen said Webb was last seen April 13, but his family continued to receive text messages from Webb's cellphone for another month.

Although the messages indicated he was fine, and leaving town, Webb did not normally use text messages and his family eventually demanded that Webb call them, McMullen said. The messages stopped, and Webb's sister filled a missing person's report May 14.

Webb hosted a liberal late-night talk show for 10 years on KIRO-AM radio until December 2005 when he was fired from the station shortly after he was charged with insurance fraud.

Prosecutors said he filed a fraudulent insurance claim after a traffic accident in June 2005.

Webb was convicted of insurance fraud in February, sentenced to 240 hours of community service and fined $1,000.