Sycamore Court homicide: made to look like a suicide?

Documents obtained by a television station indicate that police think the crime scene was manipulated to hide a murder

By Christian Gaston

The Forest Grove News-Times, Dec 10, 2009

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Forest Grove police still haven't filed charges in an ongoing homicide investigation, but details are slowly emerging in the case.

Lori Fitzgerald, 47, was found dead in her home on Sycamore Court in Forest Grove on Nov. 7, and on Nov. 23 police arrested a person of interest in the crime, Josh David Nicholas, 36, who was the target of a countywide manhunt last month.

Police said that Nicholas, who was finally apprehended in rural Yamhill County, developed some kind of relationship with Fitzgerald, but have declined to say the extent of that relationship. They've also declined to release many details in the crime or Nicholas' suspected role.

But documents obtained by Newschannel 8 and KGW.com indicate that Fitzgerald's death may have been made to look like a suicide.

Police found Fitzgerald's body “hanging from a rafter in the garage by an orange electrical cord that was tied around her neck,” the TV station reported.

According to the station's report, the injuries Fitzgerald received weren't consistent with the way she was hanging, suggesting they may have been inflicted earlier by an assailant.

The information comes from a search warrant affidavit that the station obtained. After the station ran its report on Nov. 25, the court sealed the document, preventing its disclosure.

Nicholas, who has been arrested 45 times on various charges over the course of years, is currently in Washington County Jail.

Before police arrested him, he told an acquaintance he’d rather get into a firefight with police than go behind bars.

The hunt for Nicholas was part of a weekend of serious police activity, with units from across Washington County pursuing Nicholas through the rural area around Forest Grove and Cornelius. He was eventually found near Gaston.

Police said they expect charges in the Sycamore Court homicide to be filed soon by the Washington County District Attorney’s Office.