The worst fears of Tony Pella's family came true last Thursday, May 17, when two Port of Seattle employees found the 22-year-old's body "directly under" the western end of the Magnolia Bridge, said police spokesperson Debra Brown.
The Medical Examiner's Office determined that the cause of death was head and neck trauma, and the area where his body was found is on fenced-in Port property near the Smith Cove ballfield, Brown said. The area is not accessible to the public, she added.
Tony Pella, a union construction worker, had last been seen 12 days earlier at a Cinco de Mayo celebration at Ozzie's bar on West Mercer Street, according to his father, Magnolia resident Jeff Pella.
Jeff said he had joined his son for a night out before Jeff was supposed to head to a work assignment in Alaska the following Monday. Tony lived in Crown Hill with his divorced mother, Martina Pella, and both she and Jeff said it was unlike their son to just disappear.
Jeff, Martina, other family members and Martina's fiancé, John Westphal, posted hundreds of fliers listing their phone numbers and asking for information about Tony. The fliers drew one call that turned out to be a cruel hoax.
Martina's said she'd gotten a call made at a convenience store payphone early in the morning on Saturday, May 12, the day she was interviewed for a previous story in the News. The caller was a man who claimed he was Tony's lover, that Tony was living with him now and that he was OK, she said.
How Tony ended up under the Magnolia Bridge approximately a mile and a half from Ozzie's is unknown. His mother told the News his cellphone was last used three hours after he disappeared at Ozzie's. Tony had left his car in Lower Queen Anne after checking into a neighborhood hotel, she said.
Both CSI and homicide detectives responded to the scene after Tony's body was found, according to Brown from the SPD. "It's still under investigation," she of what is still a missing-person's case.
Police are leaning toward an accidental death or a suicide, but an official determination about the case hadn't been made as of press deadline this week, according to Brown. "But there's nothing suspicious at this point about his death," she stressed.
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