Roommate charged with murdering Corcoran man found dead during welfare check

A Corcoran man is now formally charged with murder after police found his roommate dead during a welfare check last week.

Steven Fredrick Endsley, 54, faces up to 40 years in prison if convicted of second-degree murder.

Corcoran police responded to a request for a welfare check at a home on the 7800 block of Maple Hill Road last Wednesday. However, when there was no response, they left, court documents state.

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Officers then went back the following day and noted that the same two vehicles were parked in front of the trailer and there weren’t any new tire marks in the snow.

Eventually, officers were able to get inside — a criminal complaint notes that a piece of wood had been screwed into the door frame to keep the door shut — and found the victim, Chad Tech Huntington, dead with plastic wrapped around his head. An autopsy found he died from three gunshot wounds to the back of the head, two of which were fired at close range.

Charging documents state that officers found Endsley in the bathroom holding a loaded rifle, and the copper covering on the bullets inside that rifle matched the fragments found in Huntington.

When investigators asked Endsley about Huntington, he allegedly responded that he only leaves the trailer to get alcohol and hadn’t left since Monday, so nobody else could have done it. However, he added that he didn’t remember killing him and only recalled putting Huntington’s body on plastic and moving him.

Endsley is scheduled to make his first court appearance on Tuesday.
The post Roommate charged with murdering Corcoran man found dead during welfare check first appeared on KSTP.com 5 Eyewitness News.