Spokane Authorities Investigating Murder at Eastern State Hospital in Medical Lake

Spokane County Sheriffs continue to investigate  the first-ever homicide at Eastern State Hospital in Medical Lake.A female patient is in police custody after a male patient was found dead around 2:45 a.m. Tuesday morning in the forensics unit. That part of the hospital is used to evaluate patients sent by a judge during criminal cases.

Department of Social and Health Services officials say patients are sent to the unit to determine if they could be harmful to themselves. The man was found dead on the floor. No other details were available. Sheriffs would only say a female patient is in custody as a suspect.

Officials from DSHS say this is the only homicide fatality they are aware of in the history of the facility, which first began accepting patients as a state-run mental hospital in 1891.