Clarkston shootings likely murder-suicide

CLARKSTON, Asotin County - A man and woman found shot to death inside a pickup apparently died in a murder-suicide, Police Chief Vertie Brown said yesterday.

Investigators think Gary Day shot Simone Sampson in the head with a rifle as she drove the pickup through Clarkston early Monday, Brown said. Day then shot himself in the chin, Brown said.

Officers found Sampson dead in the driver's seat and Day's body in the passenger seat with the rifle on his knee, Brown said.

Day, 35, and Sampson, 41, had lived together in Nespelem on the Colville Indian Reservation, Brown said. Day had recently accepted a job at a casino east of Clarkston near Lewiston, Idaho, and the pair apparently had been moving at the time of the shootings, Brown said.