Man found dead in Arizona in Washoe homicide case

Last Friday’s double homicide in Washoe Valley has now reportedly turned into a triple murder.

And the man investigators originally thought was the perpetrator turns out, instead, to be the first victim, killed earlier in his Arizona home.

Washoe County investigators still are unraveling this twist in a case that ended when deputies shot the suspect to death Friday.

None of the names of the victims have yet been released but a fingerprint check of the man deputies shot didn’t match the ID he was carrying. That prompted a welfare check at the person’s home in Arizona where authorities discovered a third homicide victim — a body matching the ID taken from the man deputies shot.

Washoe County Sheriff’s Office refused to confirm the report but said they may have more information available today.

The case started when Reno police responded to a 911 call of a shooting in New Washoe City on Friday night. One woman had been shot to death. Another woman apparently died of blunt force trauma. The man who called suffered a gunshot wound and was hospitalized after telling officers the gunman fled on Highway 50 in a Jeep belonging to one of the female victims.

After the vehicle was spotted, Carson Sheriff’s deputies who chased him at a high speed for miles, were eventually joined by highway patrol troopers and, briefly, Churchill County deputies.

The chase came to an end near Sand Mountain east of Fallon when deputies returned fire and killed the suspect.

Reno Police detectives were handling the investigation of the officer involved shooting. Washoe County Sheriffs investigators are handling the murder investigation.

Four Carson City sheriff’s deputies and three Nevada state troopers were placed on routine administrative leave pending the outcome of that probe. Reno police said Tuesday they’re searching for witnesses to Friday night’s high-speed chase on U.S. Highway 50.