Deputies still investigating death of man

The Daily Inter Lake

Flathead County sheriff's deputies continue to investigate the death of a man whose body was found Thursday morning at a Mooring Meadow Road home near Columbia Falls.

Deputies found the body of Stewart Nuss, 52, at about 11:15 a.m. Thursday while conducting a welfare check at his home. Nuss' wife had contacted the Sheriff's Office from Oregon after being unable to reach him since Dec. 24.

Investigators are treating the incident as a homicide until they can prove otherwise, said Sheriff Mike Meehan, stressing that the death has not yet officially been ruled a murder or the result of natural causes.

But there are "some circumstances that could suggest it's a homicide," Meehan said Friday.

Investigators obtained a warrant to enter the residence sometime after 3:30 p.m. Thursday and began to process it as a crime scene, working late into the night, Meehan said.

The body was taken to the state crime lab in Missoula on Friday morning for an autopsy.

Further details were not released Friday.