Document text
- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels December 1, 2004 Man stabbed to death By Bill Choy Ashland Daily Tidings Ashland Police are investigating the town's second homicide in a month - after eight years without a single murder. An Ashland man was found dead in this second-story apartment Tuesday night on Terra Avenue. Denise Baratta | Ashland Daily Tidings At 10:34 p.m. Tuesday, police received a call from a tenant at the Tudor Square apartment complex at 725 Terra Ave. of an assault in a nearby apartment, said Sgt. Teresa Selby. When officers arrived at the apartment, 19B, they discovered a man dead on the floor, she said. Leora Rae Seward, 28, who lives in the apartment, was arrested on a murder charge after the investigation revealed that the man, identified this morning as Samuel Rath, 23, of Ashland, was killed and Seward was responsible, Selby said. She said Seward and Rath knew each other and police were investigating the exact nature of their relationship. Rath appears to have been stabbed with a knife, which was taken by investigators as evidence, Selby said, although an exact cause of death will not be released until an autopsy is performed in the next few days. Selby said this morning that details were still sketchy. She said Seward has said very little on what happened and the events that lead to the death. "She was emotional and it was difficult to get a lot of information from her," Selby said. Seward is being held at the Jackson County Jail in Medford without bail. Investigators plan to talk to additional witnesses and those that know both Seward and Rath, and hope Seward will be more forthcoming in what occurred to better understand what happened, Selby said. Jackson County Circuit Court records show Seward was on probation for a Nov. 16 incident for harassing a family member. In February 2003, she spent several days in jail for criminal trespassing. Rath was arrested in June 2000 for domestic assault in Jackson County, circuit court records show. He spent nearly two months in jail. The charges were dropped in 2002. Ashland's previous homicide was on Oct. 29, when the body of David Evan Rice was discovered at the Relax Inn on Clover Lane. Rice, classified by parole officers as a predatory sex offender, was bludgeoned to death. On Nov. 2, transient David Michael Jurich, 24, was arrested in Reno, Nev. in connection the murder. Jurich was indicted on a single count of murder on Nov. 9. If convicted of murder, he would spend a minimum of 25 years in prison before he is eligible for parole, but he also could be incarcerated for life. "It's very unusual and unfortunate," Selby said about the two recent homicides in town. "It's a surprise to have it happen within a month, considering our last murder was eight years ago." Before October's murder, the last homicide in Ashland occurred on Oct. 11, 1996, when the body of 46-year-old Phylliss Golding was discovered in a condominium on Lori Lane. Police suspect her husband, Robert Golding, of killing his wife. His body was found two days later in his car in a Los Angeles-area shopping center parking lot. He apparently committed suicide by shooting himself. DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2004 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Slippers Isotoner Slippers Dsw Shoes Ciara Lyrics & Pictures libor rate Radiotelephone Communication Calenders 2005 Calender 2005 Calendar lil jon eastside boyz Citibank Student Loans Acs Loan Matchmaking & Dating Scripts Adventure Travel Conference Calls - $50/Month Security Systems The game rapper Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams