LONGVIEW — The wife of the California man whose body was found floating in the Coweeman River in May says she is still seeking answers in her husband’s death, despite law enforcement closing the investigation.
Kelso police believe Shun Shannon Riley, 36, of Long Beach, Calif., suffered a mental health crisis before his body was found May 18 in the river behind his hotel. The Cowlitz County Coroner’s Office reports he drowned.
However, Mary Riley, his wife of four years, says he never showed signs of psychotic episodes before he traveled to Kelso for work and that he knew how to swim.
She said his 10-year-old son often asks about his dad.
“(I’m) so heartbroken, I can’t give him an answer,” she said.
Kelso Police Chief Rich Fletcher said detectives’ suspicions Shun Riley suffered a psychotic episode is a theory, but police say his death does not appear to be the result of a crime.
“Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for family, friends or others close to a decedent to not agree with the outcome of an investigation,” Fletcher said.
The discovery
In a 62-page Kelso police report obtained through a public records request, Sgt. Damon Blain reports he performed a welfare check at 4:59 p.m. May 9, after Shun Riley’s employer said he didn’t show up for work, which his wife said was unusual.
One of Shun Riley’s coworkers who drove with him told police he was always first at the truck to leave.
Shun Riley was set to check out of the hotel May 12, but volunteers and his family — who came from out of state to search for him — discovered his body in the Coweeman behind the hotel.
The doctor who performed the autopsy wrote that the body did not have any traumatic injuries and his blood alcohol level was also at 0.022 percent. The legal limit to drive in Washington is 0.08% percent.
Dr. Robin Holmes-Sullivan, president of Portland’s Lewis & Clark College and a clinical psychologist who practices in Portland, told The Daily News that while a person can have mental health issues without friends and family noticing, such a situation is unusual.
Holmes-Sullivan said people can have brief reactive psychotic episodes, where a person can experience psychotic-like behavior, including paranoia, for a variety of reasons such as substance use or genetics.
“It’s rare, but it can happen,” she said.
His last hours
Records show Shun Riley checked into the Comfort Inn & Suites, 440 Three Rivers Drive in Kelso, at 6:14 p.m. May 5.
He last entered the room at 7 p.m. May 8.
Mary Riley said she FaceTimed her husband around midnight May 9 because he was homesick, a common occurrence when he works out of state.
Nothing seemed to be bothering him at the time, she said. He even showed her photos of the projects he was working on for Longview-based Industrial Service Solutions, a national company that specializes in electric motor, industrial pump and industrial valve repairs.
Mary Riley told Sgt. Blain that she received what she suspected was an accidental phone call from her husband around 2:40 a.m. May 9 and could hear a voice, that she didn’t believe was her husband, saying “Let’s go this way,” according to police reports.
The call ended abruptly, she said, and she couldn’t get ahold of him again. When she tried to call hours later, the call when straight to voicemail.
Concerned, she said she asked the hotel staff to check on him. She said staff told her they found his hotel room door ajar, with his wallet inside, but Shun Riley was not there.
Police records show the hotel’s night-shift clerk reported hearing noises near the hotel’s main entrance between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. May 9 and saw Shun Riley entering the men’s restroom. The employee said she heard screaming and someone yelling, “I did not take it.”
After running out of the restroom, according to the clerk, Shun Riley reportedly crashed into a luggage cart and the lobby doors. Once the doors opened, he bolted into the parking lot.
The night clerk told police she didn’t find anything out of order in the men’s restroom and there were no signs of drug use.
Mary Riley said her husband didn’t use drugs, had no history of mental health issues and was a casual drinker. He was also often drug tested through his employer, she told police.
Kelso Police Detective Roy Slaven wrote in a report that at 2:38 a.m. May 9, hotel security camera footage shows Shun Riley repeatedly sticking his head out of a doorway before running down the hallway in what Slaven described as a “manic state.”
“Based on Shun’s actions, he was either severely impaired or having a psychotic break as he was running frantically away from nothing,” Slaven writes.
Shun Riley also briefly entered the hotel laundry room, attempted to access the swimming pool area and went into the men’s bathroom, the report states. By 2:44 a.m., he was seen running out of the hotel into the parking lot, before finally disappearing from the camera’s view.
