Spiders kill.

Man Likely Died From Spider Bite, Officials Say

'A Thurston County man was found dead in his bedroom, and the only curious sign was a small bite mark visible on his upper leg.

YELM, WASH. - A young man was found dead in his bedroom in May, and the only curious sign was a small bite mark visible on his upper leg.

"I knew something was wrong," said Linda Stumpf. "It was very unusual for him not to answer one of my phone calls. If he didn't answer the phone he'd would call right back."

Linda will forever remember that horrible evening on May 10th when she drove to her son's house in Roy. She saw her son's car in the driveway and knew that Ronnie didn't make it to his construction job that day.

"I opened his bedroom door, and it looked like he was sleeping," Linda said. "And I called his name several times and he didn't move. I reached over to shake him and I guess I knew then that he was gone."

Linda was devastated, and terribly confused. Ronnie Jones was 27, in good shape, and had no health problems. It took more than two months for Linda to get an answer.

The Thurston County medical examiner's report on Ronnie's death shows that his cause of death was determined to be acute necrotizing inflammatory lesions of the skin and pulmonary edema as a result of "probable insect bites."

The report goes on to note that spider venom was the likely culprit.

That just raised even more questions for Ronnie's mom. "I can't understand that. I didn't realize we had anything in this area that was that potentially deadly," she said.

The death was ruled accidental, but the medical examiner was not able to determine what kind of spider was to blame.

Ron Crawford is the Curator of Arachnids at the UW's Burke Museum and says it's possible, but highly unlikely that Ronnie died of a spider bite.

He said that the Hobo Spider is the only potentially dangerous spider in Western Washington, and that it would take days for any serious illness to develop.

He added that even experienced doctors often wrongly attribute bite wounds to spiders.

Linda says her son had complained of a sore on his leg the day before she found his body, and that he said he wasn't feeling well. He told her that he didn't think it was serious.'

She wanted to tell people about the loss of her son, and the unusual cause for his death. "I would hate to see someone else die from this," she said.'