PORT ANGELES — Stunned family and friends at Neah Bay memorialized and celebrated the life of acclaimed 65-year-old Native American carver George C. David at Neah Bay while Port Angeles police continued their search for clues into his homicide.
A service for David at Neah Bay Assembly of God on Friday was attended by about 250 mourners and was followed with further commemoration by 400 to 500 people who filled the gymnasium on the Makah tribal reservation, David’s nephew Wade Greene said Saturday.
They broke bread, heard a prayer song from David’s British Columbia family and watched a slideshow of his copious artwork and formative years.
David was a member of the Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations but had lived on and off since the 1970s at his adopted home at Neah Bay, where his daughter lives.
“He just loved the way our people, the Makahs, took care of each other and loved one another — how they treated him like he was one of us,” Greene said.
“He touched a lot of lives.”
Mourners shocked
The manner of David’s Port Angeles death — homicide by blunt-force trauma to the head, according to his death certificate — was on the mourners’ minds, Greene said.
“The looks in people’s eyes — you could tell it was a shock to everyone that this had actually taken place,” he said.
“There was bewilderment, sorrow in a lot of people’s eyes, just by looking at the crowd.”
Port Angeles Detective Sgt. Tyler Peninger said Friday that seven more people will be interviewed Monday and Tuesday in connection with the investigation, although none so far is a suspect or person of interest in David’s death.
Peninger is hoping they provide more clues on David’s movements between March 25, when he arrived in Port Angeles from Neah Bay, and when his body was found March 28 inside the 1111 E. Columbia St. apartment of an acquaintance, where he was staying.
Peninger said about 10 people had been interviewed in the investigation as of Friday.
David, who was about 5-foot-5 and weighed about 145 pounds, was last seen at about 7 p.m. March 25 after arriving in Port Angeles by bus from Neah Bay that afternoon.
He was wearing a black Carhartt jacket, a black-and-orange Stihl ballcap and jeans, and walked around Port Angeles.
Police would not say Friday where he had been.
Police have been tight-lipped about the investigation, saying they do not want to impede its progress.
They have not commented on where David may have gone while in Port Angeles, who he talked with, whether he was seen with anyone after his arrival, whether a possible weapon used to kill him had been recovered or whether there was forced entry into the apartment where he was staying.
Greene said in an earlier interview that his uncle had been planning to travel to Victoria on March 26.
Painstaking investigation
Peninger said the investigation into David’s death has been painstaking.
“This is a unique situation,” he said.
In most killings, “there’s no mystery as to who did it,” Peninger added.
“When you can’t just look at one person and say, ‘That’s the person who did it,’ it takes us a longer time to find that information out.
“By the nature of the investigation, it will be a slow and deliberative process.”
Mark Nichols, Clallam County prosecuting attorney and ex officio coroner, said Saturday that David’s death certificate will be finalized once blood and tissue samples have been analyzed, which should take two or three weeks.
“The manner [of death] is not going to change,” Nichols said.
________
Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
