Former Chelan County Prosecutor Gary Riesen Found Dead in Suspected Suicide

Former Chelan County Prosecuting Attorney Gary Riesen is identified as the person found dead from a gunshot wound next to his parked car last Friday near East Wenatchee. Riesen was found by a passerby along lower Blue Grade Road.

His death is being called a suspected suicide by Douglas County Deputy Cononer Tanner Bateman.

Riesen was 70-year-old and was the county's prosecuting attorney for 27 years before retiring in 2012.

He tried numerous high profile cases while in office, including most of the “Wenatchee sex ring” cases in the mid-1990s, where dozens of people accused of crimes were eventually released.

Riesen also handled the trial of JohnCasey, who was convicted in 1999 of the second-degree murder of his wife, Rosemary, who was a doctor at Central Washington Hospital.

Reisen went to Wenatchee High School before studying Economics at Washington State University in Pullman. He received his law degree from Gonzaga University School of Law in Spokane.